Damages

Suspense from the first minute of the pilot to the last minute of episode 13. Don't trust anybody and nothing is what it seems. Very tricky story about law, murder and money and an excellent casting. It's not like other TV shows, one story per episode, its more like a mini series in thirteen parts, don't miss a single one.

Excellent acting by Glenn Close, Rose Byrne and Tate Donovan. I wonder if there will be a season 2 because I don't know how they can keep up with this one. But still there are some questions to be answered.

So if you missed Damages watch out for the rerun, it's worth every minute. And I'd like to mention that when I'm watching TV I don't try to find holes in the plot or to look out for goofs so it could be that I've got carried away a little bit.

In approaching this, the first thing you have to come to terms with is there are NO good guys, none, zero, zip, nada. This is a legal fantasy show set in a moral universe far closer to Tony Soprano's than Perry Mason's. Hewes and Associates isn't a real law firm: it's a professional practitioner of extortion and blackmail. Patty Hewes never goes to court because she'll do absolutely anything to destroy her opponents long before they can get her into one. We're supposed to give her a pass because she's taking on big-time corporate criminals and other easy-to-hate plutocrats. And we do...but there's this lingering bad taste you can't quite shake off and that's the real genius of the thing.

Damages may be the most morally bankrupt show on TV; it's also incredibly well-acted and despite a non-linear storytelling approach that I generally find tiring, superbly written and directed. Just don't go looking for any role models in this pit of vipers.

Glenn Close is superb as the fierce attorney Patty Hewes, a woman who takes on the big boys for big bucks. Over the five years of this series she takes on corrupt billionaires, the US Army, corporate America, computer hackers, Wall Street, and anyone who gets in the way of her ambitions.

Into this maelstrom comes a brilliant but naive young lawyer named Ellen Parsons (Rose Byrne). She's hired to help take on a nutty billionaire (Ted Danson) who has stolen his employees' retirement fund. She soon learns that in Patty's world there is no line between private and business lives, and she's soon sucked in. But it's a dangerous world full of treachery and murder and revenge.

Tate Donovan co-starred in the first three seasons as Tom Shayes, Patty's right-hand man and law partner. He's excellent. Others who play important roles over the course of this series include William Hurt, Judd Hirsch, Janet McTeer, John Goodman, Ryan Phillippe, Campbell Scott, Marcia Gay Harden, John Hannah, Martin Short, Lily Tomlin, Chris Messina, Dylan Baker, and Keith Carradine.

Only season 4 was a little disappointing with its endless war scenes from Afghanistan. Usually, the plots closely follow Close and Byrne as they maneuver to control the other. The series is full of surprises and superb acting.

One of the best dramas ever to grace a TV screen.

I'm not really into your average ''Law and Order'' kind of shows, so I was a bit skeptic beforehand. But I was proved otherwise by a thoroughly gripping and scary introduction scene. We see a young lady running from a building, covered in blood. She accidentally stumbles upon two nearby policemen. It lured me into one of the most exciting new shows of last year.

The concept is pretty simple: someone is murdered and it has something to do with a young lawyer working for a respected law-firm. We see flashbacks of how the FBI is trying to crack the case, giving us the opportunity to see the story that led to the horrific climax of the murder. What the hell has happened? How does a promising young lawyer end up in killing someone? Or didn't she? And what is the role of bitchy uber-advocate Patty Hewes and the businessman Frobisher? Every episode gives you a few clues on the mystery, while still keeping you in the dark of what did happen. It reminds me a bit of Lost, though Damages is more down-to-earth and believable.

Glenn Close is playing the strong advocate with an excellent reputation with the verve she had in previous roles. Her protégé is Rose Byrne as a young, naive girl that falls in the hands of a devilish woman without scrupulous. For me the biggest surprise is actually Ted Danson, who plays a very realistic businessmen on the decline due to several law suits on his person. He's the kind of likable bad-guy that we seem to see more and more these days.

The biggest pro for this show is that they keep all the characters human by giving them a soft side. Nobody is either extremely good or bad, they just are humans making stupid choices and having to pay the price for it. Even the at the surface indestructible Patty Hewes is not able to defend herself against her tyrannic son.

No doubt that this show is one of the best ones I've seen in years, not for the story itself since it's not so probable to happen in real life for dirtier the legal world can be, but yes for the way that it's told and mainly for the performances. Glenn Close, what can we tell about her? For sure she's ALWAYS mesmerizing and particularly in this show she's frightening terrific. I also agree to think that it's a waste of talent see an actress like her having to work in a TV show, but at the same time a thank god for being able to watch a show like this one casting an actress like her. Rose Byrne is great and a lot convincing, I already knew her for some previous works and she's really talented. Ted Danson worked perfectly as the pathetic Mr. Frobisher and was great to see Tate Donovan working in something interesting again instead of wasting his time in TV shows like The O.C. And the same can be said about the other guest appearances thru the seasons.

During the 5th episode of 1st season, Patty Hewes says to Ellen Parsons to trust no one. The show is ALL about this sentence because everything here is a secret, no one is reliable and nothing is what it seems. All the elements for a good crime/thriller show are there. Some clichés exist but they are important for the entertaining. 1st season was a smash delivering all the greatest things that a TV show like this one should have and its finale was something that really did the audience expect the 2nd season enthusiastically. After more than an year of waiting, 2nd season finally had its premiere and it was awesome the new and undefined plot that was presented, but as new episodes were coming things were more confusing than being just an interesting puzzle to a point that audience was not being an active part anymore, trying to discover together with the characters what really happened, but became a passive one being deceived all the time, losing what made 1st season so special. 3rd season was the same thing, maybe the worst one. A bunch of great actors and actresses underused within a weak plot development full of red herrings and horrible conclusions, failing a lot when trying to exceed the 1st season tricky interesting qualities. Both 2nd and 3rd seasons finale were something kinda strange, giving absurd explanations for things that could be far better if explained in a simpler way. Maybe that's why 4th season was far better and a back to form. The formula using flashbacks and flash-forwards was the same, but a simpler main plot was presented and developed without unnecessary obstacles during 10 episodes. Characters in a exact number performed brilliantly by an amazing cast. Hope 5th season (and last one) to keep the tone achieved during 4th season, and maybe a great court fight to give it a great ending.

So, even thinking that 2nd and 3rd seasons failed a lot in a bunch of aspects, I still give the show 9 stars most for its first season and, of course, the performances that, I repeat, are more than just performances, are outstanding performances.