Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		5.0
Audio		4.5
Extras		2.0
Overall		3.5

Perry Mason: The Complete First Season Blu-ray Movie Review

Will you object to this origin story?

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman November 24, 2020

To some longtime fans of Perry Mason in what is probably the character's best known presentation (the CBS series with Raymond Burr), aspects like the story of this HBO production being set in the 1930s or the fact that Perry Mason (Matthew Rhys) isn’t even an attorney for much of the tale, and is instead a troubled World War I veteran with a drinking problem who manages to scrape together a living as a kind of Dashiell Hammett-esque private eye, might matter less on a visceral level than what some of these fans may feel is a more glaring departure from perceived canon: the lack of Fred Steiner’s memorable, maybe even iconic, theme for the long running Raymond Burr version that was a broadcast network staple from 1957 until 1966. Steiner’s percolating theme, one he’s called “symphonic R&B”, and one which bears the official title of Park Avenue Beat, remains one of the most recognizable signature tunes from the Golden Era of television credits underscoring, and it instantly set the tone (no pun intended) for the Burr series’ at least initial combo platter of smooth urban suavity and more of a gritty noir undercurrent. Terence Blanchard, who is in charge of this HBO series’ understandably jazzy score, does pay homage to Steiner’s theme, but as more of a both figurative and literal coda of sorts. That perhaps problematic omission aside, there is certainly a glut of other changes to what might be called the "expected" treatment of the Mason mythos, but perhaps surprisingly, the changes are often quite interesting and even effective, even if for those who either loved the Burr series or even the original Erle Stanley Gardner novels which gave birth to it, this may not qualify as "real" Perry Mason material.

It's interesting in a way to compare this temporally reset Perry Mason with another iconic murder mystery series which was set for many of its episodes in more or less the same time period, the beloved David Suchet version of Poirot. Now part of the contrast between these two iconic characters is no doubt due to the fact that one is set (mostly) in England while the other toils in Los Angeles, but added to location differences is a manifest variance in tone and presentational aspects. The world of Poirot is frequently pretty upscale, with glamorous landed gentry only slightly inconvenienced by a murder in their midst. Here, in this version of Perry Mason, there's a kind of sordid, even smarmy, ambience emphasizing a certain degree of moral turpitude that might be as much Eugene O'Neill as it is film noir.

Mason is a haunted individual throughout much of this first season of the show (HBO has already announced a second season). He was discharged from World War I service under supposedly problematic conditions, and his marriage has disintegrated, leaving him estranged from his little boy. He lives on a mostly dilapidated farm that belonged to his family, but which is weirdly next to a local airfield. His only court appearance in the early going of the series is actually as a defendant, since he evidently assaulted a guy who offered Mason less than market value for the farm. Instead, he slinks around Los Angeles with his cohort Pete Strickland (Shea Wigham), taking on cases like tailing a Fatty Arbuckle-esque movie star who is suspected of "immoral behavior" by his studio.

In the meantime, a distraught couple named Emily (Gayle Rankin) and Matthew Dodson (Nate Corddry) are seen attempting to retrieve their kidnapped baby Charlie by paying a huge ransom. When they finally are able to get their baby back, he's not just dead, but is rather horrifyingly "altered" (I'll leave that part of the story for enterprising viewers to actually experience). The Dodsons are members of a huge faith healing congregation led by an Aimee Semple McPherson type known as Sister Alice McKeegan (Tatiana Maslany, sporting "platinum blonde" hair), and another congregant, a wealthy man named Herman Baggerly (Robert Patrick), hires an established attorney named E.B. Jonathan (John Lithgow) to try to help with the case, since the police have been unable to crack it. Jonathan regularly hires Mason to do legwork, and so Mason becomes involves.

Suffice it to say there's all sorts of nastiness going on, and ultimately Mason himself becomes an attorney, albeit with some unexpected help from both Jonathan's erstwhile secretary Della Street (Juliet Rylance) and an Assistant District Attorney named Hamilton Burger (Justin Kirk). Another redolent name from the Gardner books and the Burr series, Paul Drake (Chris Chalk), is reinvented in this version as an African American beat cop who stumbles on some important clues in the kidnapping case and who becomes a confidant of Mason. There are a variety of other characters, including not just the attorney essayed by Lithgow but also a female pilot named Lupe Gibbs (Veronica Falcón) who is a romantic (or at least sexual) partner of Mason's, who aren't part of the Gardner stories (at least that I'm aware of).

