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The Final Fade-Out
Sep. 8th, 2011 01:04 pmI find it ironic and melancholy, that the above is the title of the last Perry Mason episode. I wonder if that was done on purpose? The storyline involves a film set, but the title could easily be a reference to the show's end as well as the plot.
It was a very good ending episode. I liked it a lot better than the color episode overall. But one thing I was surprised by was Mr. Burger's reason for wanting to apologize. Hearkening back to the days of season 1, Mr. Burger had an especially severe outburst during one of the two hearings in the episode, believing Perry was up to his antics of skirting the law and this time, setting things up to make Mr. Burger look ridiculous. (Something Perry would never deliberately do, as he has a great deal of respect for Mr. Burger.) Such outbursts concerning Perry skirting the law happened a lot in season 1 and became tiresome (although at the same time I couldn't fault Mr. Burger that much, because the things he thought Perry did were usually things Perry did do to some extent). But after season 1, that level of outburst began to recede. (So did Perry's eyebrow-raising methods of protecting his clients.) Even when Burger became upset in later seasons, I'm not sure it ever went back to season 1 proportions, until that final episode.
The books' author, Erle Stanley Gardner, appeared in that episode, playing one of the two judges. I have to kind of wonder if he wanted the last episode/the episode he would be in to be more like the books and therefore requested Burger to grow that incensed once more. It was really quite a jolt after season 6.
But in any case, Burger's awkwardness and guilt at the end was adorable. That's one thing that I'm pretty sure the book version never had. That Mr. Burger would probably never dream of apologizing. I almost wonder if his outburst in the episode was more because he was humiliated at being led into a trap (which was set by the witness alone and not engineered by Perry in any way) and not that he really believed Perry had any involvement. Hence, that would explain why he calmed down without it being expressly said that he learned the truth. (I'm not sure if he did.)
Or maybe it was just the formulaic writing rearing its head again. Mr. Burger and Perry made excellent sparring partners without needing to throw in the extra element of Mr. Burger suspecting Perry of illegal activities (although he was often justified in the early episodes), but the writers always seemed to like to go back to that now and then (despite rarely letting it grow to season 1 levels). Maybe it's kind of like how the Sonic the Hedgehog writers like to keep making Knuckles gullible over and over so that it's really a headache. Knuckles is still my favorite character, and I just try to ignore the awful rehash writing because it doesn't make sense anymore. No one as smart as Knuckles could really be that gullible again and again. But they keep writing it, I assume because they think that makes the Sonic and Knuckles conflict better. It actually just makes Knuckles look stupid.
... And I got a silent giggle when Lieutenant Drumm exclaimed to Perry that Perry must have really turned Mr. Burger on. Of course, Drumm was referring to Mr. Burger's anger and not anything else, but I could imagine how slashers might take it.
In other Perry-related news, I had a very disastrous burst of insomnia yesterday due to my nervousness over a bunch of things that needed to be done later that day. When I finally fell asleep after all was accomplished I had some very interesting dreams, especially one where some creepy witness in court had it in for Mr. Burger and suddenly pulled a gun and tried to shoot him. He failed, but two or three bullets sailed around the courtroom, much to everyone's shock and horror.
It was a very good ending episode. I liked it a lot better than the color episode overall. But one thing I was surprised by was Mr. Burger's reason for wanting to apologize. Hearkening back to the days of season 1, Mr. Burger had an especially severe outburst during one of the two hearings in the episode, believing Perry was up to his antics of skirting the law and this time, setting things up to make Mr. Burger look ridiculous. (Something Perry would never deliberately do, as he has a great deal of respect for Mr. Burger.) Such outbursts concerning Perry skirting the law happened a lot in season 1 and became tiresome (although at the same time I couldn't fault Mr. Burger that much, because the things he thought Perry did were usually things Perry did do to some extent). But after season 1, that level of outburst began to recede. (So did Perry's eyebrow-raising methods of protecting his clients.) Even when Burger became upset in later seasons, I'm not sure it ever went back to season 1 proportions, until that final episode.
The books' author, Erle Stanley Gardner, appeared in that episode, playing one of the two judges. I have to kind of wonder if he wanted the last episode/the episode he would be in to be more like the books and therefore requested Burger to grow that incensed once more. It was really quite a jolt after season 6.
But in any case, Burger's awkwardness and guilt at the end was adorable. That's one thing that I'm pretty sure the book version never had. That Mr. Burger would probably never dream of apologizing. I almost wonder if his outburst in the episode was more because he was humiliated at being led into a trap (which was set by the witness alone and not engineered by Perry in any way) and not that he really believed Perry had any involvement. Hence, that would explain why he calmed down without it being expressly said that he learned the truth. (I'm not sure if he did.)
Or maybe it was just the formulaic writing rearing its head again. Mr. Burger and Perry made excellent sparring partners without needing to throw in the extra element of Mr. Burger suspecting Perry of illegal activities (although he was often justified in the early episodes), but the writers always seemed to like to go back to that now and then (despite rarely letting it grow to season 1 levels). Maybe it's kind of like how the Sonic the Hedgehog writers like to keep making Knuckles gullible over and over so that it's really a headache. Knuckles is still my favorite character, and I just try to ignore the awful rehash writing because it doesn't make sense anymore. No one as smart as Knuckles could really be that gullible again and again. But they keep writing it, I assume because they think that makes the Sonic and Knuckles conflict better. It actually just makes Knuckles look stupid.
... And I got a silent giggle when Lieutenant Drumm exclaimed to Perry that Perry must have really turned Mr. Burger on. Of course, Drumm was referring to Mr. Burger's anger and not anything else, but I could imagine how slashers might take it.
In other Perry-related news, I had a very disastrous burst of insomnia yesterday due to my nervousness over a bunch of things that needed to be done later that day. When I finally fell asleep after all was accomplished I had some very interesting dreams, especially one where some creepy witness in court had it in for Mr. Burger and suddenly pulled a gun and tried to shoot him. He failed, but two or three bullets sailed around the courtroom, much to everyone's shock and horror.
