"Damages" Kills Me Softly

I'm always thrilled with this show and frankly I've glowed enough about it. It's the best written thing I've ever seen. The story just gets better and better. I'm hanging on my seat for the entire hour of the show and then the following 144 hours in the week until the next show. But it's that last part that's gonna get me this week.

The last show was all about Tom (Tate Donovan) who realizes through others and finally in himself that he needs Patty Hewes, as evil and conniving as she is. He's a #2 man who needs that person out there who's the #1. A hard lesson for any effective #2 whose thinking about striking out on his own.

We got more insight into Katie (who seems totally screwed up), they still want us to like Patty who reveals that she's a lawyer because she was tired of getting bullied...by her father. Things aren't looking good for Gregory--he gets the snot beat out of him in the alley by thugs working for the dude with the baby carriage. Frobisher thinks he's out of the woods but we, the viewers, know he's so not. David and Ellen make up...sorta. Ellen's starting to break under the pressure of working 20 hour days (possible for Satan) and planning a wedding and keeping a relationship afloat.

See, things are getting good. So here's what kills me.

"Tune in to the new episode on Tuesday, September 4."

"Wait a minute...wait just a cotton-pickin' minute. That's two weeks away. Two weeks! TWO WEEKS!?!" If you're counting, that's 288 hours. And that's not fair.

Proving, in fact, that Damages is all love and hugs one minute and then will turn around and kick ya in the shins. I should have taken Patty Hewes' advice before now: Trust no one. Not even the scheduler of this show...

Come See the Softer Side of...Patty Hewes?

Alright, alright. I've already raved about how awesome this show is, but Tuesday night's episode scared me a little--not in the content, but in the lack thereof. I though it was equivalent to the middle laps of a 1600 meter Swim watched on an Olympics telecast. You know that you cared at the beginning, you fully anticipate being riveted at the end, but these middle laps are just swimming back and forth. That's how I felt but I wasn't totally disappointed. It's giving the show time to settle itself in.

But there was one little thing that irked me about the move in the episode last night to reveal Patty's "softer side." Let's just say upfront that there is nothing "soft" about this "soft side," it's merely soft-er. So, it turns out, Patty has these horrifying dreams that forecast her own, violent death. (The title of the episode was "My paralyzing fear of death"). Throughout the episode we see her breaking down just a teensy bit as grenades keep arriving randomly, scattering themselves about her life: one at the office (her response at receiving the gift-wrapped weapon of destruction was wicked awesome, though: "Oh, this is going to be a crappy week."), one in the glove-box of her husband's car. As I watched it, I was just waiting for the explosion, but Damages is tricky that way--kill the husband in the 3rd show--I daresay that's so jumping the shark way too soon. "My irk?" you might ask: I don't want to like Patty.

This hits up against one of those basic, fundamental questions regarding a viewer's own tv habits. Do I watch tv passively or actively? Am I just there to absorb what you give me or can I take something away from the experience? Last night, I found myself thinking it's too much work to learn to like Patty. She's the villain (right?); I don't want to like her. I already like Ellen and Tom, and poor David who is clearly doomed. Katie is obviously devious beyond belief. Arthur Frobisher is kinda maniacal. I have a weird soft spot in my heart for Ray Fiske that somehow has to deal with Arthur Frobisher. But the truth is, I just want battle lines drawn neatly with a red Sharpie. I just want to turn on the show and watch it fit into the formula of spaghetti* Westerns: there's a good guy and a bad guy and one wears black and the other white (as utterly wrong as those convenient "colors-that-correspond-to-race" are).

*(which are named such because it was cheaper to shoot and produce the movie if they filmed them, not in the American "Wild West" but in the Italian Alps...where they eat a good deal of spaghetti...fun fact.)

But, this very lament is ultimately the reason I go back again and again to this show. The fact of the matter is that this show will not allow me to be a passive consumer of its messages and relationships. It is bursting open the conventions of regular one-hour drama and making it...dare I say, real and challenging. No one in reality is one-dimensionally good or bad. People wear colors (some of them which should never be transferred into apparel, but that's beside the point) not just black and white. The story is complex. It's normal to feel empathy for someone who is heinous...and then feel guilty for somehow realizing that they are, at the very least, human. So, while I don't want to know that Patty is scared of death and, maybe even in the deepest darkest corner of her heart sometimes cries (shudder), I have to know that because it's real. That's why everyone should be watching this show!!! Sorry...lost it there for a second.

By the way, if you were wondering who was sending the grenades--it was NOT Arthur Frobisher. Why? Because that would be prosaic and easy. No...the harbinger of gift-wrapped death was none other than PATTY'S OWN BRILLIANT BUT WAYWARD SON! That's why everyone should be watching this show!!!

"Damages" Delivers

Oh. Man. This is going to be an amazing show. Thanks to F/X via corporate sponsorship for bringing the whole hour without commercials. I didn't move off my couch; in fact, I barely breathed. It was just that good.

Let's talk about the writing--amazing television. Just from the first episode, I think this show is really going to give the HBO/Showtime series ("The Sopranos," "Big Love," "Weeds,""Sex and the City") real runs for their money. The story was complicated without being full of its own effort. This first episode was the perfect exposition; it ran very much like a layered, nuanced novel that will unfold slowly and in its own time. I was nervous that this show would seem contrived and would try too hard coming on the heels of such tv successes as "Lost" and "24." I didn't think it did that at all.

But let's also talk about the actors and characters. While this seems to be a plot-driven show, the characters already appear real in the sense that each is complex, flawed, and just understated enough to make the person real. Glenn Close (who I find kind of bizarre and I worried would seem too "hard) was compelling; her Patty Hewes is charming and magnetic while the trailers for upcoming shows reveal her pure ambition-bordering-on-evil. It takes some kinda actress to do that. She was good. I was delighted to see Tate Donovan in a major role--I've loved that guy ever since "Space Camp." Rose Byrne (who's new to me) is the perfect "ingenue" in this case--already things look very bad for poor Ellen Parsons. This cast is packed with famous people . I always like to hope that they're famous for a reason and that'll mean good things for the show.

This show plays like a movie; it'll take all season to figure out exactly what's going on. And I'm going to enjoy every minute of it. THANK GOD I've found a suitable replacement for some of my favorite staples that are wrapping up (Kathy Griffin; Little People, Big World).

In case I didn't con you into watching, here's some video that will maybe pull you in:

"Damages" Debuts on FX Tonight 10/9c

Big excitement as we tv-watchers have finally been given more than the usual doldrums of summer re-run fare. "Damages" has been highly touted for it's cast, led by Glenn Close and Ted Danson (that's right...Sam from "Cheers" who has a shock of white hair now and seems to be playing the heavy in this series). The critical reviews for this show have been through the roof, but only time will tell what will happen with, from what I've heard" this mixture of "24" meets "The Sopranos" meets "other critically acclaimed dramas led by tough-yet-lovably flawed female characters (see yesterday's post).

Can we and this summer possibly handle yet another unlikable but totally lovable woman on cable?

And does network television exist anymore?