damages

Hey, it’s 2009. My last three attempts to resurrect MLTV turned out to be pretty sad, but you might say that this time I’m resolved to make this recently renewed URL viable once again. If anything, it’s just time to push that pesky photo of Lauren Conrad off the front page.

So the fall season ended up being kind of a stinker, huh? All my sophomore faves stunk it up (promptly leading to their respective cancellations), none of the new series ended up being worth the effort and the real meat and potatoes—the kind of shows that make me swoon for this medium the way I do—were all postponed until January. But now it IS January, so several things demand discussion. Friday Night Lights, Lost, Big Love and Flight of the Conchords all return this month and one show that might be as strong than any of them premieres tonight.

I’ll be the first to admit that I didn’t instantly “feel” Damages. Maybe I said something about Glenn Close being distractingly masculine or I could have even compared that dude who won the Emmy to Foghorn Leghorn. Who really remembers? I quickly learned my lesson. And the fact remains that Damages is well-acted, uncomfortably suspenseful and gorgeously shot—if you cut out all the murder, it’d be one hell of a tourism ad for New York.

I haven’t seen the season premiere yet, so it’s a safe bet that I’ll be home tonight by 10. (DVR be damned!) If you find yourself in need of any convincing, simply watch the preview below…or this one… or this one.

Something happened in Glenn Close’s life – something frustrating or tragic that pushed her to carve out a career by playing bunny-boilers, puppy-skinners and ball-busters. Of course there have been some light-hearted roles along the way, but she has always been most memorable when her lips are curled and she’s unsuccessfully trying to restrain herself from screaming like a harpie. It was only a matter of time before someone cast her as a lawyer.

Damages premiered on FX last night, and, as promised, Close brought her special brand of gender-defying bastardom to the law drama. The show follows Patty Hewes (Close) and her new protégé Ellen (Rose Byrne) as they navigate the choppy waters of a high-profile, deeply shady trial in New York. From the start, it seems clear that poor Ellen has sold her soul to the devil – not unlike a far less literal version of The Devil’s Advocate. The case itself, a class action suit against one of America’s richest CEOs, is thus far too ambiguous to be compelling. There is a unique suspense though, most of which can be credited to following the silent, discreet rage in Glenn Close’s eyes.

FX chose to saturate almost every scene of the pilot with Close, so most of the supporting cast (and her co-star, Byrne) are still pretty vague. Even so, with the potential for tantrums and her generally menacing air, she is hardly the biggest creep on Damages. There’s a small, sinister Southern man (Zeljko Ivanek), who’d be downright terrifying if his accent was a little more Hannibal Lector and a lot less Foghorn Leghorn. Playing a more unlikely villain is Ted Danson. He wouldn’t be my first choice for, well, pretty much anything, but he’s much better suited to playing an ATV-racing white collar criminal than his standard “whimsical codger.” It’s also nice that we’ve been spared his wife piggybacking on another one of his contracts.

At the end of the day, there are those of us with attentions spans for shows about the law, and there are those of us who lack them. I may be a part of the equally cursed and blessed latter, but Damages is clearly strong enough to soldier on without me. What isn’t clear is how the limited scope of the show could possibly carry it very far. Similar questions have risen with all programs in the recent wave of super-serial drama, but Damages seems particularly vulnerable to cannibalizing itself before running its course. For the sake of whoever at FX is in charge of informing casts when a show gets the axe, I sincerely hope Damages makes a go of it. I would not want to piss off Glenn Close.