I'm a big fan of the Perry Mason books: tightly written, idiosyncratic, tense, full of twists and, in most cases, genuine whodunnits. And one positive from this series is that a number of them are now back in print.
However, the style and characters from this series are nothing like those from the book, and if you go into the series hoping for that you'll be disappointed.
However, if this series has been called something else and stood on its own right, I'd be saying its a very well acted, well staged, story exploring the tawdry underside of the Los Angeles of the 30s. John Lithgow is excellent (as usual) and Juliet Rylance gives Della Street more depth than the original novels.
There's nothing particularly wrong with it, I just can't get excited about it either. I found most of the characters quite bland and lacked charisma, I liked Chris Chalk playing the policeman Paul Drake, but I couldn't warm to Perry Mason himself sadly.
I was very disappointed with this series as I am a great admirer of Matthew Rhys. But I found the film too dark and gloomy to see what the actors were doing half the time and also I couldn't hear what they were saying much of the time. Found it very difficult to follow although I did get the rough gist!!
But I wouldn't want to watch any more of the series!!