It's quite fashionable these days to watch boxed sets of American television drama. I became a fan of West Wing and The Wire by watching them long after the release of the original few seasons on DVD rental. I generally like to follow the new televisual releases from the states in the hope of stumbling across a new gem. It was therefore with trepidation that I embarked upon watching a new US series - Damages. After all, I had never heard of this before unwrapping the paper on my birthday - how could a series that none of the literati at the Guardian website had ever told me I needed to watch ever be any good?The first season of Damages is a story told almost entirely in flashback. The opening scene of the series presents us with a tentative glimpse at the present, of a woman running dazed with blood on her hands is being picked up by the police. We cut to 6 months in the past and are thrown into the life of this woman - Ellen Parsons played by Ross Byrne - as she embarks upon her legal career in New York City working under the ruthlessly efficient prosecution lawyer Patty Hughes (Glenn Close). Ellen is immediately put to work on Hughes' biggest case, a prosecution against the super-rich business mogul Arthur Frobisher (Ted Danson). She stars out starry-eyed but soon realises that she is being used by those around her and needs to harden up and play their game.
Far from being a straight drama about a law firm, this is a twisting psychological thriller in which people are used up and spat out by a legal system that cares not for the law, rather it caters to the strengths of the personalities and ruthlessnesses of those who apply it. As the series progresses, small snippets of the 'present' are revealed as the main story edges closer to the time when we know that Ellen's boyfriend will be dead and she will have blood on her hands. What causes these terrible events to happen? How and why is Patty Hughes involved in Ellen's personal life? All questions that are slowly and tantalisingly answered.
Glenn Close is awesome as Patty Hughes, the vicious lawyer and ruthless boss of her own law firm who schemes out the lives of those around her and yet shows moments of weakness when presented with things she knows she cannot control. The first season (all I have seen so far) wraps up most of the necessary loose ends while gathering up those that remain into into an exciting teaser for the next. Clearly the format and plot of the second series is going to be dramatically different, but if the writers of the show manage to tap into the depth of the characters they spent the first season creating I don't see how it can be anything but another astonishing 12 episodes of television.
Watch this space then. If it carries on being as good as this it might be worth an update.
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