Sadly Over-hyped

just watch it!

The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.

It is neither dumb nor smart enough to be fun, and spends way too much time with its boring human characters.

What a great TV series. One of the best, as many others have said. Its longevity, given notoriously fickle TV audiences, shows how much interest it generated and sustained in an era of great change. Thanks to FETV, the show is currently on air. I find it difficult to add much to the excellent commentary on this forum; the superb acting, intricate, noir-ish plots, and erudite courtroom drama have been justly praised. I'll just offer some observations on Perry Mason.The dual nature of the plots--first the exposition of the crime, and then its dissection in the courtroom--gave the viewer two shows elegantly woven together. Often the crime has more threads to play out after the trial has begun. That device adds more wrinkles and surprises for both Mason and Hamilton Burger. The perpetrator usually is introduced early on, before the murder, but seems to have an insignificant role: a relative, love interest, business partner, or go-between among the main characters. It's almost never the obvious antagonist. Like others have noted, Mason and Drake always seem at least one step ahead of Burger and Lt. Tragg.The criminals and their prey project exaggerated personalities compared to the low-key teams of Mason and Burger (ok, Burger is high-strung, but at least he's predictable). So we have an assortment of odd-balls setting the plot in motion with their mayhem, leaving the steady authority projected by the prosecution and defense, as symbolized by the courtroom itself, to resolve the conflict.Society has been rent by the crime in question; and it's up to Mason, with or without Burger's help, to put things right again. Despite the feel-good endgame in Mason's office after justice has been done, this scene actually shows relief on the part of Mason and his team, and frequently Tragg joins in to rehash the case. Burger seems like a hothead, but he and Mason have the same goal, and understand and respect each other.There's two levels of strife in Perry Mason. The criminal act and its consequences, and the resulting prosecution vs. defense struggle in the courtroom. Someone, usually a jerk of some sort, winds up dead; but those accused unjustly are restored as citizens, and society, the Masons and Burgers of the world, go on more or less comfortably until the next episode.Like Mason, we struggle against the Burgers in life, who would frustrate us continually if we couldn't out-manuver them. The criminal acts exemplify the issues that we fight over with our antagonists, our Hamilton Burgers. As Mason and his team face palpable danger in every episode, they can't avoid what is obtuse (Burger's team) or unseemly (the murder and its chaos). They manage a sense of cool detachment that serves them well; Burger, by contrast, has a more common reaction to stress and surprises, he seems to come undone. The stoic sense of accepting difficult situations while not letting them overwhelm our integrity preserves our sense of self. If we're dealing with a full deck everything else takes care of itself.That's why we don't need to see Perry, Paul, and Della's home life. I have noticed a few short scenes at Perry or Paul's homes, but usually just for a phone call. There's nothing extrinsic to the crime and its resolution. As noted by many other reviewers, that's part of the genius of this series.This focus does lead to some improbable situations. Perry seems to almost live in his office, and, along with Paul and Della, never sleep. We can suspend our disbelief enough to let the drama play out, with all of its entertainment value, as well as the more esoteric gems I've gleaned from it.

Who doesn't love Perry Mason? I've read a lot of his books, and thoroughly enjoyed them. I was naturally skeptical when it came to seeing s TV series of his name, but was in for a pleasant surprise when I began to watch my favorite stories unfold on screen. For the actors, Burr is extremely lovable as are Hopper and Collins. Though my favorite is Talman who has a very easy and realistic style to him. The stories are not distorted by any means, neither is there any attempt to glamorize or sensationalized them. This very simplistic approach is what makes this serial amazing. I need not describe the genius of the plots for they are known to all. A rare gem of an adaptation of a much loved series.

Lawyer Perry Mason is what we would like lawyers to be. TV Show Perry Mason is what we would like court cases to be.Was life every this way? It's easy to look around today and "No way", but those who didn't have many experiences before the information age simply don't have "information" to go on.There was a time of "naivette", of rotary phones, of waiting for news.Still, the episodes of "Perry Mason" depict a world that was way before my time, the fifties, when I was born.The characters behave believably, except for the final confession in the courtroom. It had to be a great stand up comic joke at the time.I always got a kick out of Hamilton Burger, the opposing attorney, who never could beat Perry Mason. Again, another tailor made stand up comic joke.It was the "atmosphere" that made the show. A safe world, partially safe because of Perry Mason and his crew, as well as Lt. Tragg and Hamilton Burger. A world where people treated each other with respect. A world where being disrespectful wasn't rewarded.It's a black and white world, and often the world is black and white. There aren't as many "gray" situations in real life as the modernists want you to think. That's part of their "snake oil".

I never saw this series until I was a small kid, with the later seasons, early 60's. Now I'm glad that my local station is re-running it in its' entirety. Not only for the great writing, direction, photography, but also for the constant parade of old pros as guest stars! One of my favorite B-movie "bad girls", Marie Windsor,(The Narrow Margin) appears four times in the series; but will she be a victim, client, or killer? When I was a kid I was about the only person I knew that knew who Dabbs Greer(House of Wax) was, or cared! For some reason I loved knowing who such-and-such was, and where they had previously appeared. A friend of mine has the same trivia affliction as I do, so I started taping "Perry Mason" for our mutual entertainment! If there's nothing exciting on TV, we'll sit down for a Perry Mason episode block, have some pizza and beer, and go: "hey! there's Ted De Corsia!"(The Killing) And, "Isn't that Walter Burke?"(All the king's men), "Elisha Cook Jr.!(Also, "The Killing")" or, "Malcolm Atterbury!"(North by northwest) "Arthur Franz!"(The Sniper),Osa Massen!"(Rocketship XM), and there's George Macready!"(Gilda), Yep, I've got character actor trivia bad. How about you?