The Case of the Devious Delinquent

Usually, there is the final scene of the episode where Paul, Della, & Perry discuss the motive--and resolve all the viewers' questions, I guess there wasn't time for this. Otto Kruger is the grandfather, the ONLY character that shares a believable motivation for his grandson--but if you know this, I think you can enjoy the remainder of the characters. I might have given this episode a lower rating, but I have not viewed any with a lower rating. Difficult to follow--and no, it's not challenging--it's one where Hamilton Burger is left with the most interesting motive in the episode. When you're producing 28 episodes a season, at least one has to be filmed in "the mansion set." Blame it on MeTV editing, but it just doesn't work for me.

Honestly, I quit watching halfway through. That's the first episode I've lost interest enough to not finish watching - and not care whodunnit!

Not only did I not care, but about half the cast should have been knocked off due to bad writing! Was there a writer's strike going on? Was Hollyweird on vacation? Nothing about this episode was interesting. The 'rebel without (or with) a cause' stereotypes, the ailing grandfather (who looked like he'd played a great 18 holes of golf at the club that morning) the sneering brat of a spoiled child as the grandson - who probably needed a little prison time to straighten him out! Good grief! "Mrs Olsen" should have stuck with her coffee commercials instead of her role as the housekeeper! Ugh!

Something was "off" for this episode. Disagreeable characters, unfortunate/unbelievable casting, amateurish directing. One of the rare episodes where I just stopped watching.

As many have commented, the delinquent defendant does not seem to have any depth. His friend chick is disagreeable, and one wonders why the defendant would have any interest in having him as a friend at all. The screenplay for the Friends of the delinquent sounds like bad gangster talk from the 1940s. Just nothing working... Not sure what else to add here, except that nothing in this particular episode seem to be adding up.

Just another in a too-long line of poorly conceived and overwrought scripts. I guess the writers were attempting desperately to push the envelope where stories were concerned, but this one falls exceptionally flat.

For one thing (and I have to say the main thing), the defendant here exudes no sympathy whatsoever. While I'm not going to go all out and say that the kid deserved to be convicted of murder, I honestly think he should have done time just for his sheer stupidity. I blame the writers.

It really started nowhere, ended up nowhere, and passed nothing in-between. On the up side, look for Billy Benedict (Bowery Boys) & John Mitchum (Dirty Harry) in small roles...

The biggest crime of this episode is that Perry Mason and Paul Drake don't show up until it is more than half over, and Della even later.

The first half reminds me of the older 60's soap operas, all overwrought dialog and acting. The kind that Carol Burnett used to parody in their Canoga Falls potboiler.

Then there is the suspect/victim du jour, who does just about everything wrong that he can.

The episode does pick up once Parry and Paul are on the scene, with Perry tricking a confession out of the real killer, outside the courtroom, even. It is worth adding a star to the rating of an otherwise poor outing.