Damages (TV series)

Damages
Damages intertitle.
Created by	Todd A. Kessler Glenn Kessler Daniel Zelman
Starring	Glenn Close Rose Byrne Ted Danson Noah Bean Tate Donovan Željko Ivanek
Opening theme	"When I Am Through With You" by The VLA
Country of origin	United States
Original language	English
No. of seasons	1
No. of episodes	13 (list of episodes)
Production
Executive producers	Todd A. Kessler Glenn Kessler Daniel Zelman
Producer	Mark A. Baker
Production location	New York City, New York
Running time	Approx. 43 Minutes 55 Minute Pilot
Production company	Sony Pictures TV
Original release
Network	FX
Release	July 24 2007 – present

Damages is a Golden Globe winning American legal thriller television series. The initial season's plotline revolved around a brilliant yet ruthless lawyer (Glenn Close) attempting to win a class-action lawsuit against the former CEO of a corporation (Ted Danson) on behalf of his former workers, by any means necessary. The show debuted on FX in the US on July 24, 2007, without commercial interruption, and ran for 13 episodes. It debuted in the UK on BBC One and BBC HD on 11 January 2008, in Australia on the Nine Network on 16 September 2007 and in New Zealand on TVNZ One on 7 November 2007. It debuted in Latin America on AXN on 12 February 2008, in Canada on Showcase on 18 February, in France on Canal + on 28 February 2008, in Israel on Xtra HOT on 13 March 2008, in Germany on kabel eins on 21 April 2008, and in Hong Kong on ATV World on 15 May 2008. The first episode, "Get Me A Lawyer", was made available free of charge on the UK iTunes Store by the BBC.

FX renewed the show for two more seasons of 13 episodes each, which were set to start production in February 2008.

Plot synopsis

Main article: List of Damages episodes

Season one

The show begins at what appears to be the end. A young woman, Ellen Parsons, is found running through the streets half naked and covered in blood. Investigation by the police reveal that her fiance, David, has been bludgeoned to death in their apartment, and Ellen is quickly arrested.

The scene shifts to 6 months earlier when Ellen Parsons, a newly minted lawyer, is being courted for prestigious jobs. She turns down an offer to work with the defense attorney Hollis Nye in favor of working for notorious lawyer Patty Hewes. When Nye finds out about this he warns Ellen that working for Patty will change her.

Ellen soon becomes engrossed in the major case which Patty's firm, Hewes and Associates, is pursuing. Hewes and Associates has been retained in a class action suit by the former employees of billionaire Arthur Frobisher. In a case reminiscent of Enron, Frobisher is accused of insider trading and lying to his employees about the health of his company even as he unloaded his stock.

Early on in the series Patty shows that she is willing to go to extreme, even unethical and illegal, lengths to win her case. One such instance is when she has the pet dog of a witness killed in a manner which makes it look like Frobisher is responsible. This action only emboldens the witness to testify.

As the season progresses Ellen becomes more and more involved in the case, and in the shady dealings which Patty engages in. Part of this is due to Ellen's personal connections to the case. Her fiance's sister turns out to be an important witness in the case. For most of the season Ellen skirts to edge of what is unethical, but eventually comes to cross that line.

As Ellen becomes more and more devoted to the case, her relationship with her fiance becomes strained. The situation is not helped when Patty betrays his sister. Eventually Ellen and David tire of Patty and Ellen publicly leaves Hewes and Associates. However, she still has an interest in the case and soon becomes embroiled in it again.

Throughout the first season, the series plays with time. The narrative switches back and forth between a traditional linear narrative of events happening in "the past" and a more temporally disjointed narrative of events happening in "the present." The main plot focus of these flashes was the murder of Ellen's fiance David and the apparent attack on Ellen that same day when she was staying at Patty's apartment. The flashes served to increase speculation among viewers since the audience was privy to information about the future which the characters were not. Until the final episode speculation over the identity of the murderer switched between a whole host of characters including Ellen, Patty, Frobisher, and a stalker whom David acquired.

By the end of the first season the main narrative of the show had "caught up" with the flash forwards and most of the questions raised by them had been resolved. Ellen was acquitted of murder charges, the identities of David's murderer and Ellen's attacker were revealed (at least to the audience), and the Frobisher case was resolved.

On November 12 2007 it was announced that FX has renewed the series for a second and third season.

Production

The series was created by Todd A. Kessler, Glenn Kessler and Daniel Zelman. The trio also serve as executive producers. Todd and Glenn Kessler are brothers who previously created the Fox show The Inside; Glenn Kessler and Zelman have collaborated on several other projects. Todd A. Kessler previously worked as a writer/producer on seasons two and three of The Sopranos. The pilot was directed by Allen Coulter, a regular director on The Sopranos during Kessler's time as a producer.

Season two

Template:Future television Although production on season two has yet to begin, many people speculate from the season one finale that one of the storylines from season two will involve the FBI investigating Patty with Ellen Parsons undercover. Glenn Close, Tate Donovan, and Rose Byrne are all on board for the second season.

Season 2's production start date is unknown at this time.

According to a commentary track on the pilot episode on the show's first season DVD/Blu-Ray boxset, the creators of the series are planning to bring Ellen Parson's more immediate family into Season 2's storyline. The special features on the DVD also confirm that the creators will have season 2's storyline revolve around Ellen Parsons working undercover for the FBI to bring down Patty Hewes.

Home video releases

The first season of Damages is available for purchase in Region 1 on both DVD and Blu-Ray formats as of January 29 2008. The DVD version has been available for purchase in Region 4 since December 19, however this version contains no special features.

