Perry Mason (HBO) S01: C+

This character comes back to life for the third time in television history. This time Matthew Rhys takes the iconic role that once upon a time was played by Raymond Burr the longest actor that has played Perry Mason.

Before Penny Dreadful: City Of Angels finished its run, this HBO reboot started with some similarities between the story we were watching over at Showtime and the first case that Perry has to solve on its first season back on TV.

A hideous murder, a church that seems more like a cult whose prophet is an attractive young blonde woman, with a strong mother figure running things in the background, using her as a puppet to get more power. Of course a romantic relationship between the main detective and this attractive prophet. All of this elements were also in the spin off of Penn Dreadful, some worked better here, some were better there. But overall I got bored because of it.

Perry Mason has to prove that Emily Dodson (played by Gayle Rankin) is innocent, she's been accused of kidnapping and murdering her own baby, teaming up with her lover. Mason would try and prove that there's a whole conspiracy behind that crime involving the church, which Dodson strongly believes in and the Police Force.

What can we expect? A strong cast, great production. But not a strong story, the fact that it was so similar to City Of Angels lost me completely and was expecting more of this series, specially since I wasn't a big fan of the Showtime series. Not John Lithgow or Lili Taylor can brighten up this HBO reboot.

Matthew Rhys over acted at some scenes, which made look the character to be someone untrustworthy, and he's suppose to be a great detective and also the lawyer that would prove the innocence of the victim. Unlike other characters like Billy McBride in Goliath or even Dr. House, where these characters were obviously flawed but still really good at their job. Since I am not familiar with Perry Mason and for me this was my first time meeting the character I never understood how flawed or just poorly written or acted the character was. There's even some flashbacks from Mason at his times as a soldier, but I never understood the relevance to the story.

I gave the show the chance to get better, HBO seems to really believe in it and they renew it for a second season a couple of weeks ago, before the season finale. The only episode that caught my attention was episode seven, right before the season finale, and I was expecting to like the season finale, but it actually was as boring as the start of the show

I still don't get what HBO sees in this show. Maybe the fact that is was created and produced by Ron Fitzgerald who also produces Westworld for the network. Another series that I stopped watching. I thought they would take their time to renew or cancel this show but never imagined that it would be renewed for a second season a couple of weeks before the series ended its first run.

For a summer HBO series I was expecting something much better than this I'll se how Lovecraft Country fares when it begins next week at Mason's slot. That other series does have better reviews and some good buzz around it.