Damages Concludes Season 2 with Great Acting and Surprises

Tip-top Season 2 finale for Damages on FX last night, with some excellent surprises.

We've been treated for the whole season to scenes of Ellen shooting Patty. At first, we didn't know it was Patty. But then we saw Patty was indeed the person Ellen was talking to, and, worse, waving a gun at. In the past few episodes, we've seen Patty staggering out of the apartment, bleeding ... and the FBI guy phoning in that Ellen had shot Patty.

But could Ellen really have killed Patty like this? She had motive - she was sure that Patty had tried to kill her last year. But would she shoot Patty, unprovoked, at point blank range?

Turns out, in a well-plotted and motivated twist, that Ellen didn't shoot Patty at all - she fired over her head. So why was Patty bleeding? She had been stabbed in the elevator on the way to see Patty, which also explains why she had looked so shaken during her ensuing conversation with Ellen.

Also surprising but well motivated and very satisfying was the way Wes (well played by Timothy Olyphant) not only walked away from killing Ellen, but became her defender, and even saved Patty's life (after the FBI guy left to bleed to death in the elevator on the way down, after Ellen had left).

So Damages can chalk up a second powerful season. With especially superb acting this year by William Hurt and John Doman - who was great as the Acting Commish on The Wire - speaking of which, it was good to see Clarke Peters (the incomparable Freamon on The Wire) play a political, ruthless bad guy this time on Damages.

Other special shoutouts - SNL's Darrell Hammond as the demented killing machine the Deacon - I hope he comes back next year. Ted Danson was great again as Frobisher, and Michael Nouri as Patty's husband (now thrown out, like just about everyone else in Patty's life). Rose Byrne was attractive as Ellen, but the character felt a little more limited in range than in the first season. (It may well that she won't be back in the 3rd season).

Glenn Close was incomparable this season, as she was last, and I'm looking forward to more of this in Season 3.



See also: Lying about Damages ... 2.2: A Good World of Hurt ... Damages 1-10

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The Plot to Save Socrates



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"a Da Vinci-esque thriller" - New York Daily News

"Sierra Waters is sexy as hell" - curled up with a good book

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Lying about Damages

Damages came back last night to FX, and so far it's just about as powerful, brooding and complex as the first season, which is to say, top notch television.

The essence of Damages is that you never know, completely, who is telling the truth, and that pertains, especially, to Patty Hewes, and her seconds in command, and in and out favorites, Ellen and Tom. It seemed at the end of last season that Patty put out a hit on Ellen, to remove a possible witness to Patty's wheelings and dealings, and Tom was sort of Ellen's friend.

Ellen's belief that Patty tried to have her killed motivates Ellen this season - in particular, her working with the FBI to bring Patty down. We did see loyal, old Uncle Pete tell Patty on the phone last season that "it's done," and given the circumstances, and what we know of Patty's ruthlessness, this statement certainly seemed like a strong indication, if not proof, that Patty had instructed Pete to get rid of Ellen.

But I can't help wondering - what if not? In the premiere episode of this season, Ellen goes to see Patty, but we see only part of the conversation. Ellen tells the FBI afterward that all Patty told Ellen was more of Patty's "bullshit" ... but do we know all of what Patty really told Ellen? Is it possible Ellen is now working with Patty?

As in the first season, there are teasers to the future - in the case of last night's episode, to someone Ellen is talking to, and eventually shoots. We're supposed to think this is Patty ... But let's say it's someone else?

I'm thinking Tom might be a possibility ... he's as much a part of the lying web of Damages as anyone else.

Meanwhile, Ted Danson is back as Frobisher (he wasn't killed, and Ellen's out to get him), and William Hurt is on the show as a complex new client, and together with Glenn Close as Patty, Rose Byrne as Ellen, and Tate Donovan as Tom we've got one smack in the mouth show. Though I'll miss Zeljko Ivanek's Ray - well, at least he's on True Blood now...




3-min podcast review of Damages 2.1

See also Damages 1-10

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The Plot to Save Socrates

"challenging fun" - Entertainment Weekly

"a Da Vinci-esque thriller" - New York Daily News

"Sierra Waters is sexy as hell" - curled up with a good book

more about The Plot to Save Socrates...





Read the first chapter of The Plot to Save Socrates .... FREE!

Damages 1-10

I have but three episodes left to watch of the first season of Damages - nominated for an Emmy* - and while I'm waiting for the last disk for Netflix, I thought I'd say a few words about what I've seen...

Grim, powerful punches to the solar plexus. Glenn Close in the lead role of Patty Hewes is an actress as a lawyer to be reckoned with (and thoroughly deserving of her Emmy nomination). At this point, about all I'm not willing to put past her is murder. Ted Danson as the CEO Arthur Frobisher of the Enron-like company Patty is suing is the least funny - and best - of his career (though his hilarious spots on Curb Your Enthusiasm are a close second). Zeljko Ivanek has been superb on everything from Homicide to 24 in the past, but never better than Frobisher's brilliant, tough, but almost endearingly vulnerable lead attorney - and a good match for Patty. Tate Donovan as Patty's second-in-command is outstanding, too.

But Rose Byrne as Ellen Parsons - hey, she was in Attack of the Clones - as the new addition to Patty's office is the gem of gems on this show, and the centerpiece of the story...

Which is ... she finds her former fiance murdered, after having been almost murdered herself, and the police (of course) suspect her. The story is told via a series of harrowing slivers of the present, with much longer flashbacks to months ago, which close in on the present as the series progresses.

Damages is really much more than a lawyer show. It's more of a blend of The Fugitive and Lost. I'll be back with more after I see the ending, and with reviews of the Season Two on weekly basis when it's aired in early 2009 on the FX Network.

*Damages and Mad Men are the first basic cable series to get Emmy nominations. Details in the video that follows. My generally rave reviews of the first two seasons of Mad Men start here.



See also Season 2 reviews: Lying with Damages

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The Plot to Save Socrates

"challenging fun" - Entertainment Weekly

"a Da Vinci-esque thriller" - New York Daily News

"Sierra Waters is sexy as hell" - curled up with a good book

more about The Plot to Save Socrates...





Read the first chapter of The Plot to Save Socrates .... FREE!