Launched at the end of June on HBO (and OCS, its broadcaster in France), "Perry Mason" reveals its mysteries little by little. But what does the American press think about the reboot of this series from the 50s?
HBO WHAT IS IT ABOUT ?
1932, Los Angeles. As the rest of the country recovers from the Great Depression, the city is booming. Oil, Olympic Games, evangelical fervor! But when the affair of the decade arrives in the hands of Perry Mason, the young private detective embarks on a quest for the truth which will reveal the fractures of the City of Angels. And at the same time pave the way for Mason's own redemption ...
Perry Mason, created by Rolin Jones & Ron Fitzgerald, with Matthew Rhys... Broadcast every Monday on OCS, in US + 24WHAT DOES IT LOOK LIKE ?
WHAT DOES THE AMERICAN PRESS THINK?
According to the Washington Post:"Perry Mason perfectly and methodically exposes a captivating and expanding mystery (which is, after all, the main attraction of a genre story), while remarkably shaping characters whose stories will speak to modern audiences ( ...) No ounce of talent is wasted here. " - 5 out of 5
According to TV Line:"The HBO reboot looks curiously extremely up-to-date, with richly drawn characters, magnificent imagery, a truly captivating central mystery and another great leading performance from Matthew Rhys. " - 5 out of 5
According to TV Guide:"A more realistic and sordidly satisfying version [de Perry Mason] (...) [Matthew] Rhys is a wonderful Perry. " - 4.5 out of 5
According to Indiewire:"The series is set to get better next year. Perry Mason is a delicately crafted thriller made for those who appreciate the genre - or simply those who appreciate thoughtful, complex and purposeful tales in general." - 4.5 out of 5
Read the full review According to The Independent:"The visual and sound rendering is marvelous, each set and costume are impeccably detailed, and there is just enough nudity and violence to make you understand that you are watching adult television." - 4 out of 5
According to Slate:'A delicately crafted thriller made for those who appreciate the genre' (Indiewire)
"As the series changes more or less along the way, each episode becomes a little more appropriate showcase for [Matthew] Rhys, actor who evokes honesty and decency even when he is neither honest nor decent (...) While Perry becomes a lawyer-superhero, while he assembles his new diverse team, the police series leaves room for pleasure simpler of the judicial drama in which the system can operate, even a little, because there is a lawyer to believe. " - 4 out of 5
Read the full review According to The Oregonian:"What makes Perry Mason captivating is the way the series counteracts the sadness at the heart of Mason's investigation - a child is kidnapped and killed - with vintage touches, including a terrific cast." - 4 out of 5
According to Slant Magazine:"The series is bloody and somber, with deep cynicism, but it is also optimistic in its own way, when this original story tells of how her characters find reason to fight rather than being discouraged and disgusted spectators." - 4 out of 5
According to The A.V. Club:"[Matthew] Rhys develops his enigmatic character layer after layer with skill, transforming this degenerate into a more recognizable version of the legal icon admired for decades. The mystery surrounding how he gets there is even more captivating than the disgusting plot behind Perry Mason. " - 4 out of 5
Read the full review According to Salon.com:"The audience for this series (...) should feel served by the material competently. For those who know the title, Perry Mason is unexpected. Those who did not know it could fall in love with its overall execution, which makes it a Top notch title. From the high standard that left me with the urge for something entirely new. " - 3.5 out of 5
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HBO
Emily Dodson (Gayle Rankin), mother of the kidnapped and killed boy Perry is investigating
"Spread over eight episodes, Perry Mason deserves the time you devote to him. [La série] allows the secondary characters to have their moments and offers to [Matthew] Rhys a new opportunity to showcase the fertility of his imagination. If there is a second season (...), it would be nice to see cases resolved after two or three episodes. " - 3.5 out of 5
According to CNN:"'It's not your grandmother's Perry Mason' is not really a marketing pitch. A better way to describe this kind of original story would be [de parler de] meeting between Chinatown and Boardwalk Empire in a clever and somber police narrative that is good enough to make it an argument for watching, even if it is not really a simple matter. " - 3.5 out of 5
Read the full review According to Vulture:"A period tale at the same time sumptuous, dark and bleak purely and simply gore, full of quality performances, but also a little overloaded with sub-plots which should have been simplified or cut. This excess of fat in Perry Mason is a flaw, but it is not likely to harm what remains, overall, a good and engaging television season. " - 3.5 out of 5
According to Time:"From a narrative point of view, Perry Mason does not constitute the top of the basket of HBO. In the line of the attractive original series, in which Mason regularly made confess guilty under oath, there are holes in the story, incredible twists and speeches that sound great but raise more questions than they answer. Fans of the original procedural format may not be the only viewers frustrated by the slow pace of this reboot leafing through. But [Matthew] Rhys has an excellent casting. " - 3.5 out of 5
According to Vanity Fair:"The set works better than it should. There has been so much invested in the production that the world of the series comes to life, while the mystery is captivating and unpredictable (...) But history does not tell us not let enough into inner lives [de Soeur Alice et la Mère qui la contrôle]. This is a glaring shortcoming because, at the same time, the series spends too much time navigating amidst the shallow feelings of men. " - 3.5 out of 5
