All superheros must have an origin story. Perry Mason -- who never lost a case and never had a guilty client -- is the courtroom equivalent of Superman. Since Perry did not come to earth when the planet Krypton exploded and he was not bitten by a radioactive spider as a teenager, his story is going to be a little different.
Erle Stanley Gardner, the writer of the original Mason books, never came up with a backstory for Perry. From the first novel, his clients were innocent, his tactics edgy, his victories complete and total. While that leaves a clear pathway for an intrepid filmmaker to come up with any past he likes, any author has to figure out how to make Perry Perry.
In this opener, Mason is a low rent PI who sabotages himself by being greedy in an unsavory case. We see him in a courtroom sequence (where he testifies) in which it is clear he has a good sense of courtroom tactics. Mostly, though, we see him drink, conduct a sleazy investigation, fail to shave, and show his tattoo to his special friend while having painful sex. We are a long way from Raymond Burr.
Nonetheless, the atmosphere isn't out of line from the first few volumes of the Mason books. Gardner wrote for the leading private eye pulp of his day, The Black Mask -- the same place where Dashiell Hammett created Sam Spade -- and his books depict a police force and DA department where the rules are regularly ignored so that defendants can be railroaded. Sgt. Holcomb -- the awful policeman who appears in this episode -- was the lead police character in the Mason books of the 30s.
Mason in the books has a fierce sense of social justice. ESG himself created something called the Court of Last Resort, which was a small scale version of the Innocence Project If there is a key to Mason's character -- it is this sense that the system left to itself will railroad people, and it's his job to stop that from happening. Our character is not there yet. I am hoping we will see that happen as we move forward.
Erle Stanley Gardner, the writer of the original Mason books, never came up with a backstory for Perry. From the first novel, his clients were innocent, his tactics edgy, his victories complete and total. While that leaves a clear pathway for an intrepid filmmaker to come up with any past he likes, any author has to figure out how to make Perry Perry.
In this opener, Mason is a low rent PI who sabotages himself by being greedy in an unsavory case. We see him in a courtroom sequence (where he testifies) in which it is clear he has a good sense of courtroom tactics. Mostly, though, we see him drink, conduct a sleazy investigation, fail to shave, and show his tattoo to his special friend while having painful sex. We are a long way from Raymond Burr.
Nonetheless, the atmosphere isn't out of line from the first few volumes of the Mason books. Gardner wrote for the leading private eye pulp of his day, The Black Mask -- the same place where Dashiell Hammett created Sam Spade -- and his books depict a police force and DA department where the rules are regularly ignored so that defendants can be railroaded. Sgt. Holcomb -- the awful policeman who appears in this episode -- was the lead police character in the Mason books of the 30s.
Mason in the books has a fierce sense of social justice. ESG himself created something called the Court of Last Resort, which was a small scale version of the Innocence Project If there is a key to Mason's character -- it is this sense that the system left to itself will railroad people, and it's his job to stop that from happening. Our character is not there yet. I am hoping we will see that happen as we move forward.
