Home » Television » HBO’s Drama Series “Perry Mason” Debuts June 21

HBO’s Drama Series “Perry Mason” Debuts June 21

Posted on April 17, 2020

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Hunh. Didn’t exactly see this one coming.

Drama series “Perry Mason,” starring Emmy® winner Matthew Rhys, debuts SUNDAY, JUNE 21 at 9:00 p.m. ET/PT, exclusively on HBO.

1931, Los Angeles. While the rest of the country struggles through the Great Depression, this city is booming! Oil! Olympic Games! Talking Pictures! Evangelical Fervor! And a child kidnapping gone very, very wrong. Based on characters created by author Erle Stanley Gardner, this drama series follows the origins of American fiction’s most legendary criminal defense lawyer, Perry Mason. When the case of the decade breaks down his door, Mason’s relentless pursuit of the truth reveals a fractured city and just maybe, a pathway to redemption for himself.

“Perry Mason” stars Matthew Rhys, John Lithgow, Tatiana Maslany, Juliet Rylance, Chris Chalk, Shea Whigham, Stephen Root, Gayle Rankin, Nate Corddry, Veronica Falcon, Jefferson Mays, Lili Taylor, Andrew Howard, Eric Lange, and Robert Patrick.

Executive producers (in alphabetical order), Amanda Burrell, Robert Downey Jr., Susan Downey, Ron Fitzgerald, Joe Horacek, Rolin Jones, and Timothy Van Patten (who also directs); co-executive producer: Aida Rodgers; producer: Matthew Rhys; created by Rolin Jones & Ron Fitzgerald; based on the characters created by Erle Stanley Gardner.

Admittedly, we never actually saw an episode of the original Perry Mason series, but we were surprised not only that it would be resurrected as a prestige cable series, but that it would be set in ’30s Hollywood. Turns out, that’s the period in which the character first appeared, in the original Erle Stanley Gardner stories.

Even without any familiarity with most of this, it seems pretty obvious this version owes nothing to the original TV series. On paper, we don’t think this ever would have raised our eyebrows or piqued our interest, since we’d have been likely to wave it off as a Boomer nostalgia piece. But once we saw Tatiana Maslany working her world-class wig game and serving up her best Aimee Semple McPherson? Oooh, girl. Mark your calendar because we are THERE.