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Damages (TV series)
Encyclopedia
Damages is an American television drama
series created by the writing and production trio of Daniel Zelman
and brothers Glenn
and Todd A. Kessler
(collectively known as KZK). It is broadcast in the United States on the DirecTV
channel Audience Network after originally airing on FX and is produced by the creators' own production company, KZK Productions. It premiered on July 24, 2007.
The series revolves around the brilliant, ruthless lawyer
, Patty Hewes
(Glenn Close
), her protégée, Ellen Parsons (Rose Byrne
), and the law firm, Hewes & Associates (located in New York City
). Each season features a major case that Hewes and her firm take on, while also examining a chapter of the complicated relationship between Ellen and Patty. The series is also known for its depiction of the season-long cases both from the law firm's point of view and from the target's point of view. The series has attracted many stars to play characters on the side against Hewes, including Ted Danson
, William Hurt
, Marcia Gay Harden
, Martin Short
, Lily Tomlin
, and John Goodman
. Close and first-season star Zeljko Ivanek
won Emmys for their performances, while several other actors have been nominated.
Damages has received critical acclaim and numerous television awards, including a Golden Globe and several Emmys. On July 19, 2010 it was announced that DirecTV
had picked up Damages for two more seasons, to consist of 10 episodes each, to air on their Audience Network. Season 4 premiered on July 13, 2011. The show is noted for its plot twist
s, nonlinear narrative, technical merit, season-long storylines, and the acting ability of its cast.
surrounding Enron
. The second season deals with the energy industry and related environmental issues. The story is influenced by recent and ongoing environmental cases in the United States in the mining industry and also by the events of the 2001 California energy crisis. The writers were guided by environmental lawyer Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.
, who shared his experience in the field with various corporations and CEOs. The third season is largely based on the 2009 epic Bernie Madoff scandal, with veiled references and similarities to the case of the collapse of the Stanford Financial Group
of companies and their use of Antigua's opaque banking laws.
The series uses nonlinear narrative while employing flashforwards, foreshadowing
and red herring narration techniques. This approach has given the writers flexibility in storytelling. The narrative handles multiple plot lines and has loose ends. Zelman explains, "We know where we’re going. We have tent-pole moments that we’re building to all the way through to the end, and it’s very clear to us where we want to end up. [However], we want to leave room for improvisation..." While the two different time-frames format was initially intended for the first season, in preparation for the second season the producers felt that the nonlinear format had become a signature of the series and decided to continue it for the second season. With the serialized format of the show decreasing the viewership, Todd Kessler contended that the second season would contain stand-alone storylines to make the show more accessible.
suggested that they should consider Glenn Close for the main character Patty Hewes. Close had earlier worked on FX's The Shield
and had conveyed to the network officials that she would be interested to be cast as a lead in another show, so long as the show was set in New York City. After a three-hour meeting with the creators, Close accepted the role, impressed particularly by the powerful persona of the character "as the head of her own law firm [...] in a male-dominated world." In preparation for the role, Close met with several female attorneys in New York, including Mary Jo White
, Lorna Scofield and Patricia Hynes. The creators chose Ted Danson for the part of Arthur Frobisher, a corrupt billionaire CEO, because of his role in the 1979 film The Onion Field
. Danson was immediately attracted to the project after he learned that Close would be playing the lead role. As part of preparation, Danson studied the collapse of Enron
by watching documentaries such as The Smartest Guys in the Room and meeting CEOs of various Fortune 500
corporations. The producers also suggested that Danson consult Close's acting coach Harold Guskin. Danson was initially hesitant about this suggestion, but found the consultation extremely helpful.