According to The Hollywood Reporter:'It takes five episodes to get to the legal drama that familiar viewers of the character know' (Pittsburg Post-Gazette)
"With a solid main performance by Matthew Rhys, an amazing cast and an impeccable reconstruction of the era of the Great Depression, the series makes its case without convincing us, why among all the brands available in the world, this is the one they wanted to dig (...) Perry Mason on the whole avoids rushing into the "Cable Anti-Hero side: Great Depression Edition". much of the credit goes to Rhys. " - 3.5 out of 5
According to TV Guide:"Throughout its eight episodes, the series delves into Mason's past while redefining it for a new era of television driven by complex characters, richly detailed worlds and intrigue that spans a season. handling the first two things so well that it is a shame that she stumbles on the third. " - 3.5 out of 5
According to the Pittsburg Post-Gazette:"HBO's Perry Mason remake brings together several great elements, starting with the cast and the sets of the time, but it takes five episodes to get to the legal drama that familiar viewers of the character know." - 3.5 out of 5
According to The Guardian:"Well done and quite captivating, thanks in large part to the cast which also includes John Lithgow in the role of Mason's mentor, E.B. Jonathan, or Juliet Rylance in the shoes of his secretary, Della Street, [la série] doesn't seem particularly good yet. " - 3 out of 5
According to the Los Angeles Times:"The season, which finally looks like the very long pilot of what could be a future good series, is easily appreciated, is nicely played and intelligently designed, with complex scenes well done; but it is also sometimes unpleasant, a little crazy approaching the end, and too long and loaded for the material. " - 3 out of 5
HBO
Della Street (Juliet Rylance), Perry's secretary
"It's a wonderful series in terms of sets and the cast is solid from start to finish, but the writers Rolin Jones and Ron Fitzgerald struggle to find a story worth investing in for at least the first half of the season. The second is more solid, and the performance [des acteurs] raise him all along, but with the capacity for concentration reduced by the state of the world in 2020, Perry Mason could have trouble retaining his viewers during the summer (...) The jury is still deliberating on this case. " - 3 out of 5
According to the Wall Street Journal:"The season initially resembles an eight-episode pilot in his manner of slowly presenting characters destined to reappear elsewhere then (...) With less pensive hollows and more dramatic substance for this Perry Mason, excess would not have not been as disturbing. " - 3 out of 5
According to the Boston Globe:"As interesting for its acting and its vintage atmosphere as frustrating for its history and its rhythm. Yes, it's a classic mix, a series that succeeds in being a thriller full of textures and a somewhat flat cartoon Dick Tracy-style, with villains defined by one characteristic. " - 3 out of 5
According to Rolling Stone:"This new Perry Mason is full of good performances (even if they do not all come from the same series). The visual rendering is incredible (although sometimes more gore than it is necessary). But the story is a work in progress - both convoluted and too tasteless to last eight hours - and the desire to give Mason the original story he never had turns out to be more problematic than necessary. " - 3 out of 5
Read the full review According to Collider:"You can find HBO's footprint everywhere, for better or for worse. The result is something that is briefly linked to what we know about Perry Mason, and at the same time not very encouraging. it becomes difficult to recommend it. " - 3 out of 5
According to the Chicago Sun-Times:'Even with imagination, it's not Perry Mason' (The Telegraph)
"Despite first-rate production quality and an exemplary cast, the plot resembles a gleaming 1932 Packard Roadster with serious engine problems: it's impressive, magnificent and embellished with several sparkling distractions, but we can't finally ignore his way of being on the road, shaking us and having hiccups here and there. " - 2.5 out of 5
According to Variety:"A lot of secondary intrigue gives the impression of skating - [Tatiana] Maslany is so alive in his scenes that it can be easy to get carried away in their whirlwind, forgetting that there is not much going on in these episodes that last more than an hour. Too much of this season, eight punitive episodes, looks like another iteration of something we've seen before, elsewhere and often better. " - 2.5 out of 5
According to the New York Times:"As an investigation, this eight-episode season is average, and in the end, the reason for wanting to revive this franchise remains mysterious." - 2.5 out of 5
According to USA Today:"No matter how bad [Matthew] Rhys is convincing as a jaded detective looking for the truth, Perry Mason is too funeral. There might be a time for a macabre investigation (especially if it accelerated the pace), but it certainly isn't for today. " - 2.5 out of 5
According to Newsday:"A boring dive into the black L.A. [polar se déroulant à Los Angeles, ndlr]. " - 2.5 out of 5
According to The Telegraph:"Even if you use your imagination, it's not Perry Mason (...) There is not much to love about him, but [Matthew] Rhys is an excellent actor who imbues the character with a sadness that makes us - barely - want to support him. It is difficult to take this drama for what it is, because its creators obviously do not want it. They hung their wagon in the name of Perry Mason, and threw in reinvented versions of familiar characters. " - 2 out of 5
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