FX
Damages, as you know if you have followed the show in either of its first two seasons, is a show about trust issues. And it’s a show with which I have trust issues myself. (Minor/vague spoilers after the jump.)
Glenn Close has always brought a magnetic performance as Patty Hewes, the will to power embodied in a power suit, and the first season—even if I always found the characters a little undeveloped—was a first-class thriller movie done TV style. In the second season, though, the flaws took over, especially the show’s tendency to pile on twists, turning double- into triple-into quadruple-crosses, until it seemed pointless to anticipate the story or invest in characters who could and would turn on a dime if it made for a cool surprise.
For all that: I was very much sucked in by last night’s season-three premiere, which brought in Campbell Scott, Lily Tomlin and Martin Short for a story arc about a Bernie Madoff-like gonif and his family. (Why, by the way, is Damages such a singular attraction for name-brand actors? It’s a good show, but so are Breaking Bad, Friday Night Lights, Sons of Anarchy…) And yes—that punch-in-the-gut final reveal about a major character made me want to see more. But like Ellen with Patty, I have to keep a wary distance for now. Are you in?