“Perry Mason” has been picked up for a second season by HBO.
News of the renewal was announced by Francesca Orsi, executive vice president of HBO Programming, and comes only five episodes into the series’ debut season.
“Perry Mason” centers around the titular low-rent private investigator (played by Matthew Rhys) who is living check-to-check and is haunted by his wartime experiences in France and suffering the effects of a broken marriage.
The show also stars John Lithgow as Elias Birchard “E.B.” Jonathan, a struggling attorney and a semi-regular employer of Mason, Juliet Rylance as Della Street, E.B. Jonathan’s creative and driven legal secretary, Tatiana Maslany as Sister Alice McKeegan, the leader of the Radiant Assembly of God, and Shea Whigham as Pete Strickland, who is hired by Mason as an extra set of eyes on his various investigations.
“It has been an exciting journey to work with the immensely talented team behind ‘Perry Mason,’” said Orsi. “Viewers have relished being transported back in time to 1930’s Los Angeles each week, and we are thrilled to welcome the show back for a second season.”
The series debuted to strong ratings numbers a month ago, drawing 1.7 million viewers for its premiere across all platforms. To give some larger HBO perspective, that matches the season 3 premiere of “Westworld” and beats the season debuts of “Watchmen” (which drew 1.5 million viewers) and “The Outsider” (which delivered 1.2 million viewers).
“Perry Mason” hails from Robert Downey Jr. and Susan Downey’s Team Downey shingle. The husband and wife duo executive producer the series alongside Team Downey’s Amanda Burrell, Ron Fitzgerald, Joe Horacek, Rolin Jones, and Timothy Van Patten, who also directs. Rhys, who discussed with Variety how Mason “lives and dies by his mantra,” is a producer on the series which was created by Rolin Jones & Ron Fitzgerald, and is based on the characters created by Erle Stanley Gardner. Aida Rodgers is a co-exec producer.