Characters

Main Cast

• Patty Hewes (Glenn Close) – Hard-hitting, successful and charismatic, high-stakes litigator Hewes is the object of fear and envy in a brutal, back-stabbing business. She is determined to protect the little people from the corrupt interests that are crushing them, but does so in a cruel and Machiavellian manner. Her personal life is in disarray as she has a deceased daughter and a manipulative and wildly rebellious teenage son. The season one finale reveals that the FBI is investigating Hewes.

• Ellen Parsons (Rose Byrne) – A bright and sharp law school graduate determined to do good in the world, Parsons has overcome her working-class background to become the new protégée of legal bigshot Patty Hewes. But it's a complicated relationship–not only because Patty demands much of her, but also because Patty is manipulating her for her own reasons, including forcing Ellen to sacrifice her own future sister-in-law (Katie Connor) in order to locate a potentially crucial witness for the case.

• Ray Fiske (Željko Ivanek) – Arthur Frobisher's loyal attorney, a charmingly manipulative Southern lawyer who is not above fighting dirty in order to win in the courtroom. Though Patty Hewes admits to the fact that Fiske is a "brilliant lawyer," Ray seems desperate to get Frobisher to reach an out-of-court settlement with Patty rather than go to trial. The urge to settle is tied into the revelation that Fiske is hiding a relationship with key witness Gregory Malina, who is the key to Patty's case against Frobisher. Fiske committed suicide in Patty's office and it was later revealed that he had romantic feelings for Malina.

• David Connor (Noah Bean) – Ellen's fiancé, and a first-year surgical intern. David is certain his engagement to Ellen can survive their punishing work hours. However, their future will come to a tragic end when the two call off their engagement (due to Patty Hewes repeatedly instructing Ellen to put her career and the Frobisher case ahead of her relationship with David) and it is later revealed that David ends up being murdered by Frobisher's hitman.

• Tom Shayes (Tate Donovan) – Shayes, a graduate of Yale Law School, is Patty's senior legal associate and most-trusted advisor. His paternal demeanor and unassuming air make him a natural confidant for Ellen. Patty pretends to fire him in order to allow Ellen to become her new protégée for easier manipulation results. While "unemployed," he is offered a partnership position at a rival lawfirm, a move that causes the clients in the Frobisher lawsuit to seek to fire Patty and hire Tom as their lawyer. Eventually, Patty meets the rival firm's offer to Tom, minus one detail (changing the name of Hewes & Associates to include his name in the title), causing Tom to return to the fold. Shayes is a vegan.

• Arthur Frobisher (Ted Danson) – A charismatic, self-made multi-billionaire, Frobisher is accused of selling his own company down the river, dumping his stock for a bundle and leaving his employees penniless. He walked out of a government trial with a "not guilty" verdict, but now faces Patty Hewes in a civil trial. A family man, Frobisher claims to be innocent of all charges, though has shown himself capable of large-scale manipulation and dirty tricks in order to try to sabotage the case against him. During season one, Frobisher's second wife files for divorce. Frobisher learns of the filing shortly before his scheduled deposition at Hewes and Associates where he becomes enraged, makes several outbursts and then walks out of the deposition, because Patty is making harsh inuendo's about the divorce. Frobisher was shot by a former employee in the last episode.

Recurring Guest Stars

• Katie Connor (Anastasia Griffith) – Ellen Parsons' best friend and David Connor's sister, Katie is a vivacious enterprising young chef who is opening her first restaurant. However, it is soon revealed she has a past that includes drug abuse, and she was working as a chef at the resort where Arthur Frobisher was staying on the night he allegedly ordered the sale of his stock in his corporation. Frobisher also just happened to mysteriously offer to bankroll her new restaurant. Despite signing a non-disclosure agreement, Katie agrees to testify against Frobisher when Patty confronts her about what she may have seen. But Katie is not the one Patty is really after: it's Gregory Malina, whom Katie had a one-night stand with. After she is deposed, Frobisher revokes her restaurant funding for violating the non-disclosure agreement, and she then angrily leaves New York City, returning four months later to identify her brother's dead body.

• Gregory Malina (Peter Facinelli) – A consultant with whom Katie Connor had a one-night stand, and who has critical information needed for Patty's case. The one-night stand he had with Katie resulted in a pregnancy, which she had terminated, after which she claims to not have seen him for five years. When they reconnect in NYC, they begin a relationship, in which he feeds her false information about himself (that he is a waiter and is married), and about the night they were together, and tells Katie of a false identity of the person they saw Frobisher with in Florida, in order to avoid having to testify himself. Despite his scheme, Patty locates him, but thanks to rival lawyer Ray Fiske, he has gone into hiding, rather than risk being killed for the information he knows. Shortly after coming out of hiding, Malina met with Katie and made a videotape about the law suit. While walking Katie Connor's dog, Cocoa, Malina was hit by a car and killed instantly. He also left a substantial amount of money to Katie.

Reception

Award Nominations and Wins

2008

Nominations

• Golden Globes - Best Television Drama Series
• Golden Globes - Best Supporting Actress in a Series, Mini-Series, or TV Movie - Rose Byrne
• Golden Globes - Best Supporting Actor in a Series, Mini-Series, or TV Movie - Ted Danson
• Satellite Award - Best Actress in a Series Drama - Glenn Close
• Screen Actors Guild Awards - Best Actress in a Series Drama - Glenn Close
• Writers Guild of America - Best New Series
• Motion Picture Sound Editors - Best Music Editing

Won

• Australian Film Institute - International Award for Best Actress - Rose Byrne
• Golden Globes - Best Actress in a Television Drama Series - Glenn Close

Damages was also on numerous top ten lists in 2007.

External links

• Damages at Sony Pictures Entertainment
• Damages blog (run by Sony Pictures)
• Damages Screencaps
• Damages at TV.com
• Damages at TV Squad