circuskotton

Grew up on and enjoyed the two versions of the Perry Mason series/movies that stared Raymond Burr. They were based on the Earle Stanley Gardner books and followed his style well. This series is definitely not at all like its predecessors nor the books. Where Burr's version of Mason was a successful lawyer with a upstanding reputation and quick thinking to get clients out of a jam, Rhys' Mason is a down and out lawyer working as a PI who takes on shady clients (photos of a man & his mistress), then double crosses his client for more money. Della is a more sassy character here and she doesn't so much keep Perry organized as keeps him honest. As the first episode goes on, you do see things come together that shows some finer character traits when he is dealing with the viewing of the baby corpse in a murder he is investigating. These little snippets of emotion could potentially lead to a more refined character in later episodes even as he maintains a "rough around the edges" personality. I'm not totally sold on this new variation of Mason, but it intrigued me enough that I'll watch a few more episodes hoping the writers are building to something that will hook me in for the long run.

I the series gets a 6 because it started out pretty good, but is barely hanging on in my opinion. I'm an avid Stephen King reader, but had not read this book yet. After 5 or 6 episodes, the story seemed to have too many side plots that didn't seem to have anything to do with the main plot of how the dome came about so bought the book (2 part) and couldn't put it down. I only occasionally watch the series since reading the book - mainly out of curiosity to see how it is progressing. I just can't see how they will drag e series on for more than another season and keep the viewer's interest, especially with the slow pace and all the time spent on side plots. This should have been a three or four part mini-series like what was done with King's "The Stand." I enjoyed that book AND the mini-series.