[Editor’s Note: The following review contains spoilers for “Perry Mason” Season 1, Episode 8, “Chapter 8,” including the ending.]I hate the “Perry Mason” moment.
Growing up the son of a small town defense attorney, nothing would grind my father’s gears like seeing a TV lawyer badger their witness into an admission of guilt, or suddenly introduce new evidence that they themselves uncovered.
The former rarely happens, and the latter is a convenient fallacy cooked up by efficiency-minded screenwriters — lawyers aren’t private investigators.
Except, of course, if you’re Perry Mason.So when HBO’s beautiful reboot set up a plot where Matthew Rhys’ seasoned P.I.
would also don the mantle of a respectable attorney, it had me worried that this “Perry Mason” would repeat the same melodramatic “moments” made infamous by the ’50s original.
Those were fine back then, when TV was built on disposable drama, but today’s audiences demand better.
The era of Prestige TV
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