Find an original Perry Mason and watch it, if your short attention span allows. Notice the underplaying by the main cast, lots of monosyllables and uh huhs. The emoting is assigned to the subjects of the episode, which makes our three seem that much cooler. Perry is a smart dresser who maintains a cool bachelor pad and seems to live for his cases, except for the occasional fishing trip with Paul Drake, which usually turns into a case anyway. That he's a bachelor is ALL you need to know. Della lives for Perry, her great unrequited love. Paul is the sport. Of course they all have lives beyond the work, but Gardner doesn't include those, because the Perry, Della and Paul we see are the characters PERIOD. By delimiting them this way, Perry Mason becomes a story-driven series. It's about solving the cases!
Well, the garbage at hand wants the series to be character driven, so we can moon over Perry and his feelings and his fashionable stubble and tats. The result? Crap stories. Do you know why Law & Order ran for 20 seasons? It didn't delve into characters but concentrated on the stories. The mediocrity of this series reflects the mediocrity of its target audience: Too dim to be engaged in in the complexities of story or plot, but super-eager to wallow in the sentimentality of character, where thinking is not required.
No, this not the "old" Perry Mason. This isn't Perry Mason at all. That sample episode you're watching? Like all the old ones it concludes with a recap that makes a complex case comprehensible. It's for adults interested in stretching their minds. That's what makes it old, I guess, compared to the current offering: Intelligence required.
What a wonderful chance for an updating of Perry Mason, as Perry Mason! Reintroduce Earl Stanley Gardner's fully-formed Perry Mason that we don't know too well, and then move on to the cases. Alas, too much to hope for in the feminized, soy boy world that Hollywood now panders to.
Well, the garbage at hand wants the series to be character driven, so we can moon over Perry and his feelings and his fashionable stubble and tats. The result? Crap stories. Do you know why Law & Order ran for 20 seasons? It didn't delve into characters but concentrated on the stories. The mediocrity of this series reflects the mediocrity of its target audience: Too dim to be engaged in in the complexities of story or plot, but super-eager to wallow in the sentimentality of character, where thinking is not required.
No, this not the "old" Perry Mason. This isn't Perry Mason at all. That sample episode you're watching? Like all the old ones it concludes with a recap that makes a complex case comprehensible. It's for adults interested in stretching their minds. That's what makes it old, I guess, compared to the current offering: Intelligence required.
What a wonderful chance for an updating of Perry Mason, as Perry Mason! Reintroduce Earl Stanley Gardner's fully-formed Perry Mason that we don't know too well, and then move on to the cases. Alas, too much to hope for in the feminized, soy boy world that Hollywood now panders to.