Cast members Rose Byrne
and Tate Donovan
, portraying Ellen Parsons and Tom Shayes respectively, secured their parts through auditions. Byrne had been unavailable the first time she was approached because she was shooting the film 28 Weeks Later
, but was able to audition later when the part had not yet been cast. Both Byrne and Donovan prepared for their roles by consulting lawyers and attending court trials. According to producers, the characters of Ellen's fiancé David Connor and his sister Katie were the hardest to cast. Noah Bean
, who got the role of David, said he "gave an awful first audition," but managed to get the part when he was given a second chance while waiting for an elevator. When British actor Anastasia Griffith
auditioned for the part of Katie Connor, the producers were hesitant to have a British actor play an American, especially since they already had an Australian (Byrne) playing an American. However Griffith convinced the producers by speaking in an American accent throughout their follow-up meeting. At the time of casting, Griffith's role was intended only for three episodes, but was extended after the producers realized the success of the character.
public sculpture, including "The Glory of Commerce," atop Grand Central Terminal
, "Civic Fame" atop the Manhattan Municipal Building
, and "Asia" in front of the Alexander Hamilton U.S. Custom House
. The frieze
of the New York County Supreme Court Building is also shown, inscribed with a quote from George Washington
, "The true administration of justice is the firmest pillar of good government." The title sequence, produced by the graphic design firm BigStar, was nominated for a Smithsonian’s
Cooper–Hewitt, National Design Museum People's Design Award
.
The scene shifts to six months earlier when Ellen, a newly minted lawyer
, is being courted for prestigious jobs. She turns down an offer to work with the defense attorney Hollis Nye (Philip Bosco
) in favor of working for notorious lawyer Patty Hewes. When Nye finds out about this, he warns Ellen that working for Patty will change her.
Ellen soon becomes engrossed in the major case which Patty's firm, Hewes and Associates, is pursuing. Hewes and Associates has been retained in a class action suit by the former employees of billionaire Arthur Frobisher (Ted Danson
). In a case reminiscent of Enron
, Frobisher is accused of insider trading and lying to his employees about the health of his company even as he unloaded hundreds of millions of his own stock, depriving his employees of their retirements and benefits.
Early on in the series Patty shows that she is willing to go to extreme, even unethical and illegal, lengths to win her case. One such instance is when she has the pet dog of a reluctant witness killed in a manner which makes it look as if Frobisher is responsible. This action emboldens the witness to testify against Frobisher.
As the season progresses Ellen becomes more and more involved in the case, and in Patty's shady dealings. Part of this is due to Ellen's personal connections to the case. Her fiancé's sister turns out to be an important witness in the case. For most of the season Ellen skirts the edge of what is unethical, but eventually comes to cross that line.
As Ellen becomes more and more devoted to the case, her relationship with her fiancé becomes strained. The situation is not helped when Patty betrays his sister. Eventually Ellen and David tire of Patty and Ellen publicly leaves Hewes and Associates. However, she still has an interest in the case and soon becomes personally embroiled in it again.
Throughout the first season, the series plays with time. The narrative switches back and forth between a traditional linear narrative of events happening in "the past" and a more temporally disjointed narrative of events happening in "the present." The main plot focus of these flashes was the murder of Ellen's fiancé David and the apparent attack on Ellen that same day when she was staying at Patty's apartment. The flashes served to increase speculation among viewers since the audience was privy to information about the future which the characters were not. Until the final episode, speculation over the identity of the murderer switched between a whole host of characters including Ellen, Patty, Frobisher, and a stalker whom David acquired.
By the end of the first season the main narrative of the show has "caught up" with the flash forwards and most of the questions raised by them are resolved. The murder charges against Ellen are dropped. The identities of David's murderer and Ellen's attacker are revealed to the audience, and the Frobisher case is resolved with Frobisher giving up two billion dollars of his own fortune to the employees, in exchange for no criminal charges being filed against him. He is later shot and left for dead by a former employee he double crossed earlier by manipulating him for information.
, Rose Byrne
, and Tate Donovan
returned as regulars for the second season of Damages. Season 1 recurring star Anastasia Griffith
became a regular and season 1 regular Ted Danson
returned for five episodes. William Hurt
, Timothy Olyphant
and Marcia Gay Harden
joined the cast.
Season 2 begins with once naive young attorney Ellen Parsons (Rose Byrne
) talking to an unknown person off-screen. Suddenly, she pulls a gun into the frame and pulls the trigger twice.
