Glenn Close But Yet So Far: Spooky Legal Thriller "Damages" (Rose Byrne Also Dwelleth Here)

Also: Ted Danson racing ATVs, lots of swearing, and Tate Donovan's character is a vegan?

CAN NOT WAIT (to see this on my DVR)

So how are you, Matt?

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/22/arts/television/22heff.html?ei=5070&en=29a11cc455c7ac03&ex=1185940800&adxnnl=1&emc=eta1&adxnnlx=1185394389-wIKX30bbu2HKJU/MBwL7hg

[let's take this offline dave but everything is really good right now]

Ha - I just wanted to keep the thread bubbling around the top of the page, but if you wanna backchannel, hot stuff, I is yrs. ^_^

check the OTHER forum

Not sold on Zelkjo Ivanec's southern accent, but that just makes "Damages" more fun.

i'm actually really xcited about this. glenn close can pretty much make anything watchable. she saved the experience of watching The STepford Wives.

there isnt a single likeable character in this show! and the soundtrack sucks.

Will watch again. Felt about half-a-notch better than CSI/Shark/whatever, but yeah I guess it's Glenn Close who's keeping me interested.

The opening sequence with the bloodied disoriented hot girl wandering the streets, then cut to girl in interrogation room = half a notch worse than CSI. But glad I stuck with it.

well, fuck me, I'm already counting the minutes til ep 2, TONIGHT AT 9. I watched ep 1 last night, again, in its entirety!

10pm, not 9. I just moved to the eastern time zone.

I'm watching this and enjoying it. I understand that it got v poor ratings in the US?

the way it plays with chronology is unusual for a TV series I think, despite being common in films.

Glenn Close's son = piece of inspired casting.

this is apparently Close's first TV series.

I'm watching this on DVD. Kinda wanna work for Glenn Close's character, despite, y'know... everything.

i liked this show.

I'm guessing / hoping S2 starts sometime in February (after The Shield / Sons of Anarchy do their thing)?

Hey, look @ this!!! "Glenn Close, Tate Donovan, Rose Byrne and Ted Danson are all on board for the second season. New cast members will include William Hurt, who will play a client of Patty's, and Timothy Olyphant, who becomes entangled in Ellen's life."

nice oen on the william hurt front.

(from Wiki, with citations!!!)

s1ocki, I'm thinking we'll both be pulling for Asshole Olyphant to show up, ya?

definitely!

cautiously optimistic!

ugh the commercial for season 2 sucks!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

also why doesnt this thread come up with i search damages

season 2 not nearly as good as s1 so far

scenes with rawls's right-hand man are skin-crawlingly bad... close is still stellar, as is the main chick, who is really really hot

Didn't even realize there was a Damages thread on ILX! This show demands a lot of patience - I still really enjoy it and it's building up as slowly as it has in the past. Let's face it though, was there any chance this season could be as good as the first? (largely because the gimmick/structure/surprise was pretty tightly done and can't really be replicated as a continuation)

What is up with the ridiculous grunge theme they pull whenever Timothy Olyphant has a revealing scene, though? It's the most unintentionally comical I've ever seen this show get.

its funny that the first season is so tight, b/c apparently the head writers didnt actually have any clue where they were headed when they started!

I've been loving this season. Not sure if it's as good as the first season yet, but I definitely don't think it's a bad season. I've also been trying to turn all my friends onto this show - praying it picks up an audience since the actors are apparently all signed up for six seasons, assuming the show survives that long.

I converted so many people to this show.

It's really such a smart show, and in very subtle ways. It doesn't wear its brilliance ostensibly.

Man, super brief twist that the FBI agents might've been completely fake was awesome... second twist that the investigation actually IS a corrupt conspiracy action - still pretty good nonetheless.

I just love how Patty Hewes continues to be this huge, complex character, how she uses this authentic mantle of justice to fuel all the terrible or great things she does.

the backlash on this show is going to start before it gets remotely popular, isn't it?

great season, anyway

Who is backlashing?

nobody - i'm just making a dumb joke about how this show will not be watched by anyone, let alone get enough notice to get a backlash like every other good show on this board

LOVED the first season--thought this one wasnt nearly as good

Finally saw the season finale. I thought the whole thing was brutal and brilliant. Really the best drama on television IMHO.

Agree this season wasn't quite as engrossing as the first, but they had set the bar awfully high. It still far exceeded almost everything else on TV this year, and I thought all the new cast additions were great. Was a really satisfying finale; didn't see any of those surprises coming.

It's quite a difficult show to jump into (unless you've been watching from the start), I wonder if that (plus being on FX?) are the main reasons behind the poor ratings?

Probably it being fairly narratively challenging (esp for a television show) has something to do with it too.

I think this show really has this amazing grasp of character drama that others don't. In particular, most shows will dangle the plot to get the audience invested, but Damages seems to have character's motivations and interrelationships constantly in question by everyone in virtually every episode. Even the audience is never totally in on it until the very end, yet with both seasons I never felt cheated - the plot developments and character choices felt totally logical, as complex as they were.

