Damages: Was That Good for You?
It Was for Me … Sort Of
I’m feeling particularly brilliant today because last night’s Damages first-season finale pretty much confirmed every thing I stated in my original review of the series, “Damages: Mistress of Manipulation.” The main gist of my observations was that as soon as neophyte lawyer Ellen Parsons (Rose Byrne) learned to out-manipulate her duplicitous boss Patty Hewes (Glenn Close), all would be better and more interesting in the legal drama’s fictional yet arresting world. Did I ever get a tremendous payoff in terms of that development.
Otherwise, Damages did a good job of wrapping up its initial main storylines while dropping a few suggestions to stoke intrigue for a second season of mind games and backroom legal bartering. The most compelling event worthy of future exploration to me, aside from the obviously masterful Ellen outcome, concerns the reasons why Patty suddenly became so upset about her stillborn daughter from 1975.
Does her distressed emotional state in those scenes reflect regret over treating another young woman from that generation, namely Ellen, so very, very badly? Or is it because that dead child helps explain her depthless hatred of the man she spent all season trying to annihilate, Arthur Frobisher (Ted Danson)? If the series makes it to a sophomore season, I would love to see the Frobisher connection explained, provided that there is one at all.
Nonetheless, the season finale also made it perfectly clear why Damages has been on a ratings decline almost since its premiere. Critics and early fans hyped the show up like it would be the second coming of television, a new era of the utmost quality as represented by shows like it and, say, AMC’s Mad Men.
(For the record, I don’t share that opinion. I think Damages is really good, but too slow, too convoluted, and clearly contrived in various places. And, yes, I do know what I’m talking about—I have a graduate degree from a recognized university and I’ve worked in the legal field for years.)
The only problem with these kinds of claims is that quality often requires a lot of effort on the part of viewers, much more so than “normal” shows that lay everything on the line without too much ado and provide near-instant gratification at the end of each episode.
Damages is a complicated and labor-intensive beast that demands vast stores of attention and memory to keep current with the slowly evolving and wildly meandering plots. One TV buddy of mine called the drama’s narrative style “back and forth” in response to the frequent flashbacks and flashforwards, which tend to weave their way into the story with little or no announcement.
Such plot devices may indicate greater narrative finesse on one level, but they also make it more difficult for casual TV viewers—or even those people just weary at the end of the workday—to follow what’s going on at any given moment. That’s an unfortunate fact that a second season would have to address if showrunners want increased ratings.
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Related Review: Damages: Mistress of Manipulation
Damages photo courtesy of FX
