TV is the New Reading

‘Damages’: Nothing

is what it seems to be

Have you been watching this “Damages” thing on FX?

I know Glenn Close has taken on some dark roles in the past, but as super-lawyer Patty Hewes ordering a hit on someone’s puppy as a means of convincing them to testify – on her behalf – that’s deeply dark and twisted stuff.

Especially when the one she’d apparently like to see on the floor in a pool of his own blood is Ted Danson’s character, a multi-billionaire named Arthur Frobisher who allegedly scammed his employees, emptied their pensions into his wallet and left them angry, broke and desperate.

I say allegedly because after two years, the government determined that there wasn’t a case to be made against him. Hewes is certain there is. As a viewer, I’m not so sure. Frobisher’s character has been playing the wide-eyed Pollyanna almost all the way through the first couple of episodes, and not using the strong-arm tactics available to him on potential witnesses against him because that would be wrong.

Of course, that unmistakably moral core doesn’t keep him from cheating on his wife with call girls. Naturally the family’s been through a lot with two years of lawsuits, so maybe that instance was just stress relief, but ... somehow, it seems like there’s a lot of pressure on him if he’s an innocent man. And it’s not like no one’s ever done what he’s being accused of doing.

Also difficult to completely ignore is the fact that he’s tracked down the one witness, Susan, who can place him in proximity of his broker during one critical weekend. Having done so, Frobisher has lavished a fancy-schmancy new restaurant on her in exchange for her silence.

For her part, Hewes isn’t going to let this be the last word on the matter. It’s time to hire fresh-faced new interns and ta-dah! Susan’s brother’s fiancee, Ellen, played by Rose Byrne, is looking to do something exciting with her brand new law degree. When Hewes offers her more money than her parents ever made in their lives, she ... skips the interview. She’d in fact committed to be at her sister’s wedding. But Hewes tracks her there anyway, exchanges a few arch words and then ... hires her.

You get the sense that Hewes really wants her on her team, but the discovery we make as viewers is that Ellen’s position in Hewes’ firm has been intricately planned for – to the extent that a fight was engineered to take place in front of her in which a junior associate gets fired, but Ellen still interacts with him, so ...

... what she ultimately learns – and very quickly – is that she can’t trust anyone.

These images are all part of the distant past, by the way. The way the show is organized, everything we witness is leading up to a brutal murder in the present day – apparently of Ellen’s fiancee, and apparently committed by Ellen in her apartment.

Well ... she’d been warned about getting mixed up with Hewes – and Hewes is one impossibly dark and twisty character.

But one thing the show has demonstrated very well in only a few episodes is that along with being incredibly well-written, multi-layered and compelling ...

... Nothing in this show is entirely as it seems.

Features Editor Terry J. Aman compiles the Best Bets for The Minot Daily News.

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