The mystery here is appropriately byzantine and wending, and as such will probably entice viewers, even if, as mentioned above, longtime fans of "Perry Mason" won't feel this is either Erle Stanley Gardner or Raymond Burr. In that regard, it's as if this "reboot" simply decided to co- opt the names of Gardner's famous characters, arguably for branding purposes, and then plop them all down in a radically different context just to see what would happen. As such, those wanting the time honored (Burr) tradition of Perry "outing" the real murderer in a courtroom denouement may be disappointed, but a lot of the surrounding drama in this version is interesting and at times rather disturbing.

Perry Mason: The Complete First Season Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Perry Mason: The Complete First Season is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Warner Brothers Home Entertainment and HBO with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 2.00:1. Kind of interestingly, and perhaps instructively, the pull quote featured prominently on the back cover of this release touts how "beautiful" the production is, without addressing any of the changes made to the Gardner concept or even the basic story. This is a gorgeous looking series, though, however "gritty" some of the presentational aspects may be. The IMDb lists the Sony CineAlta Venice, a camera model I don't think I've run across before, but there's no info on the resolution of the DI. I frankly wouldn't be surprised if this was a 4K DI, as fine detail is typically excellent across the board, with the possible exception of some of the darkest material. There's a really nicely burnished appearance to the imagery which is probably even further enhanced by some backlighting choices which tend to bathe the frame in a kind of reflected glow. Grading choices are utilized but don't materially affect detail levels. The production design of this series is one of its strongest assets, and this high definition presentation supports the period aesthetic extremely well. I noticed no compression anomalies.

Perry Mason: The Complete First Season Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Perry Mason: The Complete First Season features a well wrought DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track, with an understanding that there are regular dialogue scenes in every episode where surround activity can ebb intermittently. Some of the outdoor material, including everything from scenes at the Mason farm to some of the urban Los Angeles sequences, feature nicely placed ambient environmental effects. Terence Blanchard's jazzy score also resides in the side and rear channels regularly. Dialogue is offered cleanly and clearly throughout this problem free track. Optional subtitles in a variety of languages are available.

Perry Mason: The Complete First Season Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Disc One

• The Characters of Perry Mason (1080p; 2:28) is a brief introduction to both some of the "retooled" characters as well as "new, improved" characters not necessarily culled from the works of Erle Stanley Gardner.


• Under the Fedora (1080p; 4:41) focuses on the reinvented Perry Mason character.

Disc Two

• Robert Downey Jr. & Matthew Rhys Conversation (1080p; 4:43) is a Skype-ish discussion between Executive Producer Downey and star Rhys.


• Susan Downey & Robert Downey Jr. (1080p; 4:19) features the Executive Producers and couple.

A digital code is also included.

Perry Mason: The Complete First Season Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

I'll close this review with a couple of sidebars which may be of interest to some. For those who love Fred Steiner's theme for the Burr series as much as I do, and who may not be aware, Steiner was the father of singer-songwriter Wendy Waldman, who had a number of seriously great releases on Warner in the 1970s which I highly recommend, but who may be best known to the public at large as one of the co-writers of Vanessa Williams' huge hit "Save the Best for Last" (Maria Muldaur fans may also recognize her name as the writer of "Mad Mad Me"). On another note (pun unavoidable), just by chance author Jack El-Hai, whom I know courtesy of the intersection of his fantastic biography of the infamous Dr. Walter Freeman called The Lobotomist with my own research into the real history of Frances Farmer, just published an absolutely fascinating article in The Smithsonian about a real life murder investigation undertaken by Mason scribe Erle Stanley Gardner. Those whose interest is piqued can read it here. This may be Perry Mason in name(s) only, but it's often very effective with good performances and an impeccable production design. Technical merits are solid, and Perry Mason: The Complete First Season comes Recommended.