Matthew Rhys’ Two-Season Perry Mason Is the Noir Crime Drama You May Have Missed
Matthew Rhys has played plenty of complicated characters, but few roles have given him as much room to explore the darker corners of a troubled man as HBO’s Perry Mason. The series ran for only two seasons, yet it transformed one of American fiction’s most familiar lawyers into a bruised, morally complicated detective and defense attorney operating in 1930s Los Angeles.
For fans of crime dramas, courtroom mysteries, and noir, Perry Mason offers a particularly distinctive combination. It has the investigation and legal maneuvering of a traditional mystery series, but its world is considerably darker, shaped by the Great Depression, institutional racism, violence, and the psychological scars left by World War I.
Rhys anchors the entire production with a performance that gives Perry Mason an edge far removed from the polished courtroom lawyer most viewers associate with the character.
The series is also a reminder of what can happen when a familiar property is rebuilt rather than simply reproduced.
Matthew Rhys Finds a Very Different Perry Mason
Some actors become so closely associated with one television role that it can be difficult for audiences to see them as anyone else. Matthew Rhys could easily have faced that problem after The Americans, where he delivered one of television drama’s defining lead performances.
Instead, Rhys continued taking on varied projects, including The Beast in Me and Widow’s Bay. Yet his work as Perry Mason remains one of his most compelling performances.
HBO’s version of Perry Mason takes the character back to his beginnings. The franchise originated in the 1930s through Erle Stanley Gardner’s novels and short stories, as well as radio programs and low-budget films. The character later became most famous through the television series that premiered in 1957, with Raymond Burr playing Mason.
That earlier series reworked the character into a more traditional procedural, with Mason handling a new case each week.
HBO went in another direction.
Instead of presenting Mason as an established defense attorney who effortlessly solves cases in court, the series explores how he became the lawyer audiences eventually came to know. The story is set in Los Angeles during the Great Depression, when the criminal justice system is portrayed as a harsh and unforgiving place.
The result is a period crime drama with a distinctly noir atmosphere. Its setting may be historical, but its approach is contemporary, gritty, and unapologetically adult.
Perry Mason Is a Historical Reimagining With a Darker Edge
From the beginning, HBO’s Perry Mason makes it clear that this is not the familiar television lawyer of the past.
Rhys plays Mason as a man who frequently operates outside conventional legal boundaries. He is aggressive, difficult, and willing to cross ethical lines in pursuit of information. Yet underneath that rough exterior is someone genuinely committed to finding the truth and delivering justice.
The first episode establishes that tone immediately. The central case is inspired by the Lindbergh kidnapping, and the murder of a young child becomes the catalyst for Mason’s investigation. At the same time, viewers are introduced to Mason’s less conventional work as a voyeuristic photographer who takes illicit pictures of Hollywood stars in compromising situations.
His behavior can make him difficult to like, but that discomfort is part of what makes the character interesting.
Mason is not presented as a straightforward hero. Rhys gives him a complicated mixture of anger, determination, vulnerability, and sensitivity. His experiences during World War I have left him dealing with severe post-traumatic stress, and the horrors he witnessed in combat continue to affect his life long after returning home.
That history gives his pursuit of justice an additional dimension.
Mason has seen what people are capable of doing to one another. His experiences have left him deeply troubled, but they have also strengthened his determination to use his abilities for something meaningful.
Rhys understands that contradiction. Mason can be abrasive when dealing with judges, juries, police officers, and anyone standing between him and the truth, but his investigations gradually reveal a much more vulnerable side.
The Supporting Cast Makes the Series Even Stronger
Although Rhys provides the show’s central driving force, Perry Mason does not treat its supporting characters as background figures.
John Lithgow is particularly memorable as E.B. Jonathan, the attorney who frequently employs Mason and eventually becomes his mentor. Jonathan has witnessed his own share of suffering, but unlike Mason, he represents a possibility of hope. He tries to keep Mason from losing himself completely to the darkness surrounding him.
Chris Chalk also makes a strong impression as Paul Drake, a beat cop who becomes one of Mason’s most valuable sources of confidential information.
Drake’s story gives the series another way to examine 1930s Los Angeles. As one of the city’s seasoned Black police officers, he is forced to navigate a system shaped by racism while trying to do his job.
Chalk, who would later appear in IT: Welcome to Derry, uses the role to establish Drake as one of the show’s most fascinating characters.
Through Drake and the other members of its ensemble, Perry Mason takes an unflinching look at the effects of racism in Los Angeles during the period.
Season 2 Goes Even Deeper Into the Justice System
The show’s structure also helps explain why its mysteries remain engaging.
Each season revolves around a different major case, allowing the story to develop gradually through witnesses, clues, investigations, and courtroom arguments. Mason does not simply walk into court and produce a surprise piece of evidence at the last moment. His legal victories have to be earned through dangerous investigations that frequently put him at risk.
The first season establishes the historical world around Mason while telling its central mystery. The second season narrows its focus toward another deeply rooted problem: racism within the legal system and the way young Black men can be blamed by institutions that fail to provide them with meaningful protection or defense.
That storyline also forces Mason to confront his own position within the system.
He is willing to challenge the establishment on behalf of his clients, but he also recognizes that the privileges available to him give him responsibilities that others do not have. That conflict adds another layer to his development and keeps the series from turning its protagonist into a simple crusader.
Why Perry Mason Worked as a Modern Reboot
Reviving an established character is difficult, particularly when audiences already have a strong association with an earlier version.
HBO’s Perry Mason found a way around that problem by going back to the character’s origins rather than trying to imitate the Raymond Burr series.
The fundamental idea remained intact: Perry Mason is a defense lawyer determined to uncover the truth. But the HBO series asks how a damaged, stubborn, morally complicated man could eventually become that lawyer.
That approach gave longtime fans something recognizable while creating an entry point for viewers who had never encountered the character before.
The series also managed to exist comfortably in several genres at once. It is a courtroom drama, but it is equally interested in investigation and character development. It works as a mystery, an antihero story, and a period noir, with the historical setting providing more than simple visual atmosphere.
HBO itself still lists Perry Mason among its crime and drama programming, describing the series as an origin story for the famous defense lawyer and placing the story in 1932 Los Angeles.
A Two-Season Run That Ended Too Soon
The cancellation of Perry Mason remains disappointing for anyone who wanted to see where this version of the character could go next.
The series had demonstrated that an old property did not have to be trapped by its most familiar adaptation. Instead, it could preserve the essential identity of the character while rebuilding the world around him.
That was particularly effective because the show never relied entirely on nostalgia. Its mysteries, historical setting, courtroom conflicts, and complicated characters gave it an identity of its own.
For Rhys, the role provided an opportunity to play a protagonist who was neither conventional hero nor outright antihero. Mason is damaged and difficult, sometimes reckless and frequently confrontational, but his desire to uncover the truth gives his actions a clear moral purpose.
The two seasons leave behind a striking reinterpretation of one of American television’s most recognizable legal characters.
For viewers who enjoy noir mysteries, historical crime stories, and courtroom dramas, Perry Mason remains an intriguing series to discover, particularly because its short run makes it an easy two-season watch.
And for Matthew Rhys, it stands as another reminder of how much range he can bring to a complicated character.
Watch the Perry Mason Season 1 Trailer
The Season 1 trailer introduces Rhys as Perry Mason and sets up the 1931 Los Angeles mystery that drives the opening season.