The famously sharp criminal defense lawyer isn't even a lawyer as the HBO series opens in L.A. in 1931; instead, played by Emmy winner Matthew Rhys, he is a private investigator more comfortable sneaking into Hollywood starlets' homes to snap scandalous photographs than he is in a courtroom.
HBO's Mason will eventually suit up and stand before the jury as the series progresses, but even then, this Mason is a different beast. Where the lawyer of the novels and beloved TV show was a mostly blank slate, Rhys's Mason is a WWI veteran struggling with a crisis of faith, a battle to hold onto his family's farm, and a drinking problem.
(The series is set during the tail-end of Prohibition, but no one is adhering to the laws of the day.) Rhys, who joined the project after co-executive producer Robert Downey Jr. pulled out of the lead role, says it's these `cracks` in the character that drew him in. `Life serves up plenty of cracks,` Rhys told Rotten Tomatoes, `and that's where my interest certainly lies.`
While the new series may not look much like a traditional Perry Mason series, it does bear the signatures of a traditional HBO prestige drama. It is a single serialized story, lavishly produced, and packed with scene-stealing performances from some big names: Rhys is already earning acclaim as the brooding P.I.-cum-lawyer; John Lithgow shines as his boss and mentor; and Orphan Black star Tatiana Maslany plays evangelical preacher - and potential heretic - Sister Alice, whose church becomes increasingly entwined with the series' central case of a mother being tried for the kidnapping and murder of her baby boy.
