Posted in: HBO, Preview, streaming, Trailer, TV, YouTube | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Perry Mason: HBO Introduces the Characters Making Up Mason's World

Published
by
|
Comments

HBO and executive producer Robert Downey, Jr.'s Perry Mason is on the case starting Sunday, June 21, and now viewers are being introduced to the people who populate our hero's world. Written by showrunners Rolin Jones and Ron Fitzgerald and based on Erle Stanley Gardner's word, the limited series follows the origins of one of fiction's most legendary criminal defense lawyers, Perry Mason (Matthew Rhys, The Americans). In this special behind-the-scenes look, Fitzgerald, Jones, Rhys, Tatiana Maslany, John Lithgow, Chris Chalk, and Juliet Rylance explore both the new and familiar faces viewers that Mason will meet as the mysteries deepen.

perry mason
A scene from HBO's Perry Mason (Image: HBO)

When the case of the decade breaks down his door, Mason's relentless pursuit of the truth will take him through a fractured city and quite possibly down a pathway towards redemption for a private investigator haunted by his wartime experiences in France and suffering the effects of a broken marriage. Set in 1932 Los Angeles, the city finds itself booming like never before even as the rest of the country recovers from the Great Depression. Oil, the Olympic Games, the advent of talking pictures, evangelical fervor, and a child kidnapping that goes horrifically wrong all make for a deadly mix.

Episode 1: "Chapter One": Los Angeles, 1931. On the heels of an unsavory investigation involving a famous comedian, Perry Mason (Matthew Rhys) – a PI struggling to make ends meet – and his right-hand man Pete Strickland (Shea Whigham) are hired by attorney E.B. Jonathan (John Lithgow), Perry's mentor, to solve a perplexing case: the brutal kidnapping of one-year-old Charlie Dodson, whose parents Matthew (Nate Corddry) and Emily (Gayle Rankin) were targeted for a $100,000 ransom. After meeting with Herman Baggerly (Robert Patrick), a millionaire elder at the Dodsons' church, Perry, E.B., and E.B.'s legal secretary Della Street (Juliet Rylance) ponder why a family of unmistakably modest means would be extorted for such a steep price. Written by Rolin Jones and Ron Fitzgerald; directed by Tim Van Patten.

Perry Mason
A scene from HBO's Perry Mason (Image: HBO)

HBO's Perry Mason also John Lithgow as Elias Birchard "E.B." Jonathan, a struggling attorney and a semi-regular employer of Mason; Juliet Rylance as Della Street, E.B. Jonathan's creative and driven legal secretary; Tatiana Maslany as Sister Alice McKeegan, the leader of the Radiant Assembly of God, preaching to a hungry congregation and a radio audience across the country; Chris Chalk as Paul Drake, a beat cop with a knack for detective work; and Shea Whigham as Pete Strickland, who is hired by Mason as an extra set of eyes on his various investigations.

Stephen Root, Gayle Rankin, Nate Corddry, Veronica Falcón, Jefferson Mays, Lili Taylor, Andrew Howard, Eric Lange, and Robert Patrick also star. Executive producers include Amanda Burrell, Robert Downey Jr., Susan Downey, Ron Fitzgerald, Joe Horacek, Rolin Jones, and director Timothy Van Patten. Aida Rodgers co-executive produces, with Matthew Rhys producing. Created by Rolin Jones and Ron Fitzgerald, the series is based on characters created by Erle Stanley Gardner.

Enjoyed this? Please share on social media!

Stay up-to-date and support the site by following Bleeding Cool on Google News today!

Ray FlookAbout Ray Flook

Serving as Television Editor since 2018, Ray began five years earlier as a contributing writer/photographer before being brought onto the core BC team in 2017.
twitterinstagram
Comments will load 20 seconds after page. Click here to load them now.