Also, rage. The rage moments are just fantastic.

Still loved this season and the finale, even if it wasn't as good as the first one (but what is?). Pretty much an impossible show to join in on without starting at the beginning. Surprising that FX started and stuck with this show - I'm glad, but it sure doesn't fit with the more crassly sensationalist tone of their shows like Nip/Tuck. (Though I do like Sons of Anarchy and It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, they both fall into this mold.) At least we're guaranteed one more season!

I think this is one of the few shows on television that balances being character-driven while still maintaining a structure that includes serial (rather than episodic) plot twists and revelations. It might be my favorite show on television.

Also, rage. The rage moments are just fantastic.

just got to close smashing glass and screaming at husband to get out. she kicks ass.

s2 is definitely not as gripping or interesting as s1 but i guess that was inevitable considering how emotionally wrought the first season was.

Anyway,

http://23.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_kukwb8OW9x1qzi154o1_r1_500.png

Is everyone else as excited as I am?

Jan 25, motherfuckers.

Also, some cast additions:

Lily Tomlin (Marilyn Tobin)
Martin Short (Leonard Winstone)
Keith Carradine (Julian Decker)
Reiko Aylesworth (Rachel Tobin))
Sarah Wynter (Danielle Marchetti)

Fuck yeah, I'm excited.

Just finished watching last two episodes of S2 last night, really looking forward to 3! All through watching these, I wasn't paying attention to credits (lol bittorrent) and kept thinking, "Is that creepy guy Darrell Hammond from SNL? No, it can't be. But it is, right? No. Yes!"

Sitting there w/Ellen all that time after getting gut-stabbed = HARDCORE.

Ehh, s1 was awesome but s2 pretty much sucked. Won't be rejoining it, I don't think.

I love the conceit behind this show but fell behind on season 2.

S2 was amazing

anyway, it's ON TONIGHT

i haven't even started the new season btw - look forward to talking about it in a year

I am caught in the hammy overexplainy third season, i'm afraid. still enjoying, but not as much as i did before (obvs, who could?). i have enjoyed keith carradine, though.

did you like season 2???? people have the most inexplicable contempt for that season but i say: it rules.

yeah, i totally liked season 2 -- i liked the change in ellen, LOVED mystical ted danson and his fucking hilarious healer, love love love michael

mystical frobisher transformation is really one of my favorite tv moments of recent memory

http://static.whatsontv.co.uk/images/09326_160522_Ep8FrobisherPeaceGardened.jpg

Looking at some synopses of S2, I realize there was actually a lot of good stuff in it. I just remember thinking that the main plot got a bit convoluted, and I kind of didn't care about all the corporate hijinks or anything to do with Marcia Gay Harden.

i love how she ritually smokes 1 cig by herself every night
also like her weird relationship with her employer (who i can't stop seeing as the higher up law enforcement dude from the wire btw)

only subplot i didn't much care for was wes + ellen + guns
that was kinda dumb

i hope patty gets to s keith carradine and that he is not a creep -- i've only gotten as far as the part where he comes over to her apt to examine it for possible remodeling

oh and holy shit, campbell scott is so good. so conflicted and messed up, that guy. he is great.
not a fan of martin short.

i've clearly been saving up a lot of thoughts about this show.

(who i can't stop seeing as the higher up law enforcement dude from the wire btw)

Oh yeah I almost mentioned "Major Rawls" in that post.

only subplot i didn't much care for was wes + ellen + guns

Ha remember the episode that ended with Wes opening up the gun cabinet and looking all malevolent to a speed-metal soundtrack?

it took me a while to even care enough to figure out who that guy was and what his role was in the whole thing
is he a nut? is he a cop? is he an assassin? who cares.

she live in my hood

not a fan of martin short.

I don't know where you are in S3, but I think his character is actually really interesting and complex and was kind of surprised at how well Short inhabited the role. Better than Darrell Hammond in S2, whose presence always seemed ridiculous to me.

Oh TOTALLY. I feel bad saying this but he seemed to be doing an exaggerated Al Gore, Hired Assassin. I forgot about that.

CAMPBELL SCOTT, right??? I love him.

campbell scott was the fucking shit in S3
i loved Martin Short too

ooh thanks for reminding me that this is back. Just watched both of the first 2 eps, it's looking pretty good although I can't believe the flashforward bits especially after all the fakeouts they've done. Plus that Hoggle guy seems to only be there so Patty can explain things to him/us.

Wow, what happened to this show? Not really interested in discussing which pre-Direct TV era seasons are the best but this new season is so weird. I'd like to chalk it up to "they're just lower budget now" but there's no mystery to it anymore and it seems to have lost that eeriness that made it so appealing.

Last night's episode was like some bad 90s movie with like, hacker keyboard battles and shit. What is this. So sad, this was really one of my favorite shows.