Six months earlier, a mysterious scientist named Daniel Purcell (William Hurt
) sends Patty (Glenn Close
) a box of documents after her victory over Arthur Frobisher. Purcell asks for Patty's help, proclaiming he is being threatened, but she refuses. The following night, Purcell's wife, Christine (Paige Turco
), turns up dead and Patty agrees to help him. As the case of the murder unfolds, Patty realizes that there is a major conspiracy taking place between Purcell's scientific firm and a huge energy corporation, Ultima National Resources. As they continue to make headway the case rolls on. Over time, the presumed killer of Purcell's wife is arrested and the corporation's environmental hazards are exposed. When Patty is moments away from bringing UNR down, however, Daniel turns on her in open court and defends UNR. We later realize that Purcell has been working for UNR all along and he is indirectly yet knowingly responsible for the murder of his wife. UNR CEO Walter Kendrick (John Doman
) is revealed to be merging his company with another corporation for reasons far more complicated, bizarre and secretive than meet the eye. When Patty realizes this, she decides to use a plaintiff of the UNR lawsuit to stop what could happen. She is then able to convince Frobisher (Ted Danson
) to become involved, to repair his image. Meanwhile, unbeknown to Patty and the remaining plaintiffs, Kendrick's attorney, Claire Maddox (Marcia Gay Harden
), had an affair with Purcell. Claire at this time is unaware of Kendrick's involvement in Christine's murder.
The mystery of the murder later comes to a close when it is discovered that Purcell choked his wife when she threatened to tell the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
about UNR's contamination. He thought he had killed her, but she was still alive when Deacon (Darrell Hammond
) arrives at the house. Kendrick tells Deacon to finish the job. He does just that, leaving Purcell to think he had murdered his wife. Purcell cannot bear the guilt and confesses to police that he murdered his wife.
Ellen, meanwhile, still under the impression that Patty had tried to have her killed, is working with Agent Werner (Glenn Kessler
) and Agent Harrison (Mario van Peebles
) of the FBI to bring her down. The audience discovers it was possible that it was Uncle Pete who commissioned Ellen's attempted murder. In grief counseling, Ellen meets and befriends a mysterious loner named Wes Krulik (Timothy Olyphant
) and begins to confide in him. Wes, however, is secretly working with Rick Messer, the police detective on Frobisher's payroll who had murdered David Connor and who is still working for Frobisher. Krulik also has a shrine of newspaper articles on Arthur Frobisher, articles about David's murder, and articles from Ellen's arrest, as well as a large variety of guns and other weapons. As the season closes, Wes refuses to follow Detective Messer's order to kill Ellen, as Ellen has begun to suspect police involvement. As Messer tries to lure Ellen into a trap, Wes executes Messer in the season finale.
When Katie (Anastasia Griffith
) re-enters Ellen's life, she begins to bring up old conflicts as well as new issues. Katie recognized a police officer as the man who tried to kill her. She told Ellen, who enlisted Patty's help. They got nowhere, so Katie went to the police dept. and filed a report against him. This led to an argument between Ellen and Katie, with Katie claiming that if Ellen had never met Patty, David would still be alive. Katie questions Ellen's reasoning for going back to Patty. Ellen attempts to explain that she has her reasons, reasons that Katie would not understand. When Messer realizes that his partner's cover has been blown, he shoots and kills him.
Frobisher returns as a plaintiff against UNR for Patty in an effort to "get his name back". This creates an opportunity for Ellen to find new information and eventually link Frobisher to Detective Messer's agency. Wes recovers this information and lets Messer know, and he threatens Frobisher's life, forcing him to pull out of the case. Messer's problems continue. However, as Wes begins to develop feelings for Ellen, he wonders if Wes can be trusted. When he tells Wes to take Ellen out, Wes refuses until Messer brings up his past and Wes feels he has no choice but to comply.
Walter Kendrick is now initiating a merger which is discovered to be a scheme to make money based on manipulated energy fraud. His partner, Dave Pell (Clarke Peters
), has much more incentive than Kendrick because he has a relationship with Patty's husband Phil (Michael Nouri
). Pell makes Phil a tempting offer, which Phil accepts. It is at that time that Phil's extramarital affair comes to light. When it is leaked to the press, Patty kicks him out of their house and Phil is no longer considered a candidate. We also find that Pell has been talking to the FBI with information on Patty. Subsequently, when Agent Werner's cover is blown, Pell executes Harrison.
