Damages (Season 1)
Jun. 18th, 2008 03:37 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
selenakFollowing the advice of ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
londonkds, I've been watching Damages, and it turned out to be as good as advertised. I am not as enamored as I was of Dexter's first season, but I am hugely impressed. And not just by the two leading ladies, both of whom I had watched and admired before (Glenn Close is a given, and Rose Byrne took what was potentially the most thankless role in Russell T Davies' Casanova - the servant old Casanova tells his life to - and made her character far more interesting than the main love interest, to say nothing of the fact she held her own against Peter O'Toole). Or by the fact it passes the Blechdel test (are there female characters who manage to have a conversation with each other that's not about romance?) in every single episode. It's a sleek well written twisty drama, and though I didn't fall in love with the esemble in the way I fell for the Dexter ensemble, they're all distinct individuals, and all interesting.
Every now and then, you get the impression you've seen the story before, when it was named Wall Street and shot by Oliver Stone - ruthless middle-aged person of power, brilliant manipulator, becomes mentor of young ambitious idealist, young person starts to go grey, then has wake-up call and goes up against evil mentor. Except that both people are women this time, and the story doesn't quite play out that way (yet). If you cast two women in these positions, there is a potential minefield of sexist clichés lurking, about feminity and corruption of power and choices between family/romance and professional success and what not. To its credit, Damages manages to avoid most of these. Along with the one movies with an older and a younger woman usually can't do without, sadly - romantic rivalry. The ongoing and shifting powerplay between Patty and Ellen never involves sexual competition, and both of them are in stable relationships. Speaking of: I expected Ellen's fiance to die as soon as I saw him in the pilot, because that's what fiances of young heroines and heroes do when we meet them in the pilot already, and sure enough, he did, but due to the timeline structure of the show, which is largely told in flashback until the final two episodes, when the flashbacks have caught up with the present day, he was also around for the entire season, with the question who was going to kill him being one of the season's mysteries. Nice twist.
Similarly circumventing expectations: Patty's relationship with her son. The powerful woman having a lousy relationship with her offspring was pretty much a given, but as opposed to the cliché, this is not the result of Patty not having had enough time or attention for him. TV and movie motherhood pretty much comes in three varieties: saintly and selflessly devoted (say, Aunt May), neglectful workoholic (how dare that mother neglect her child!) or creepily Freudian (aka The Manchurian Candidate variation). Patty and her son come across as spectacularly dysfunctional, but not because she pays either too much or too little attention (she's up to date on teachers and school results, but she doesn't spend every minute hovering over him, either, and if she's plotting to make him king of the world, we've yet to see it), more because they're far too similar, with the result that this relationship, too, is infused with power struggles and mind games. I spend much of the season suspecting the son of being the one who attacked Ellen, which wasn't the case, but there is some set up indicating he is up to something. Can't wait.
Flaws: the only gay character committing suicide comes to mind. Mind you, this was not a character defined by his gay-ness (he was the attorney for the opposing team), but his suicide was the direct result of him being in the closet and thus open to blackmail, and it would have been good to see this balanced by at least one other gay or lesbian character. Also, I'm not sure whether the motive for the attack on Ellen is that believable, especially considering the manner and timing of the attack - if it had been successful, it would have been glaringly pointing in one direction. Lastly, one of the few times when the show couldn't resist the obvious was when David had a dream where Ellen, while they were having sex with her on top, turns into Patty, which I could have done without.
Odds and ends: dogs are everywhere in Damages. Patty has one, Ray Fiske has one, Katie Connor has one, and the big shocker of the pilot isn't that David in flash forward time is revealed as dead, but that Katie's dog bites it, and who is responsible for that. I must have a heart of stone, because I thought a bit smugly that I had guessed that, and went on guessing that the dog's death probably is held more against the one who ordered it than any other ruthless deed of the season, because if there is one thing viewers don't forgive, it's dead pets.
For a show that takes place mainly among the well to do, Damages did a good job of showing the, well, damage and ruination corporate fraud can do to ordinary people, via the character of Larry.
Glenn Close: able to do steely-eyed toughness, smooth manipulation, shock and grief like no one's business. Like most people I first saw her in Fatal Attraction, but the role that made me fall for her was the Marquise de Merteuil in Dangerous Liasons (that silent scene near the end alone, where she puts on make-up after Valmont's death, trounces every other actorly attempt at the Marquise into the dust), and I loved her here as Patty Hewes. Not that Patty is a lovable character, but that's the point! And Rose Byrne makes that transition from wide-eyed naivete to power player in her own right believable; the scene between them that concludes the season is a thing of beauty.
