Just to be clear: The one to watch is the first one, the original CBS hour-long series in black and white. Forget about any and all others. That first series offers a fine translation of a traditional hard-boiled detective novel, as well done as any television has produced.
A half-century after its original airings, it continues to have loads of fans. One station in Portland, Oregon, has been airing it reliably at noon for decades.
One reason it still works so well is its pacing. Most TV from the 50s and 60s mosey along at what feels in more recent years at a leisurely speed, but these old Perry Masons move fast, introduce lots of characters quickly and get them in motion efficiently, and tell a whole lot of story in the time allotted. They may have been mass-market entertainments, but they aren't dumbed-down. You have to pay attention to keep track. And the plots twists often are as good as anything Law and Order came up with.
I don't mean to oversell. The characters aren't richly drawn, and the acting tends toward the basic and blunt (though the casting of the regulars, from the confident Raymond Burr as Mason to the great Ray Collins as Lieutenant Tragg, with his wonderful touch-of-sleaze grin, has that just-right feel). The dialogue is basic, often expository. The atmosphere, at least until near the end, is solid LA noir, full of menace.
It operates on a single basic level. But it works that level pretty well.
Especially in the earlier episodes. CBS online has placed early episodes in the series up for screening, and some of the very first, written and shot before the formula had become locked-in, show a different kind of story: Mason as a more active investigator, in harm's way and often acting a lot like a hard-boiled PI of the era.
The Masons are puzzle-piece mysteries, but still pretty good ones. That is to say, the early Masons: Accept no substitutes, whether the later TV movies with Raymond Burr or the various other attempts without him. They feel padded and logy by comparison. The original series was slick, fast, concise and smart. Good noir.
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