Kendrick's illegal activities continue. When Claire attacks Patty, Patty mentions Fin Garrity (Kevin Corrigan
), the energy trader being used by Walter and Dave. Claire begins to realize she is being used in a conspiracy and asks for the assistance of Daniel. Claire lets the idea of power get the best of her, realizing she could head up UNR. A suspicious Kendrick catches her having sexual relations with Daniel. Kendrick uses this to get Claire thrown out of UNR, and she immediately goes to Patty saying, "I want you to destroy him." Claire tells Patty that she can trust Daniel Purcell. Patty therefore successfully uses Purcell to crack the energy codes which gives Patty enough evidence to testify against UNR in court.
Tate Donovan returns as Patty's partner Tom Shayes. After he is given an infant mortality case which the FBI wanted Patty to take in order to bring her down, the witness asked Tom for some money to hold her over until the trial or she would go to another attorney. He was about to hand over the money until Patty heard about the bribe and convinced Tom to join her in the case against UNR. While chasing a lead to find out more information on Fin Garrity, Tom is propositioned by a call girl. It is unknown whether Tom gave in to her advances. Despite being named a partner with Patty, he is still left in the dark when it comes to certain issues regarding the case. Tom's wife also just gave birth to a son this season.
Patty realizes that victory in the UNR case relies on the GPS code from Walter Kendrick's Cadillac to be entered into evidence. Because the car was stolen to retrieve the codes, it cannot be entered into evidence. To fix this, Patty puts Ellen up to the task of bribing the judge. But Patty soon takes back the request and gives the job to Tom. After Ellen and Agent Werner were planning to use this to bring down Patty, they target Tom and take him into custody, citing his almost-bribe with Agent Hawkins in the infant mortality case as the reason, while he is on his way to the hospital where his wife is giving birth. Ellen convinces Tom to wear a wire and he goes back to Patty and turns down the job of bribing the judge, and urging Patty not to do so either. Angry, Patty fires Tom for letting her down.
In the season finale, Ellen convinces Patty to bribe the judge after the judge makes it clear that in the current state of the case, he will not allow the evidence of the stolen SUV (a subtle hint to Patty's firm that he needs a payoff). Ellen feels she has Patty setup and arranges with Agent Werner to monitor the payoff. Meanwhile Patty confronts Fin Garrity, the energy trader involved with UNR. This sets off a chain reaction between Garrity, Kendrick, and Patty and which causes Garrity to seek out Patty as she is taking the bribe to hand over to Ellen at Ellen's hotel room. In the run-up to the final confrontation between Patty and Ellen (alluded to in flash forwards all season), Patty makes a deal with Pell. Pell will call off the FBI and reveals Ellen to be the insider working for the Feds. Patty gets Pell to hand over the data that UNR is using toxic chemicals. In return, Patty will drop the energy trading angle of the case. She also sets up Ellen as the fall guy for bribing the judge. Ellen, meanwhile, works a deal with Tom, procuring a handgun in the process, after Wes refuses to get her one.
Ellen confronts Patty about her actions from season one. She has evidence from Uncle Pete's wife that she feels is proof Patty set her up to be killed. However, when she hands the evidence to Patty, the folder is shown to hold only a message that the Feds are watching, not the evidence of Patty's involvement with Ellen's attempted murder. Ellen fires two shots at Patty, but instead of aiming for Patty, she aims at the camera installed by the FBI. She then gets Patty's confession that she indeed was responsible for setting up Ellen to be murdered. Satisfied with the confession, Ellen leaves with the bribe for the judge. Patty leaves after Ellen, but is shown to be bleeding. Patty is found in the elevator by Agent Werner, who assumes Ellen shot Patty and leaves to pursue Ellen. Wes, who was monitoring Ellen from across the hall, also finds Patty (right after Agent Werner leaves) and gets her to the hospital. It is revealed that Patty had been stabbed by Fin Garrity on the elevator before her confrontation with Ellen. When Ellen bribes the judge, Agent Werner has her and the Judge arrested for bribery. As they leave, Federal Marshals (led by Tom's sister) arrest Agent Werner for corruption. Tom reveals to Ellen that Patty, apparently, had discovered the FBI scheme and worked with him to record the conversation with Pell. This leads to both Kendrick and Pell getting arrested. The season ends one month later with Patty recovering at home, Tom returning to Patty's firm, and Ellen with a new unrevealed job offer (and out of touch with Hewes and Associates). However, Patty states she feels that Ellen will be in contact with them soon.
