HBO’s ‘Perry Mason’ Gets 100% Better After Perry Mason Becomes a Lawyer

Perry Mason Episode 6 almost felt like an altogether different HBO show. After weeks of watching Matthew Rhys play Perry Mason as a crumpled paper bag of a man, tonight the character finally started to take flight as a hotshot attorney. Sure, he had a coughing fit during his opening statement and bumbled a number of a legal moves, but HBO’s Perry Mason is officially a lawyer. No longer do we have to watch the legendary defense lawyer skulk into allies and tail suspects. Perry Mason is now a steadfast defendant of the wrongfully accused, meaning…he’s, uh, Perry Mason now.

It should come as no surprise that the minute that HBO’s Perry Mason makes its eponymous hero a lawyer, the show is reborn as an entertaining court drama. Perry Mason has gotten 100% better. All the show had to do was let Perry Mason be, well, Perry Mason.

HBO’s Perry Mason was always intended to be an unapologetically gritty retelling of the classic character’s story. While most people know Mason as a sterling defense lawyer and staunch defender of the innocent, this new HBO series has been depicting him as something else. Estranged from his wife, shell-shocked from war service, and teetering towards ruination, this Perry Mason is a down-and-out private investigator barely keeping it together in 1930s Los Angeles. Everything changes for Perry when his longtime mentor, attorney E.B. Jonathan (John Lithgow) hires him for a high-profile case. A baby associated with a popular evangelical church was kidnapped for a huge ransom, but then found dead.

As the public shifts its focus to incriminate the baby’s philandering mother, Perry becomes further convinced that something fishy is going on in the case. Furthermore, he begins to believe wholeheartedly that Emily Dodson (Gayle Rankin), the murdered child’s mother, is being set up. This, and the maneuverings of Della Street (Juliet Rylance), push Perry to sort of, uh, cheat his way through the California bar so he can become Emily’s attorney himself.

Last night we got to see our hero make his big debut in court. While Perry’s first moments were fraught with comic unease, he was able to catch Los Angeles District Attorney Maynard Barnes (Stephen Root) off guard…with the help of Paul Drake (Chris Chalk). It’s clear that even though the system is rigged to help Barnes and the corrupt detectives of the LAPD nail Emily for her son’s murder, the truth is far more murky. Perry’s dogged pursuit of what really happened to little Charlie Dodson is what gives the character a long-needed purpose.

What also helps is the fact that Perry Mason is no longer painted as a superhero detective, but a man boosted by a crackerjack team. The original Perry Mason always relied on the help of Della Street and Paul Drake to solve his case, but they were painted as sidekicks. Here, we see how both characters not only help Perry on the legal side of his case, but on the emotional side of being a lawyer. Della has been the one pushing him into this position — no doubt because circumstances bar her own sharp legal mind from being taken seriously — while Drake is eager to encourage Perry to expose the corruption in the LAPD.

HBO’s Perry Mason has been dark, gripping, and astoundingly well-acted from the get go. After last night, it’s also a helluva lot of fun.

Where to stream Perry Mason