Anyone still watching? I have no idea what this show is doing. I do <3 John Hannah though.

i got overwhelmed with other things to watch and i stopped watching like halfway through season 3
i figure pattyhewes will still be there whenever i'm ready to come back

huh.

she killed her? i think?

i had a thought today that michael's character reminded me of a blonde jackson browne
not sure where that came from but there you have it

totally forgot to watch the rest of this show. i think i'm partway through season 3? 4? i can't even remember.

she killed her? i think?

um what? I just watched the series finale. It was kind of a weird season but I liked it. AV Club has a good recap.

man i had no idea rose byrne is australian

My wife talked me into reading "Gone Girl," which I did not like, mostly because it reminded me of the first season of "Damages" (which I also didn't really like) condensed into a novel, totally ridiculous but with no likable characters at all.

ok so in the first season there's this blond chick who chats up the molina dude in a bar and then later runs up on him with a gun in her hand (concealed). the hewes bodyguard guy shoots her in the boob and she dies (molina dude just runs away). there is never any mention of this ever again.

also after rose byrne is alluvasudden cleared of all douchey fiancé murder related charges why do the police stop investigating? they're like, ok, you didn't do it, case closed.

The stalker chick in the first season was a red herring suspect for the murder of Malina. That was her only purpose -- viewer misdirection.

I believe they stated that the Malina murder was a cold case somewhere in season 2.

"I definitely have breast wound". The issue is casually dismissed and never revisited during the rest of the series.

I can't remember much about season 1 but it's never really clear whether the police are still investigating or why they do half the things they do in later serieses.

also after rose byrne is alluvasudden cleared of all douchey fiancé murder related charges why do the police stop investigating? they're like, ok, you didn't do it, case closed.

I didn't watch season 2 very closely but I thought a huge driver for Rose Byrne working as a mole within the firm was to help get more evidence to link Patty to the murder of her fiance

she's trying to screw patty for arranging her own [rose byrne's] attempted murder, i think she knows-for-sure that ted danson had her fiancé killed.

season 1 was entertaining nonsense, season 2 a little too silly--is it worth continuing?

yes

yeah it's pretty ok

just started this show on netflix, very enjoyable. Also fun to watch an over-the-top portrayal of a profession nowhere near as sexy and full of intrigue as the show makes it seem.

finished first season. second season doesn't start out so strong, but will give it a chance.

I believe we made it through the second season before we could no longer suppress our "OMG, this is so stupid" instinct.

This is one of those shows where iirc every single scene started out with a character pouring a big glass of brown liquor, which perhaps explains why everyone is so crazypants.

The show takes a lot of liberties of course with the legal world, some of which I have no problem with but some of which bother me. For example there's a scene where Patty Hewes just flat out rejects a $500 million settlement offer over the phone without taking it to her clients. Would be an extremely fucked up thing to do IRL. Also bothered me that Ellen is able to get back into her apartment when it's a murder scene -- no police tape or anything. I have no problem suspending disbelief for a show like this -- it's obviously not supposed to be a realistic legal procedural or anything. And they actually manage to get certain details surprisingly well. But there are elements that go too far. It's one of those shows where you can really feel that different writers are writing different parts or episodes.

Like at its best in S1, there would be whole episodes where almost every line spoken had a hidden meaning, where you always knew that every character wasn't saying everything they thought, etc., and that made the whole thing really fun to watch. In the first episode of S2 there are a lot of scenes that don't do much, at least not that I can tell so far. And the taxi driver sequence is corny as fuck.

Argh, S2 so frustrating but still good enough to keep watching. Glad they brought back Danson, he is so great in this.

Wish they'd given my boy Tim-O some decent shit to do

S3 is better, and very addictive, but at the same time it's so frustrated how written-on-the-fly the show feels sometimes, like plot twists that make NO SENSE just for the sake of a plot twist, e.g.

(SPOILER)
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Tobin's daughter is really his son's daughter, but Tobin's wife kept it from his son all these years because he was "messed up back then" or something. WTF, what wife would pretend that her husband had a daughter through an affair in order to prevent her son from thinking HE had had a daughter?

Finally finished the series after all these years. Even seasons (2/4) kinda sucked, Star Trek movie-style, the odd seasons were all good (1/3/5). Overall worth it though, season 5 especially came around in the second half with all the callbacks and wrap-ups from earlier seasons, especially to the first and best season. Even when this show slogged, I still admired their commitment to their various themes (PTSD, evil parentings, wonderful rainbows of moral shade) and they generally pulled it off really well even when the plots and flash-foward fakeouts would get too ridiculous.

Last night's episode was like some bad 90s movie with like, hacker keyboard battles and shit. What is this. So sad, this was really one of my favorite shows.

xp lol I loved all that absurd Tobin crap

Loved season one, liked the parts of season 2 that weren't dependent on the alleged sexual magnetism of William Hurt, liked season 3 until the big "here's what happened" finale (forget why but felt more contrived than necessary), gonna start 4 eventually

didn't realize there was a fifth season. guess i've got more summer watching now.

loved the first 2 seasons, still wanna see the other 3, need to see if they're on netflix or amazon prime or if i need to get the dvds or something.

they're all streaming on Netflix right now