and Martin Short
joined the cast, while high-profile actors Lily Tomlin
and Keith Carradine
were special guest stars.
At the start of Season Three, Patty is involved in a car accident. The other car belongs to her partner, Tom Shayes, who is later found dead in a Dumpster. It is implied that Ellen is involved in Tom's death, as her blood-stained purse is found among a homeless man's belongings. Prior to his death, Tom is seen handing Ellen a bag full of money from Leonard Winstone, the Tobin family's attorney. The police discover that Tom had drowned, and died two hours after Patty's accident. When Patty finds out about his death, we see her making a phone call, hysterical, screaming "I told you not to go through with it! I don't understand, I told you to stop!"
When Detective Huntley questions Ellen, he discusses what the homeless man told him and asks if she was romantically involved with Tom. Ellen replies "We were starting a law firm together."
Six months earlier, Patty Hewes is tackling a new case. Appointed a trustee by the US government, she is tasked to recover billions of dollars lost to the largest investment fraud in Wall Street history; a fraudent Ponzi scheme
run by Louis Tobin (Len Cariou
), a Bernie Madoff-type. Patty believes Tobin has hidden the money, and that members of his family, most notably his loyal son Joe (Campbell Scott), his secretive wife Marilyn (Lily Tomlin), daughter Carol, and his trusted attorney and family friend Leonard Winstone (Martin Short), know much more than they claim to. It is revealed that Tom has a personal involvement in the case; he invested in the Tobin fund and lost his savings, which compromises his professional involvement. Ellen, meanwhile, has stayed true to her promise not to return to Patty, and has not seen her for the past year that she has been working at the District Attorney's office. Ellen runs into Tom and she mentions she has trouble cracking a drug case. Shortly afterward, Ellen's case is suddenly resolved under suspicious circumstances, and she receives a package from Hewes & Associates containing an expensive Chanel bag from Patty (the same bloodstained bag that ends up in the hands of the homeless man). While Hewes & Associates is working on recovering money for the victims, the District Attorney's office is only interested in bringing criminal charges against the Tobin family. Believing Hewes and Associates is more capable than the district attorney to bring about restitution, Ellen starts to secretly cooperate with Patty and Tom and they all get drawn into the Tobin family's world of lies and deceit.
The story begins on Thanksgiving night when Louis Tobin tells his family the truth about the fraud. Knowing he will be imprisoned, he shares his secrets with his much-loved but weak son Joe. The night before his prison sentence is set to begin, Louis Tobin commits suicide, leaving Joe to take responsibility for the disgraced family. A recovering alcoholic and a disappointment to his father, Joe finds Louis's body along with a potassium mixture his physician supplied earlier that night and an envelope addressed to Patty Hewes. The envelope contains all details about the fraud and instructions on how to recover the hidden money. Joe must decide whether to give the money up and clear his name or risk imprisonment and take care of the family and its future. Not wishing to lose his wife and son and wanting to provide for his mother, Joe chooses money over the truth and begins working with the family's lawyer, Leonard Winstone, to follow his father's conspiracy plan. Leonard, who was intensely loyal to Louis and considers himself part of the Tobin family, shifts his allegiance to Joe. Already devastated by his father's fraud and death, Joe learns his old flame, Danielle Marchetti (Madchen Amick
), had an affair with his father that resulted in a daughter, his half-sister. Her involvement with Louis may have drastic influence on the family's future with regard to Patty finding the money. Joe crumbles under the pressure and starts drinking again, spiraling out of control. Leonard has him followed and is prepared to have him committed to rehab to prevent compromising the family further; but Joe realizes how important he is to the family and stops drinking. As more obstacles and threats appear and the plan to recover the family fortune is endangered, his remaining moral integrity becomes more sompromised. He almost lets his ex-girlfriend and his father's mistress die, trying to get her out of the country so she could not testify against them.
