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.