Series synopsis
Perry Mason is an American mystery drama crime television series that premiered on HBO on June 21, 2020. It ended on April 24, 2023. It was created by Rolin Jones, Ron Fitzgerald. It stars Matthew Rhys, Juliet Rylance, Chris Chalk and Shea Whigham.
Set in 1932 Los Angeles, the series focuses on the origin story of famed defense lawyer Perry Mason. Living check-to-check as a low-rent private investigator, Mason is haunted by his wartime experiences in France and suffering the effects of a broken marriage. L.A. is booming while the rest of the country recovers from the Great Depression — but a kidnapping gone very wrong leads to Mason exposing a fractured city as he uncovers the truth of the crime.
Premise
Set in 1932 Los Angeles, the series focuses on the origin story of famed defense lawyer Perry Mason. Living check-to-check as a low-rent private investigator, Mason is haunted by his wartime experiences in France and suffering the effects of a broken marriage. L.A. is booming while the rest of the country recovers from the Great Depression — but a kidnapping gone very wrong leads to Mason exposing a fractured city as he uncovers the truth of the crime.
Premise: There's power in the truth.
Cast and characters
Leading cast
- Matthew Rhys as Perry Mason
- Juliet Rylance as Della Street
- Chris Chalk as Paul Drake
- Shea Whigham as Pete Strickland
- Justin Kirk as Hamilton Burger
- Tatiana Maslany as Sister Alice McKeegan
- Diarra Kilpatrick as Clara Drake
- John Lithgow as Elias Birchard 'E.B.' Jonathan
Supporting cast
- Eric Lange as Detective Gene Holcomb
- Katherine Waterston as Ginny Aimes
- Madeline Zima as Velma 'Red' Fuller
- Mike O'Gorman as Walt LeBaron
- Tim Ransom as Fenton Bostwick
- David Atkinson as Gnarled Guy
- Dave Beaudrie as Traffic Cop
- Hugh Holub as Judge Robert Ross
- Howard Korder as Julian Hammersmith
- Ace Marrero as Ramon Cortez
- Linda Gehringer as Mrs. Trotter
- Monnae Michaell as Letitia 'Granny' James
Guest cast
- Madeline Zima as Velma 'Red' Fuller
- Mike O'Gorman as Walt LeBaron
- Tim Ransom as Fenton Bostwick
- David Atkinson as Gnarled Guy
- Dave Beaudrie as Traffic Cop
- Hugh Holub as Judge Robert Ross
- Howard Korder as Julian Hammersmith
- Ace Marrero as Ramon Cortez
- Linda Gehringer as Mrs. Trotter
- Monnae Michaell as Letitia 'Granny' James
- William Stanford Davis as Daniel Madison
- Tunde Adebimpe as Singing Preacher
Episodes
This series spans 10 seasons with 258 episodes.
| Season | Episodes | First aired | Last aired |
|---|---|---|---|
| Season 0 | 40 | February 23, 1985 | July 22, 2011 |
| Season 1 | 8 | June 21, 2020 | August 9, 2020 |
| Season 2 | 8 | March 6, 2023 | April 24, 2023 |
| Season 3 | 26 | October 2, 1959 | June 11, 1960 |
| Season 4 | 28 | September 17, 1960 | June 10, 1961 |
| Season 5 | 30 | September 1, 1961 | May 26, 1962 |
| Season 6 | 28 | September 26, 1962 | May 16, 1963 |
| Season 7 | 30 | September 25, 1963 | May 21, 1964 |
| Season 8 | 30 | September 23, 1964 | May 13, 1965 |
| Season 9 | 30 | September 11, 1965 | May 22, 1966 |
| Episode | Title | Air date |
|---|---|---|
| 1 |
Perry Mason Returns Rich business man Mr Gordon has many enemies and a family that wouldn't miss him if he dropped dead. Someone hires a hitman to kill him and it is carried out in such a way to frame Gordon's secretary Della Street. When Della is accused of the murder, Perry mason resigns his position as judge to defend her and employs the son of his old colleague, Paul Drake, the act as private investigator on the case. |
February 23, 1985 |
| 2 |
The Case of the Notorious Nun A sister is accused of killing a priest with whom she may have been romantically involved. |
February 23, 1986 |
| 3 |
The Case of the Shooting Star A comedian hatches a great joke: rig a fake killing live on TV. He takes a gun with blanks, and shoots his accomplice during a talk show. Happy that his joke has been successful, he walks away. His accomplice is really dead, however, and nearly a million viewers saw him pull the trigger. |
November 9, 1986 |
| Episode | Title | Air date |
|---|---|---|
| 1 |
Chapter 1 Los Angeles, 1931. On the heels of an unsavory investigation involving a famous comedian, Perry Mason--a PI struggling to make ends meet--and his right-hand man Pete Strickland are hired by attorney E.B. Jonathan, Perry's mentor, to solve a perplexing case: the brutal kidnapping of one-year-old Charlie Dodson, whose parents were targeted for a $100,000 ransom. |