Danielle doesn't escape death though and after a brief visit by Carol Tobin, Joe's sister, Danielle is found poisoned with the same mixture Louis Tobin used to invoke his heart attack. Joe and Leonard are recovering the money through Louis Tobin's old friend, shady businessman Mr. Zedeck. The money is stashed in a secret account in Antigua in the Caribbean, transported to the US in smaller amounts by a courier and then laundered through a charity. The courier is a young flight attendant and no one else but Danielle Marchetti's daughter Tessa. Tessa makes weekly visits to the bank but seems to think she is signing legitimate documents to receive her salary, unaware of any fraud. Fond of Louis Tobin, whom she believes was her father, she withholds information that could incriminate the family and make her a witness for Patty and the DA.
Joe is pleased with Tessa at first but she's contacted by the lawyers repeatedly Joe expresses concerns about her loyalty. Leonard hastily meets with Marilyn Tobin, telling her that Tessa isn't safe and that Joe needs to know the truth. Marilyn promises to tell Joe that Tessa is, in fact, his daughter. Meanwhile, Tessa is approached by both by Patty and the DA's office and when Tom desperately tries to make her testify and he tells her Tobins killed her mother, she agrees to cooperate. Tessa is found dead together with Patty's private investigator Malcolm in Antigua where they were trying to obtain the documents from the bank. Leonard is seen talking to Marilyn Tobin again, clearly outraged she did not tell Joe the truth, thus causing Tessa's death. With that, each member of the family has caused somebody's death.
After Tessa's demise, Patty is desperate and the case stalls. Patty decides the only way to win is to "rip that family apart". Carol is guilt-ridden over killing Danielle and is the first to be apprehended for her crime. Joe receives information about their attorney Leonard Winstone, who turns out to be a small-time crook with stolen identity and no law degree so Joe fires him. In return, Leonard and his career-criminal father get access to the account and make withdrawals without the knowledge of Joe or Mr. Zedeck. Marilyn Tobin eventually tells Joe that his father only devised the fraud to cover up Joe's mistake which left his investors high and dry. Joe is furious, tells his mother she will never see him or her grandson again and kicks her out. Marilyn gets drunk and sentimental watching old home videos, leaves home, takes a taxi and just asks the driver to take her to the East River and jumps off the bridge. Her body is later found in the water. With nothing left to lose, Joe decides to find Tom whom he blames for losing his house, family, and everything.
In the meantime, Tom has made a deal with Winstone. Tom and Ellen promise Winstone immunity from prosecution in return for money for Tom and the envelope Louis Tobin left on the night of his death. Patty doesn't trust Winstone and has an odd feeling about the arrangement and instructs Tom and Ellen not to go through with the deal. But Tom is motivated by being scammed himself and refuses to let go of his chance for revenge. Waiting for the Tobin lawyer, Tom gets stabbed by Zedeck's associate when he wouldn't give up Winstone's whereabouts but is saved by Leonard in the last moment, injured but able to make his way home. Joe finds Tom, bleeding in the bathroom of his house and after Tom calls Louis Tobin a thief, Joe becomes enraged, drowns Tom in the toilet and puts his body in a dumpster. Joe is arrested and after a short, private talk with Patty, confesses all. Winstone calls Ellen to let her know he left the evidence with the homeless man because he didn't trust Tom or Patty. When he hangs up, we see he has a bag full of money and is boarding a flight. It is when Tom's body has been found that Patty calls Ellen and screams "I told you not to go through with it! I told you to stop!"
