Michael Begler is showrunner, writer, and executive producer of Perry Mason, which debuted as HBO’s most-watched series in nearly two years upon its premiere in June 2020. The critically-acclaimed show stars Emmy-winner Matthew Rhys, Juliet Rylance, Katherine Waterston, Hope Davis. In the second season of the Emmy-nominated series, the scion of a powerful oil family is brutally murdered. Power, social justice, immigration, LGBTQ rights, and what it truly means to be guilty, are among the issues raised by the series.
Begler’s previous series include the Peabody Award-winning The Knick, starring Clive Owen, directed by Steven Soderbergh, writing/producing credits also include comedy series The Tony Danza Show, The Jeff Foxworthy Show and the film Big Miracle starring Drew Barrymore and John Krasinski.
“Creators Ron Fitzgerald and Rolin Jones and Team Downey, this was a sort of a thing that they came up with, but I think what we wanted to explore in season two was really to dig more into this idea of what is it to be a woman with ambition in this era, 3% of attorneys were women in the entire nation in 1933. So that alone is an uphill battle. And then when you add the complication of being queer in this time, and that there are laws against it that you have to make sure every step you take is so calculated and so careful that you don't slip up. It's all based on fear and threat and what happens if something you've established all of a sudden, a woman can come in and do it.

When we look at the current political climate, and we look at the way they're trying to erase history, to whitewash history, I think is such a dangerous precedent because we can only learn from our past. We can learn from our mistakes. We can learn from what happened. If we don't tell the truth, where does that leave us? If we can cherry-pick what's important to know and not know, and by an elite view, well, how different are those elite views from the elite view of a hundred years ago? We have to learn from our past. It's the only way to have a future. And I think that to me is essential.”

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