Seriously, people! Don’t ruin WandaVision for the rest of us. Don’t go and spoiling all the fun and surprises. Some people have kids and jobs and can’t watch it until tonight, so shut it!
Also, this means I have to stay off social media today as well.
Honestly, let’s all be cool here.
This is my continuing series of reviews of tv, movies, or music that has been out for a while, that I am just getting around to… As always, there are SPOLIERS!
I am a sucker for noir films and TV shows. From Sam Spade, to Chinatown, to The Long Goodbye, to LA Confidential, I love noir’s visual style, the dark stories, and also how these noir stories show the dark criminal world that is just under the surface of the cities we inhabit. I will even throw The Third Man in as well.
When I saw the previews of Perry Mason on HBO in the spring, I was hooked and ready to go. I never watched the original Raymond Burr 1957 television series of the same name, so I had no attachment to anything that had happened in the past, but I was aware that Perry Manson was “the best” defense lawyer around as he could get criminals to admit their crimes on the stand. When I saw that the cast was lead by Matthew Rhys, and also that Tim Van Patten was directing many of the episodes, I felt that I was in very safe hands.
And for the most part I was.
We meet Perry in 1932, who at this point is a detective for the lawyer Elias Birchard “E.B.” Jonathan. Jonathan takes the case of defending a mother who is accused of killing her child in a kidnapping plot. It was a very dark subject matter to have the show revolve around, but I do admit that it did create a feeling of uncomfortableness in me for all the characters that are involved in the murder. What also became apparent very early on is that this was going to be the origin story of Perry Mason becoming a lawyer, and his drive to defend people who seemed to be undefendable.
What I was given was a show that hit all the right noir notes that this type of genre demands, as well adding a very relevant depth to the inherent racism in the LA Police Department, and the indignities black police officers faced. Most of the characters did have backstories of pain that they were still dealing with, or secrets they couldn’t share, or of living lives not out in the open. It created a solid foundation of why all of these very different people would be drawn together to fight for justice.
The series had a nice slow simmer to it, hitting its marks, and then at the crux of the show, episode 5, after E.B. Jonathan’s suicide, the show starts an awkward sprint to the end. It comes across as jarring and very out of left field. Somehow, with a little coaching, Perry is able to pass the California Bar exam, which I do happen to know that you do not need to go to law school for, and POOF! He’s a lawyer now!
After a few stumbles at the start of the trial, Perry has no issues to working his way through the courtroom. And when Perry wants to put the corrupt cop who is behind the murder on the stand, he is told that no one confesses under cross examination, but then the show doesn’t put the cop on the stand. A choice that left me very confused. I thought that was Perry Mason’s whole thing. At least let him try and fail, right, as that would be realistic. In the end Perry pays off a juror to deadlock the jury, only to learn that two other jurors also felt the mother was innocent, which I guess was meant to make us feel that Perry did a better job than he thought. It left me with the feeling that Perry isn’t going to become a good lawyer one day, but that he’s just not a good lawyer at all.
Sadly, it felt like all the pieces are there to make a really good show that is moody, honest, and can be relevant as we examine what justice denied in the past looked like. Perry Mason was renewed for a second season, so I hope that the next time around, with all the characters in place, that they will be able to stick the landing.