Arthur Frobisher (Ted Danson
) returns, launching his new environmentally-friendly company. He is working with an actor (Craig Bierko
), who originally showed little interest in working with him beyond an investment. However, after reading Arthur's book, he decides that he wants to make this into a movie about Frobisher's case against Patty – and he is given the film rights to the book in exchange for being Frobisher's company spokesman. In the season finale, Ellen contacts Wes who comes back to tell her of his previous covert role and execution of Messer, who murdered her fiance David. He offers to help her convict Frobisher, but she rejects his offer on the grounds she does not want Wes to go to prison. Wes nonetheless later corners Frobisher at gunpoint in his car and with Frobisher begging for his life, Wes calls the police to confess everything. Frobisher's last scene is sitting in the back of a police car under arrest for murder, trying to figure out how he can get off.
The relationship between Patty and Ellen is different than in past seasons, because they have reached a point of clarity and distance between them. The unspoken bond between the two resurfaces as they work on the same case. Throughout the third season, Ellen is trying to prove that she can get to and manipulate Patty although she never really succeeds. Ellen is bitter about being replaced by a new, young and highly ambitious girl, Alex, who is willing to do just about anything to get the job and please Patty. Unaware of the animosity, Alex comes to Ellen for advice and Ellen is sabotaging her every step of the way. Patty eventually gets tired of Alex being so submissive and enslaved and fires her anyway. Patty is trying to come to terms with her son Michael being grown up and leaving home but she cannot overcome the fact he is dating a woman (Jill) at least fifteen years his senior. When Patty finds out the couple is expecting a baby, she decides to step in and offers Jill money to leave her son and the city. Jill returns to accept the offer, asks for five hundred thousand but breaks the conditions of the deal, stays with Michael and spends the money on a luxury car and an apartment. Before long, Jill finds herself in custody for having sex with a minor and about to lose everything including her freedom and the baby. In one brief moment we learn that indeed the car that hit Patty was driven by Michael, raging because of Jill's incarceration.
Ellen too deals with a family crisis when her sister is arrested on a drug charge. She denies selling drugs and blames a friend for ratting on her. Ellen uses Malcolm, Patty's investigator, to try to help but digs out her sister was lying to her all along and has been dealing drugs for some time. Ellen decides not to help her out of jail to straighten her out but also not to tarnish her reputation at work. Finally, we also learn about an old and painful secret Patty has been keeping for years. Through memories and dreams Patty repeatedly sees herself, highly pregnant, walking somewhere up to a ranch with horses and a man she briefly talks to. He asks her what she's doing so far away from her home in her condition and Patty answers her doctor said she'd be ok. In a flashback Patty is talking to a doctor and they agree that the child is more important than school, work or anything else. In another flashback however, the doctor is telling Patty she absolutely must stay in bed and avoid any physical activity or else the baby will die. Then her memories and dreams reveal the walk and that she started bleeding at the ranch. Following Tom's funeral, Patty indirectly admits to Ellen that she brought on the miscarriage so that she could go to New York and accept an important job offer thus beginning her climb to the top of the legal profession. Ellen then asks her "Is it worth it?". Patty doesn't reply, and Ellen leaves.
Glenn Close
returns as Patty Hewes and Rose Byrne
as Ellen Parsons in season four, which focuses on private military contractors in Afghanistan.
John Goodman
and Dylan Baker
join the cast as series regulars with Chris Messina
, Judd Hirsch
, Fisher Stevens
, Griffin Dunne
, Julie White
, Bailey Chase
and Derek Webster
in recurring roles. The show was created and is executive produced by KZK and co-executive produced by Mark A. Baker.
The fourth season of Damages finds Patty and Ellen embroiled in a wrongful-death suit against a private military contractor, Howard T. Erickson (John Goodman). Erickson has made a fortune supplying the U.S. Government with security forces in Afghanistan and is protected by his connections within the highest echelons of power in Washington, D.C. Chris Sanchez (Chris Messina), a decorated soldier who now works for the security firm is drawn into the web of intrigue when Ellen and Patty set their sights on his corrupt employer. Complicating matters is Jerry Boorman (Dylan Baker), a shadowy opportunist with ties to both Erickson and the Middle East who is intimately involved in the season-long conspiracy at the heart of the lawsuit. Griffin Dunne plays a foreign correspondent who’s looking to write a story about the embattled company, Bailey Chase plays Ellen Parson's love interest and Judd Hirsch as an old mentor of Patty's.
