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‘Damages’ returns with rage, regrets, revenge

In the second season premiere of “Damages,” Ellen Parsons -- the young law school graduate who in the first season helped forge a cast iron case against a billionaire corporate retirement-fund embezzler -- is all grown up and seething with rage.

On the one hand, Parsons, played by Rose Byrne, learned the billionaire, Arthur Frobisher, played by Ted Danson, had her fiance killed and her brain is alive with revenge fantasies. And on the other, she’s figured out that her boss, Patty Hewes, played magnificently by Glenn Close, tried to have her killed.

How awkward.

In last week’s season premiere, Parsons deepened her involvement with the FBI -- specifically, a pair of agents seeking to arrest Hewes for her devil-may-care approach to litigation. That is, she doesn’t shy away from ex parte manipulation of clients and informants, she thinks legal ethics are quaint and when it comes to intimidation, well, at one point she stuck an ice pick into a witness’s German shepherd to get her to testify.

She’s basically a thug who knows how to moisturize.

That being said, this season opened up a softer side of Patty Hewes -- one who regrets some gamesmanship in the Frobisher case that ended in part with opposing counsel committing suicide in her office. We see her seeking the humanity she lost with the death of a stillborn daughter, and who is trying to be a good mother to her brilliant but feckless son.

Oh she’s not reformed by any stretch. Indeed, Hewes’ win-at-all-costs approach to life has followed her into the formation of a foundation to feed underprivileged children, dragging a friend’s coke-snorting daughter into the media spotlight to end his Republican candidacy and open his support to her cause.

When she calls Parsons aside to commiserate about the attempt on her life, suggesting that Hewes herself had been the target, however, Parsons isn’t buying it.

But she’s got more to worry about with an apparent stalker from her grief support group, and the fact that she’s managed to track Frobisher to a private medical facility.

Myself, I’m watching Parsons’ transformation into Patty Hewes with goosebumps. Byrne is such a brilliantly expressive actress and the character work is astonishing. And it doesn’t hurt that the production values are set very high. The overall look is pure art and the writing -- taken together with the surpassing talent engaged in this storytelling -- allows for an evocative subtle energy that flows through the very core of it.

“Damages” gets an MA rating for dark and twisty imagery, nudity and occasional language. The show airs at 9 p.m. Wednesdays on FX.

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