Bring on More Damages
Originally aired on BBC, this TV show seems to have received little exposure despite its high profile casts. Watching Season One on DVD, it turns out to be a manipulative little gem that gets you hooked straightaway. In my case, the damage was a weekend of uninterrupted viewing.
I used to have problems following TV series, since I lacked the kind of commitment to sit in front of the telly at a fixed time once a week. The rise of recording facilities didn't change that, since it led to a large number of recorded episodes to which I never got around.
Then my wife enlightened me to the art of watching TV series in the times of DVD and iPlayer (without having a TV no less) which can happen at such times as whilst exercising, baby-sitting or whilst she was breast-feeding (although this is a bit frowned upon by the NSPCC).
This way she managed herself through hundreds of episodes of the West Wing, and us through the countless fatalities of The Wire - until we got a copy of Damages.
A New York based legal thriller set in the world of high-stakes litigation (that is suing a lot of money out of wealthy individuals or corporations for you and me), it stars Glenn Close as lawyer Patty Hewes, who seems to have long forgotten the word 'morale'. Her opponent is Ted Danson playing Arthur Frobisher, who used to run an Enron-style company and happened to sell all his shares days before the accounting irregularities became public. Now he is being sued for a substantial sum by his former employees who - unlike him - lost everything when the stock tanked.
The central character is a young lawyer who starts working for Patty and about whom we learn very early (through a non-linear narrative and flashbacks) that her fiancee has been killed and she is being arrested for his murder. Over the course of 13 episodes, the events surrounding the murder and the case become more and more intertwined and become closer in time. Whilst the series starts off six months before the murder it jumps back and forth until both the main story and the murder events are in sync.
While flashbacks are sometimes merely a gimmick - or even worse make you lose interest because the ending is given away (here there is no chance that her fiancee survives) - the structure works very well in this case. Opening with the bang helps getting the viewers hooked immediately (it seems that this is necessary to avoid early cancellation of the show in the US), and the numerous twists and turns over the course of the episodes keep up the suspense.
The two main actors are frighteningly good in their roles, battling each other and doing anything - and that is literally anything - to avoid defeat. Ted Danson is brilliant in his role as a psychopath who wants to be liked by the public but has no shame of sending away his best friend's grieving wife after he committed suicide because the hookers he ordered have arrived. A long way from Cheers indeed. Glenn Close, with a history of being a bunny boiler, is convincing as the lawyer who is treading a very fine line between good and evil, and keeping it unclear for a long time which side dominates.
The plot twists come thick and fast and sometimes might be a bit contrived. This is not necessarily intelligent entertainment providing profound insight into life. It is more like the TV equivalent of a Michael Crichton, John Grisham or Dan Brown book. You don't read it for its literary quality, but to follow the progression of the story, and enjoy being sucked into the page-turner.
And at that, Damages is a guilty pleasure worth a weekend of your time.
Then my wife enlightened me to the art of watching TV series in the times of DVD and iPlayer (without having a TV no less) which can happen at such times as whilst exercising, baby-sitting or whilst she was breast-feeding (although this is a bit frowned upon by the NSPCC).
This way she managed herself through hundreds of episodes of the West Wing, and us through the countless fatalities of The Wire - until we got a copy of Damages.
A New York based legal thriller set in the world of high-stakes litigation (that is suing a lot of money out of wealthy individuals or corporations for you and me), it stars Glenn Close as lawyer Patty Hewes, who seems to have long forgotten the word 'morale'. Her opponent is Ted Danson playing Arthur Frobisher, who used to run an Enron-style company and happened to sell all his shares days before the accounting irregularities became public. Now he is being sued for a substantial sum by his former employees who - unlike him - lost everything when the stock tanked.
The central character is a young lawyer who starts working for Patty and about whom we learn very early (through a non-linear narrative and flashbacks) that her fiancee has been killed and she is being arrested for his murder. Over the course of 13 episodes, the events surrounding the murder and the case become more and more intertwined and become closer in time. Whilst the series starts off six months before the murder it jumps back and forth until both the main story and the murder events are in sync.
While flashbacks are sometimes merely a gimmick - or even worse make you lose interest because the ending is given away (here there is no chance that her fiancee survives) - the structure works very well in this case. Opening with the bang helps getting the viewers hooked immediately (it seems that this is necessary to avoid early cancellation of the show in the US), and the numerous twists and turns over the course of the episodes keep up the suspense.
The two main actors are frighteningly good in their roles, battling each other and doing anything - and that is literally anything - to avoid defeat. Ted Danson is brilliant in his role as a psychopath who wants to be liked by the public but has no shame of sending away his best friend's grieving wife after he committed suicide because the hookers he ordered have arrived. A long way from Cheers indeed. Glenn Close, with a history of being a bunny boiler, is convincing as the lawyer who is treading a very fine line between good and evil, and keeping it unclear for a long time which side dominates.
The plot twists come thick and fast and sometimes might be a bit contrived. This is not necessarily intelligent entertainment providing profound insight into life. It is more like the TV equivalent of a Michael Crichton, John Grisham or Dan Brown book. You don't read it for its literary quality, but to follow the progression of the story, and enjoy being sucked into the page-turner.
And at that, Damages is a guilty pleasure worth a weekend of your time.
Here Is The Writer : Billy No Box
Billy No Box has worked in the city for six years, and currently works in Derivatives for a North American bank. He enjoys playing golf, reading books by Umberto Eco, singing "Copacabana" in the shower and at karaoke bars, and occasionally updating his blog about London and everything else.
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