Perry Mason Season 2 Trailer: Matthew Rhys' Angsty, Brooding Lawyer Is Back For Another Angsty, Brooding Case

When you watch enough movies and shows, you start to pick up on certain little recurring trends. Chief among them has to be the instinct to create new adaptations of classic, pulpy characters ... but with a dark, brooding, and adult-only sheen layered on top. After all, how else would you know to put the "prestige" in prestige television?

Well, as eye-rolling and clichéd as this tendency may be, I'm here to admit that I'm a complete and total hypocrite, because I happily ate that up and asked for more when HBO gave the same exact treatment to the classic character of Perry Mason. Initially a 1957 legal drama on CBS, with the eponymous private investigator played by Raymond Burr and based on the books and short stories written by author Erle Stanley Gardner, creators Rolin Jones and Ron Fitzgerald saw fit to make a new "Perry Mason" adaptation — this time, as a much moodier, grittier, and shockingly violent affair. The first season of the HBO series received generally positive reviews thanks to lead actor Matthew Rhys' incredible performance as the tortured detective-turned-lawyer, a shocking and seemingly impossible-to-solve murder mystery, and plenty of throwback noir stylistic choices that brought all the cigarette-choked atmosphere that fans of the genre could ever ask for.

Now, after an unbearably long wait in the time since the next stage of the story was officially greenlit, fans now have their first look at season 2 of the thrilling drama series. Check out the brand-new trailer below!

Now that's the stuff, alright. As much as recent murder-mystery movies like "Glass Onion" and "See How They Run" have added a welcome dose of fun into the genre, nothing quite beats an old-fashioned yarn trading in pulpy, noir-tinged storytelling. Season 2 of "Perry Mason" certainly looks like all the best elements of season 1 were carried over without a problem, which is an impressive feat given that the original creators and showrunners were replaced by writers Jack Amiel and Michael Begler this time around. They don't seem to have missed a beat, as season 2 appears to pose the toughest and most grueling challenge yet for Perry and his legal associates, the delightfully-named Della Street (Juliet Rylance) and Paul Drake (Chris Chalk). The plot for this upcoming season is officially described as:

Months after the Dodson case has come to an end, the scion of a powerful oil family is brutally murdered. When the DA goes to the city's Hoovervilles to pinpoint the most obvious of suspects, Perry, Della, and Paul find themselves at the center of a case that will uncover far reaching conspiracies and force them to reckon with what it truly means to be guilty.

In addition to Rhys, Rylance, and Chalk, season 2 of "Perry Mason" will be headlined by newcomers Katherine Watserston and Sean Astin. They'll be joined by Diarra Kilpatrick, Eric Lange, Justin Kirk, Katherine Waterston, Hope Davis, Fabrizio Guido, Peter Mendoza, Mark O'Brien, Paul Raci, Jen Tullock, Jon Chaffin, Onahoua Rodriguez, Jee Young Han, Tommy Dewey, Shea Whigham, and Wallace Langham.

"Perry Mason" will debut Monday, March 6, 2023 on HBO Max.