June 21, 2020 |
| 2 |
Chapter 2 Following one of her trademark barn-burning sermons, Evangelical preacher Sister Alice offers the Dodsons the church's full moral and financial support – much to her mother Birdy's dismay. During a routine domestic intervention, beat cop Paul Drake is rerouted to a gruesome crime scene, where he follows a confounding trail of evidence. |
June 28, 2020 |
| 3 |
Chapter 3 In order to gain an advantage over E.B. and team, wily district attorney Maynard Barnes goes public with a shocking new development. Mason and Strickland get unauthorized access to physical evidence with help from Virgil, Mason's connect at the city morgue. Later, Mason attempts to extract information from a withholding Drake, who's weary of Holcomb and Ennis' watchful eyes. |
July 5, 2020 |
| Episode | Title | Air date |
|---|---|---|
| 1 |
Chapter Nine 1933. In the months following the Dodson trial, an aimless Perry leans on Della to keep the law firm afloat. While Paul accepts a job from an unlikely source, corrupt oil scion Brooks McCutcheon recruits Detective Holcomb in his quest to reshape the future of Los Angeles. |
March 6, 2023 |
| 2 |
Chapter Ten After a manhunt pegs brothers Rafael and Mateo Gallardo for the McCutcheon murder, Perry initially resists taking the case… until a hunch reels him in. Later, Della goes on a date with a new flame while Paul wrestles with a shocking truth. |
March 13, 2023 |
| 3 |
Chapter Eleven As Rafael and Mateo face discrimination from their fellow inmates and the court, Perry continues his push for justice, while Della engages the help of wealthy socialite Camilla Nygaard. Later, Paul chases leads in the Hooverville, and Perry goes head-to-head with tycoon Lydell McCutcheon. |
March 20, 2023 |
| Episode | Title | Air date |
|---|---|---|
| 1 |
The Case of the Spurious Sister Bruce Chapman returns home early from a business trip to find that his wife, Marie, wants a divorce. Chapman is shocked at this turn of events because just before he left on his trip he thought he had found the strangled body of Marie in his office. But if Marie is still alive, who was the dead woman in the office? |
October 3, 1959 |
| 2 |
The Case of the Watery Witness Lorna Thomas is a has-been actress who once gave up her baby for adoption and lived to regret it. George Clark discovers that his wife might be Lorna's long-lost daughter and begins to see dollar signs. |
October 10, 1959 |
| 3 |
The Case of the Garrulous Gambler Larry Benton is a hard luck guy. When he gets in an argument in a poker game and knocks Mike Granger out cold, his "friends" inform him that Granger is dead. Unbeknownst to Larry, the entire scenario is a scam to shake him down for money. Ring leader, Johnny Clay, ends up dead. |
October 17, 1959 |
| Episode | Title | Air date |
|---|---|---|
| 1 |
The Case of the Treacherous Toupee Tyrannical company president Hartley Bassett returns home after being presumed dead for two years. His first act is to fire Peter Dawson which makes Dawson the prime suspect when Bassett is found dead with two bullet holes in him. |
September 17, 1960 |
| 2 |
The Case of the Credulous Quarry Perry defends Richard Hammond who is charged with killing his former girlfriend by running over her with his car. |
September 24, 1960 |
| 3 |
The Case of the Ill-Fated Faker Jim Ferris is having an affair with his uncle's bored young wife. They concoct a scheme to finagle $80,000.00 from the uncle by faking a kidnapping. Things go horribly wrong when secretary Betty Wilkins, acting as a go-between, is charged with the murder of Jim Ferris. |
October 1, 1960 |
| Episode | Title | Air date |
|---|---|---|
| 1 |
The Case of the Jealous Journalist The drowning death of a newspaper executive during a fishing trip sets off all kinds of repercussions at the newspaper itself. |
September 2, 1961 |
| 2 |
The Case of the Impatient Partner Paint manufacturer Amory Fallon suspects that his partner Ned Thompson is behind a mysterious fire and explosion. |
September 16, 1961 |
| 3 |
