One of the biggest treats of the 2007 television season was “Damages,” a unfriendly and incredible accurate thriller from FX. Headlined by Glenn End, I expected to savor this show–but I wasn’t prepared for the level of sophistication, complexity, and intelligence it offered up from its first twisty, and zigzag, moments. Made for adults, this drama demands attention and may not be for the casual viewer. With its intricate plotting and structure, the epic is told from different time periods interwoven throughout each episode. Essentially, snippets of the chronicle are presented in each time frame, so the audience is left to speculate about the pudgy truth in any given instance. However, as the season progresses, the pieces begin to connect in unexpected ways that can both surprise and frustrate. I’d compare the anecdote rush of “Damages” to that of a handsome novel–telling you honest enough so that you are tantalized to stick around for the next chapter.
Buy,Download, Or Stream Damages: The Complete First Season! Click Here
The residence of “Damages” is a knotty web that is difficult to picture briefly. Ostensibly, the reveal revolves around a naive young lawyer played by Rose Byrne. The opening scenes indicate a bedraggled and bloodied Byrne stumbling down the streets of Modern York–apparently the victim (or perhaps the perpetrator) of an act of violence. Crop to six months earlier and a honorable introduction is made. Byrne is seduced and recruited by a major law firm urge by Glenn Terminate. Conclude seems to have a hidden agenda, but Byrne is hasty overcome by the trappings of success and acceptance. The firm is handling an broad class action lawsuit against one of the town’s most prominent businessmen, played by Ted Danson, and Byrne ends up squarely in the midst of great lawful intrigue. What follows includes lying, blackmail, corruption, and even murder–no one in this anecdote remains an innocent.
While I actually consider the location is the steady star of “Damages” (I don’t believe I’ve ever said that about a TV note before) –it certainly doesn’t afflict that the cast is uniformly obedient. Don’t be surprised if you look Conclude front and center arrive awards time. Her thinly veiled menace and cutting remarks effect for classic villainy, but Halt pulls it off in a intention that you can’t benefit but like! Byrne and all the key supporting players are solid and believable. I particularly liked Zeljko Ivanek and Peter Facinelli, but the valid revelation to me was Ted Danson. Honestly, I’ve followed Danson since he was a bit player in “Body Heat” and I reflect this is by far his best role. Mixing equal parts charm and bile, this is a stout actor in a beautifully written role.
Buy,Download, Or Stream Damages: The Complete First Season! Click Here
Again, I don’t recommend “Damages” to everyone–I only wish I could! If, however, you treasure sophisticated drama–give this a shot. The DVD format is the perfect draw to ogle this reveal at your fill crawl and like all its subtleties, surprises, and delights. But, be reminded, if you sit down to perceive this show–WATCH IT! Otherwise, you might not savor how intricately save together “Damages” really is. KGHarris, 12/07.
There aren’t any eccentric characters that create you laugh like Denny Crane on “Boston True” nor are there any cases neatly tied up at the conclusion of each episode with a bow on them. “Damages” follows a single case and the follow out from that case from its beginning until its bitter destroy. “Damages” begins with Ellen Parsons (Rose Byrne from “28 Weeks Later” and “Sunshine”) bloodied and battered walking the streets of Unique York until she is discovered by the police. From there the series takes a rush serve in time six months earlier a case that Ellen worked on as a recent attorney at Patricia Hewes (Glenn Terminate) & Associates. It’s a civil case where Hewes is suing multi-billionaire Arthur Frobisher (Ted Danson) for hollowing out his company and robbing 5000 employees of his company of their pension plans in the process. Having escaped the prosecution of the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Frosbisher now must defend himself from claims that he benefited by selling his stocks before his company collapsing and getting away scot-free. Frobisher of course insists that he is innocent and was as powerful a victim losing the company he cared for as the employees. We gawk the entire case unfold before our eyes, the double dealings, double crosses and underhanded attempts by both the Hewes and Frobisher’s attorney to pick up the upper hand in this litigation.
“Damages” is compelling, enchanting and well written featuring a wide variety of characters with their beget agendas. No one truly is an angel here although the naïve Ellen comes much terminate as she finds herself dragged into Hewes’ world and manipulated as worthy by her boss as she is by the opposition in the case. A personal connection between Ellen and the case is uncovered which also makes Ellen suspect that the only reason she got the job was so that she could be primitive to acquire the upper hand in the case. In the process Ellen sees her ambitions and dreams pull further and further away from her arrive fair as she thinks she is climbing the corporate ladder of success. Hewes tells Ellen at one point, “trust no one” and the same could be applied to everyone interested in the case.
Academy Award nominee/Emmy winner Halt, Emmy Award winner Danson, Bryne, Tate Donovan, Peter Riegert, Michael Nouri and a host of film/TV/Broadway veterans bring these characters to life with a vibrancy rare in series television. If the epic sounds like it was ripped from the headlines, the Enron, Worldcom and other scandals where corporate CEO’s betrayed the public trust and manipulated the market inspired the series but it’s the compelling characters and drama that will accomplish you stick around to the conclusion of this 13 episode FX series.
The opening had me scratching my head in puzzlement–it looked like crappy low-rez video. It’s a façade like everything else here as it is simply a sequence showing us the raw reality that Ellen finds himself trapped in. As the expose jumps assist six months in time to the beginning of the case, we gather a beautifully rendered video image. There are a couple of problems with video noise that occur.
Audio sounds well-behaved with a 5.1 mix that uses the format quite well. The 5.1 format is nicely faded given that this is primarily a dialogue driven indicate with nice ambient effects captured in the surround channels.
I was surprised that we only pick up two audio commentaries on this station as I had hoped for more but both are effective and insightful. Glenn Conclude, writers/producers Todd Kessler & Glenn Kessler, Daniel Zelman and director Allen Coulter appear on the pilot episode discussing issues they ran into shooting on position in Modern York during a deplorable winter, issues they ran into with trying to bring the series in on budget but short shrift the quality of the demonstrate. I would have loved to hear cessation and her co-stars on a separate audio commentary track discuss the craft of acting, their near to the material and some of their thoughts during their performances but what we do gain is quite pleasurable.
The second audio commentary features actor Zeljko Ivanek front and center dominating the discussion with the Kesslers and Zelman joining in with technical tidbits from time-to-time. Ivanek has long been one of my common character actors and he has largely been underused in many TV shows and movies so its nice to gape him pick up a character as juicy as defense attorney Ray Fiske to sink his teeth into southern whine and all.
“Willful Acts” is a half hour behind-the-scenes documentary on the making of the series. “Trust No One” clocks in under fifteen minutes and focuses more on the characters in the series. We also accumulate a variety of deleted scenes. The really frigid feature of this area is that the disc is enabled so that the player can remember which episodes you’ve watched and jump just attend to the one you had next in rotation if you decide the “play all” feature.
“Damages” is a terrific, compelling honest drama. All 13 episodes of the series plus the extras are on three Blu-ray discs and you also earn an insert that gives you the title of each episode, a brief synopsis and credits for each one as well.
Best Stretch Mark Cream
Thyromine
