Perry Mason is HBO’s interpretation of Erie Stanley Gardner’s well-known detective stories, which are set in Los Angeles in the 1930s. Matthew Rhys plays the title character in the show, a private eye who spent the first season looking into the puzzling circumstances surrounding a little boy’s kidnapping. Ron Fitzgerald and Rolin Jones, who created Perry Mason, won’t be back for Season 2.
Shea Whigham recently stated that they are “about halfway through the second season” of the programme, which is being produced by Jack Amiel and Michael Begler, in an interview with. Whigham told us a few things about the new season despite being unable to divulge much more:
“Perry Mason is set in 1933. Perry is once more in trouble and needs to find a way out. I’m hoping Strickland can guide him through it.”
As fans will recall, Perry was also attempting to escape from a very dark place while attempting to assist in the investigation of Charlie Dodson’s disappearance. Due to Mason’s deteriorating mental state and the fact that he couldn’t see his son Theodore because of the case he was working on, he and his wife Linda (Gretchen Mol) had divorced. According to Whigham’s remarks, Mason’s life appears to be haunted by the ghosts of World War I to the point where he is unable to go on. It will be intriguing to watch if the end of prohibition is what puts Mason back “in the soup” as the series moves into 1933, as confirmed by Whigham. After all, his drinking issue was a factor in his breakup with Linda and his preferred method of PTSD treatment.
Pete Strickland and Mason’s collaboration abruptly ended at the end of the first season after Perry retaliated after they lost track of Elder Seidel (Taylor Nichols). Pete’s departure to work for Hamilton Burger (Justin Kirk) was heartbreaking, but no one could blame him for wanting to distance himself from Perry. However, it appears like he will still be present in Season 2, which is a comfort. Perry may have Paul Drake, a beat cop (Chris Chalk), as his new partner, but Drake is nothing like Pete.
Whigham also expressed his fondness for “telling period pieces,” and later in the interview he elaborated, “But that doesn’t hold you. It’s interesting, you can shoot the heck out of the thing, and it’s fun, and it’s gorgeous to look at. if the cast is not A-plus and the story is lacking. Similarly, even with an A-plus cast, you won’t be engaged if the characters don’t feel real and visceral. What you’re saying, in my opinion, is that you watch Perry Mason and feel as though you’re there.”
He also praised Tim Van Patten, the director of Perry Mason, for his ability to transform Los Angeles into a completely different city: “Tim Van Patten, who I work with, spent an entire year conducting research to try to uncover locations that, even if you’re from [Los Angeles], you’ve never seen on screen before. Tim is all of that.” Without a question, Van Patten and the series’ creators have succeeded in recreating a Los Angeles that seems to have been plucked from a history book written in the 1930s.
Soon, more from our exclusive conversation with Shea Whigham will be available.
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