Perry Mason The Third Season Volume 2 Review

• Release Date: December 2nd, 2008
• Publisher: Paramount
• Price: $34.99 on Amazon (Buy It)
• Rating: Not Rated
• Runtime: 728 Minutes
• Special Features: None
• Starring: Raymond Burr, Barbara Hale, William Hopper, William Talman, Ray Collins
• Genre: Crime Drama

Perry Mason is back for the second half of the third season. When Perry Mason is put on the case he always finds the guilty party. Perry Mason always gets his man with his wit in the courtroom and always being able to get a last minute confession. Along with secretary Della Street, private eye Paul Drake DA Hamilton Burger, and LT. Arthur Tragg; Perry Mason is ready to bring more criminals to justice.

Most of you probably already know this but Perry Mason is far from a recent show. It actually began in 1957 (before most of you and I were born). This set aired in 1960 but that is still almost 50 years ago. Since the show is so old it is obviously in black and white. This will be a problem for a decent amount of people (including myself). If you don’t like black and white TV or movies you will probably not like Perry Mason.

As far as the plot is concerned, Perry Mason is an “old school” crime drama. Obviously it is a little different but the general idea of the show is the same as today’s crime dramas. There is a bad guy and the bad guy is always caught by the end of the episode. The stories while dated are still relevant. Murder cases pretty much always stay relevant since people killed people in the 1960’s for the same reasons that they do today. What is different from current crime dramas though is that there is more emphasis on detective work since there obviously weren’t the gadgets that we currently have to find criminals. Criminals also seemed to always admit to crimes in those days when their plot was discovered.

I personally didn’t enjoy Perry Mason that much. I actually thought that it was pretty boring. I have never really been a big fan of black and white TV though. Most black and white shows don’t really hold my interest since things are so much different today than they were when the shows originally aired on television. I am also not a big crime drama fan so that is two things working against this DVD set.

As with most of Paramount’s releases of older shows there are no special features on this DVD set. I don’t really blame them for this fact though since it would be hard to make some special features off a show that is over 50 years old. Older shows like this are just lucky to get a DVD set in the first place.

If you are worrying that you haven’t seen the first two and a half seasons of Perry Mason, you don’t need to worry. Like most crime dramas, it is not necessary to watch the episodes in order. I hadn’t seen the first two seasons and I was able to quickly tell what was going on and I don’t think missing the previous two seasons affected my thoughts on the show.

Overall your enjoyment of Perry Mason will depend on two factors. First you need to at least be able to stand black and white television. If you can’t enjoy black and white TV you obviously won’t enjoy Perry Mason since it is a black and white show. Second you need to like crime dramas. If you like shows like Law and Order you probably will like Perry Mason. There are obviously some differences due to the time periods that they were produced in but the basic concept behind both shows are very similar. If you enjoy black and white TV, and crime dramas I would recommend that you pick up Perry Mason. If you don’t I would recommend that you pass.