Lastly: through most of the season I wondered how a second season would solve the problem of following up the mystery/legal case with something that couldn't possibly concern the leads on a similar personal level. See also: Veronica Mars, where the first season had the death of Lily Kane and the mystery of what happened to Veronica during the night she was drugged and raped, and the second season, though valiantly trying, couldn't provide the same kind of mystery involving all the regulars on such a personal level. Dexter's second season sort of managed by making our hero himself the object of investigation. Damages in its season finale came up with a twist that, the above voiced doubt about the logistics aside, provides a great set-up for season two which will indeed give us an extremely personal legal case and completely avoids a step back in the power dynamics between Patty and Ellen, the other fear I had. Well done.
londonkds, I've been watching Damages, and it turned out to be as good as advertised. I am not as enamored as I was of Dexter's first season, but I am hugely impressed. And not just by the two leading ladies, both of whom I had watched and admired before (Glenn Close is a given, and Rose Byrne took what was potentially the most thankless role in Russell T Davies' Casanova - the servant old Casanova tells his life to - and made her character far more interesting than the main love interest, to say nothing of the fact she held her own against Peter O'Toole). Or by the fact it passes the Blechdel test (are there female characters who manage to have a conversation with each other that's not about romance?) in every single episode. It's a sleek well written twisty drama, and though I didn't fall in love with the esemble in the way I fell for the Dexter ensemble, they're all distinct individuals, and all interesting. Every now and then, you get the impression you've seen the story before, when it was named Wall Street and shot by Oliver Stone - ruthless middle-aged person of power, brilliant manipulator, becomes mentor of young ambitious idealist, young person starts to go grey, then has wake-up call and goes up against evil mentor. Except that both people are women this time, and the story doesn't quite play out that way (yet). If you cast two women in these positions, there is a potential minefield of sexist clichés lurking, about feminity and corruption of power and choices between family/romance and professional success and what not. To its credit, Damages manages to avoid most of these. Along with the one movies with an older and a younger woman usually can't do without, sadly - romantic rivalry. The ongoing and shifting powerplay between Patty and Ellen never involves sexual competition, and both of them are in stable relationships. Speaking of: I expected Ellen's fiance to die as soon as I saw him in the pilot, because that's what fiances of young heroines and heroes do when we meet them in the pilot already, and sure enough, he did, but due to the timeline structure of the show, which is largely told in flashback until the final two episodes, when the flashbacks have caught up with the present day, he was also around for the entire season, with the question who was going to kill him being one of the season's mysteries. Nice twist.
Similarly circumventing expectations: Patty's relationship with her son. The powerful woman having a lousy relationship with her offspring was pretty much a given, but as opposed to the cliché, this is not the result of Patty not having had enough time or attention for him. TV and movie motherhood pretty much comes in three varieties: saintly and selflessly devoted (say, Aunt May), neglectful workoholic (how dare that mother neglect her child!) or creepily Freudian (aka The Manchurian Candidate variation). Patty and her son come across as spectacularly dysfunctional, but not because she pays either too much or too little attention (she's up to date on teachers and school results, but she doesn't spend every minute hovering over him, either, and if she's plotting to make him king of the world, we've yet to see it), more because they're far too similar, with the result that this relationship, too, is infused with power struggles and mind games. I spend much of the season suspecting the son of being the one who attacked Ellen, which wasn't the case, but there is some set up indicating he is up to something. Can't wait.
Flaws: the only gay character committing suicide comes to mind. Mind you, this was not a character defined by his gay-ness (he was the attorney for the opposing team), but his suicide was the direct result of him being in the closet and thus open to blackmail, and it would have been good to see this balanced by at least one other gay or lesbian character. Also, I'm not sure whether the motive for the attack on Ellen is that believable, especially considering the manner and timing of the attack - if it had been successful, it would have been glaringly pointing in one direction. Lastly, one of the few times when the show couldn't resist the obvious was when David had a dream where Ellen, while they were having sex with her on top, turns into Patty, which I could have done without.
Odds and ends: dogs are everywhere in Damages. Patty has one, Ray Fiske has one, Katie Connor has one, and the big shocker of the pilot isn't that David in flash forward time is revealed as dead, but that Katie's dog bites it, and who is responsible for that. I must have a heart of stone, because I thought a bit smugly that I had guessed that, and went on guessing that the dog's death probably is held more against the one who ordered it than any other ruthless deed of the season, because if there is one thing viewers don't forgive, it's dead pets.
For a show that takes place mainly among the well to do, Damages did a good job of showing the, well, damage and ruination corporate fraud can do to ordinary people, via the character of Larry.
Glenn Close: able to do steely-eyed toughness, smooth manipulation, shock and grief like no one's business. Like most people I first saw her in Fatal Attraction, but the role that made me fall for her was the Marquise de Merteuil in Dangerous Liasons (that silent scene near the end alone, where she puts on make-up after Valmont's death, trounces every other actorly attempt at the Marquise into the dust), and I loved her here as Patty Hewes. Not that Patty is a lovable character, but that's the point! And Rose Byrne makes that transition from wide-eyed naivete to power player in her own right believable; the scene between them that concludes the season is a thing of beauty.
Lastly: through most of the season I wondered how a second season would solve the problem of following up the mystery/legal case with something that couldn't possibly concern the leads on a similar personal level. See also: Veronica Mars, where the first season had the death of Lily Kane and the mystery of what happened to Veronica during the night she was drugged and raped, and the second season, though valiantly trying, couldn't provide the same kind of mystery involving all the regulars on such a personal level. Dexter's second season sort of managed by making our hero himself the object of investigation. Damages in its season finale came up with a twist that, the above voiced doubt about the logistics aside, provides a great set-up for season two which will indeed give us an extremely personal legal case and completely avoids a step back in the power dynamics between Patty and Ellen, the other fear I had. Well done.
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Date: 2008-06-18 02:40 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-06-18 02:59 pm (UTC)