And Where's The Theme Song????

In the already incredibly topsy-turvy world of 2020, there's one more reason to pray for the end of this year.  

HBO has rebooted Perry Mason.  

Okay, I am glad my grandmother is not around to see this because it truly was one of her favorite TV shows.   As a result, I became a fan by default.   Even though I was greatly spooked/weirdly enamored of that theme music.  So ominous and yet so inviting.  Other than Raymond Burr, it was probably the most prominent memory of that series.

So, naturally, it's nowhere to be found in the new HBO mini-series, which will hopefully and mercifully end after eight episodes.  It's not there.   I watched all of the pilot with the hope you would hear some strains of it over the closing credits.   

Nope.

But, then again, there's virtually nothing else here that even remotely resembles the Perry Mason I remember.  Allegedly, this production, produced in part by Robert Downey Jr., returned to the original source material by Erle Stanley Gardner.  If that is true, I am curious what bizarre turns were taken to move the character to TV in the 50s.   None of it is familiar to me.

In this version, Perry Mason is played by Matthew Rhys and he's a down-on-his-luck private detective who lives in some seedy neighborhood of 1932 Los Angeles.  He's not a lawyer...at least, yet.   Instead, he is crawling around the darkest environs in town looking into the case of a kidnapped and then-found-dead baby.   And, yes, as dark as television is today, you get to see a...yep...dead baby.

Charming.  

The pilot meandered from one dark cubbyhole to another and the producers certainly didn't spend a lot of their budget on lighting.   Or wardrobe as Perry skulks around in an outfit that could have come from Indiana Jones' armoire.  This is all very reminiscent of the old "Chinatown" movie, but that was interesting.   This all looks like it was shot on ZOOM and I'd be surprised if that wasn't the case.

Oh, you do get to meet Della Street.   And Paul Drake, who in this diverse era, is naturally Black.   None of it had the look or feel or anything even barely resembles what I remember as Perry Mason.   For that matter, he could have been named anything.   John Smith.   Lou Costello.   Joe Mannix.

Damn, I shouldn't have mentioned that last one.   Somebody is liable to ruin that show as well.   

And just for the record...here's the opening to Perry Mason the way it should be.

Dinner last night:  Leftover SPO.