The Case of the Missing Melody Perry and Della attend the wedding of Polly Courtland to Eddy King. The ceremony is halted at the altar when Polly begins screaming, "No! No!" and hurriedly exits the church. It seems as though Polly had spotted slimy George Sherwin holding an envelope containing photos of her younger sister checking into a Las Vegas hotel with a musician named Bongo White. Sherwin plans to ruin Polly and her family's reputation unless she gives up Eddy for him. Sherwin's plan comes a cropper when he's found shot to death. Eddy King is arrested for the crime. |
September 30, 1961 |
| Episode | Title | Air date |
|---|---|---|
| 1 |
The Case of the Bogus Books Perry and the team investigate the murder of an antiquarian bookseller with an interest in forgery. |
September 27, 1962 |
| 2 |
The Case of the Capricious Corpse Carleton Gage, a major financial supporter of an orphanage, wants to keep it open but lapses into a coma and later assumes room temperature. Gage's nephew, George, wants to close the orphanage and he is being secretly aided by Ernest Demming. Joane Proctor, Carleton's sister-in-law, wants to keep the orphanage open but her good intentions are complicated by the murder of Demming. |
October 4, 1962 |
| 3 |
The Case of the Playboy Pugilist Boxing trainer Jimmy West thinks he's finally found a championship contender in Davey Carroll. Unfortunately, Davey has a hard time keeping it in his pants and his tangled love life leads to Jimmy being charged with murder. |
October 11, 1962 |
| Episode | Title | Air date |
|---|---|---|
| 1 |
The Case of the Nebulous Nephew Con artist John Brooks comes up with a new twist to convince Sophia and Ninevah Stone that he's the rightful heir to their fortune. Perry ends up reluctantly defending Brooks when he's charged with murder. |
September 26, 1963 |
| 2 |
The Case of the Shifty Shoebox John Flickenger pulls off a carefully planned robbery without a hitch—until his young nephew finds the gun used in the heist. |
October 3, 1963 |
| 3 |
The Case of the Drowsy Mosquito This case has nothing to do with mosquitos but rather a hidden mine that could lead to a fortune. Plus murder. |
October 10, 1963 |
| Episode | Title | Air date |
|---|---|---|
| 1 |
The Case of the Missing Button A man's campaign to prove his estranged wife an unfit mother is interrupted when he's arrested for murder. |
September 24, 1964 |
| 2 |
The Case of the Paper Bullets Mason is caught in the middle when a romance develops between two members of rival political families. |
October 1, 1964 |
| 3 |
The Case of the Scandalous Sculptor Mona Harvey is the principal stockholder in a publishing company run by her uncle, Everett, and the wife of an eccentric sculptor named Hannibal Harvey who is being blackmailed. Unable to get at any money due to Mona's absence, Hannibal has ditzy model Bonnie Dunbar write a blackmail note to Mona's uncle. Everett gets the money out of petty cash and sends it to Bonnie. In the meantime, Mona returns, finds Bonnie's blackmail note, and decides to pay the model a visit. So does Hannibal. Without seeing each other, husband and wife both discover Bonnie's dead body. Mona gets arrested for the murder but she fears that Hannibal might be the real killer. |
October 8, 1964 |
| Episode | Title | Air date |
|---|---|---|
| 1 |
The Case of the Laughing Lady Carla Chaney is caught seemingly red-handed at the scene of the murder of her ex-boyfriend. Perry agrees to take the case pro bono after three other attorneys drop out. Carla's only hope is an unseen woman she claims was also present at the scene. According to Carla, this woman had a sinister laugh. |
September 12, 1965 |
| 2 |
The Case of the Fatal Fortune A fortune teller gives a series of accurate predictions regarding a woman's future. But something goes wrong when she's charged with murdering her new husband. |
September 19, 1965 |
| 3 |
The Case of the Candy Queen Things aren't going too good for the self-styled candy queen, Claire Armstrong, these days. Boyfriend Mark Chester steals her candy formula in order to pay back his gambling debts and Harry Arnold is blackmailing her. Then there's cousin Wanda. She'd like nothing better than to see Claire convicted when Arnold is murdered so that she can takeover the business. |
September 26, 1965 |
Production
Release
| Original network/platform | HBO |
|---|---|
| First aired | June 21, 2020 |
| Last aired | April 24, 2023 |
| Runtime | 52 minutes |
| Status | canceled |
| Schedule | Monday at 21:00:00 |