You might wonder who Perry Mason, HBO’s new prequel/reboot to the long running 50s and 60s lawyer show, is for. A gritty reimagining of a quintessential procedural, unrecognizable to old fans and unknown to new.
Well dear reader, it’s for me. More Sam Spade or Philip Marlowe, the show broods like nobody’s business in the dark alleys of 1930s LA. And Matthew Rhys unsurprisingly kills it in the lead role. The man knows how to play a sadsack.
In fact, I’d argue Mason’s underdog status is the show’s foundation. So let’s talk about it.
The Underdog
We meet Mason broke, divorced, spying on movie stars’ sex lives for studio money and driving around in a literal beat-up milk truck. Over the course of this first hour, he will be mocked, denied, insulted, and tortured. He will suffer in the pursuit of a quixotic quest to honor his parent’s memory. He will pick fights and have his faith in humanity shaken. He will misjudge, frequently.
Oh, and he gets fucked off the bed and into the gap between it and the wall.
In short, our boy Perry is a mess. But he’s a mess with some kind of moral framework, trying to do what he sees as the right thing even if the rest of society doesn’t agree. He comes from a long line of sad sacks and fuck ups, people who mean well but can’t get out of their own way.
And that’s what gets us on their side.
We all know what it’s like to come up against an uncaring system. To want to do what’s right but having to weigh the cost of our actions. To wish that we were strong enough to follow through, or actually living up to our beliefs and then wondering if we’ve made the right choice.
By tapping into this archetype, the writers have given the audience an easy in for accessing Mason. He is the underdog, and we love rooting for the underdog. The deck’s stacked but we still hope he’ll figure out a way through to victory. (Though since this is proudly a classic noir throw-back, I wouldn’t get my hopes up).
Most importantly, despite being an underdog he’s still good at his job. We get a few key instances of him seeing what no one else can in this case – the trolley driver, the window – that promise he will do what no one else can. Perry Mason is special, which means he’s worth watching.
When writing your main character, take the time to think about the “in” you’ve crafted for the audience. They don’t need to be a sad sack. But for most protagonists you want the audience rooting for them. Give them a reason to.