Blackmail: The Overused Trope

I've become a fan of Perry Mason, the television series from 1957-1966. 

I am less fond of the movies, 1985-1993+, though I will watch them. 

The reason is not the acting. Behemoth Raymond Burr still occupies the scene, exuding charisma (it's hard not to see Dick Van Dyke and Andy Griffith as both trying to compete with Burr in their respective detective shows--not Angela Lansbury: Jessica Fletcher isn't Mason; she's Della Street in full competency). 

Barbara Hale as Della Street--though ironically more subordinate in 1990 than she was in 1957--still conveys competence, grace, and commonsense. 

And William Katt as Drake's son is, in the initial movies, quite amusing. He is Barbara Hale's son and I appreciated the nod to family.  

The problems with the movies (which I still watch) are three-fold:

1. The opening title sequence is the most boring I've seen on any television show. 

It's hard to understand why. The drawing that accompanies the movie set is quite iconic. Even if the producers were afraid that Burr would drop dead at any moment, a sequence with some art (rather than scenes of a courtroom) would have been better than what we're given. 

2. I prefer 50 minutes to movie-length episode. 

My preference here is true across the board. I don't much care for the Diagnosis Murder and Murder She Wrote movies either. 

3. WAY too many of the movie plots rely on blackmail. 

It's...a college campus in which the bad guy (who gets killed) blackmailed a bunch of people...or a movie studio in which the bad guy (who gets killed) blackmailed a bunch of people...or a theater group in which the bad guy (who gets killed) blackmailed a bunch of people...or a newspaper in which the bad guy (who gets killed) blackmailed a bunch of people. 

I understand the attraction: the plot device allows for one bad guy that nobody really misses and a TON of suspects whose motives will all be uncovered by Mason and his group. But it's a trifle boring after awhile. 

It isn't that blackmail plots are boring automatically. Elementary has a fantastic episode that uses blackmail as does the BBC Sherlock (both based on the same short story). And Perry Mason did those plots okay. 

But ultimately, it does begin to pale--rather like Hitchcock's escape movies. 

One beings to wish for a wealthy oligarch and a bunch of heirs. Because people do commit murder for reasons other than "I kept having to pay the bad guy money for something dumb I did once" or even "I kept having to pay the bad guy money for something not my fault."  

What about that wealthy oligarch? Or missing child heir? Or infidelity (a standard in original Perry Mason)? Or a new invention?

I will grant that some of original Perry Mason's got a little samey. And there are a limited amount of mystery plots out there. But blackmail...really...again? Don't writers of shows ever watch the previous episode? Even if it was a year earlier? Nothing knew comes to mind?