At the finale party for Season 4, Todd Kessler stated that the fifth season would indeed be the final season of the series and that the writers are coming up with an idea where Patty and Ellen are forced to go head to head against one another during a case.
Glenn Close
returns as Patty Hewes and Rose Byrne
as Ellen Parsons in the upcoming fifth season. Ryan Phillippe
has been cast as Channing McClaren, a Julian Assange type-character who becomes the lynchpin in the case between Ellen and Patty. Jenna Elfman
has a recurring role and will play an investment bank employee who is troubled by her company’s conduct, while Alexandra Socha
will play her daughter. John Hannah
has also been cast and will play Rutger, McClaren’s loyal adviser.
-protegee relationship between high-stakes attorney Patty Hewes (Glenn Close
) and newly graduated attorney Ellen Parsons (Rose Byrne
). During the first three seasons Tom Shayes (Tate Donovan
) acts as Patty's associate, right-hand man and later partner. Michael Nouri
recurs throughout the series as Patty's spouse, and Zachary Booth
as her son.
The first season mainly focused on a case involving Arthur Frobisher, played by Ted Danson
, a man blamed for embezzlement
and fraud
; Zeljko Ivanek
played his regretful attorney Ray Fiske. Noah Bean
starred as David Connor, Ellen's fiancée, with Anastasia Griffith
recurring prominently as Katie Connor, David's sister and the key witness in the Frobisher case (At the end of the first season Bean and Ivanek leave the main cast with the death of their characters, but still serve as occasional guest stars with their characters appearing in flashback
s). Notable recurring characters during the first season were played by Peter Facinelli
, Philip Bosco
, and Peter Riegert
.
The second season found Patty and her firm inadvertently thrown into a massive case against the billion dollar-worth energy corporation Ultima National Resources (UNR). William Hurt
played Daniel Purcell, a mysterious man from Patty's past that initiates the case and puts it in Patty's hands. John Doman
played Walter Kendrick (in a billed recurring role), the primary antagonist of the season as the CEO of UNR, while Marcia Gay Harden
joined the cast as UNR's misinformed but smart and vicious lead counsel Claire Maddox. On the personal front, Anastasia Griffith returned as Ellen's friend Katie Connor, who helps her in taking down Frobisher, while Timothy Olyphant
played a man in grief counseling that bonds with Ellen under ambiguous motives. Returning recurring actors in prominent roles were Ted Danson
, David Costabile
, Tom Aldredge
, Mario van Peebles
and Glenn Kessler
. Notable recurring characters during the second season were played by Clarke Peters
, Brett Cullen
, Kevin Corrigan
and Darrell Hammond
.
The third season, inspired by the Bernie Madoff scandal, tracked Patty's aggressive pursuit of bringing down the disgraced Tobin family after they were revealed to be a part of a Ponzi scheme
that ripped off millions of citizens. Campbell Scott
played Joe Tobin, the shamed but ultimately spoiled and selfish youngest son of the family. Martin Short
played the family's longtime trusted lawyer Leonard Winstone that finds his place in this family changes as the Tobins reveal their true colors. Lily Tomlin
special guest starred throughout the season as the secretive matriarch Marilyn Tobin, while Len Cariou
appeared as the patriarch of the family blamed for all of the fraud and conspiracy. Returning recurring actors in prominent roles were Ted Danson
, and also Timothy Olyphant
in a single guest appearance. Notable recurring characters during the third season were played by Dominic Chianese
, Madchen Amick
, Ben Shenkman
, and Keith Carradine
. Wallace Shawn
also made a notable guest appearance.
The fourth season, the first without Tate Donovan, followed a wrongful-death suit filed against a military contractor over a mysterious incident in a war zone. John Goodman
played Howard Erickson, the CEO of the shadowy military contractor who becomes the defendant against Patty and Ellen over the corruption that occurred in the war zone. Dylan Baker
played Jerry Boorman, a mysterious figure with secretive ties to the Middle East. Chris Messina
played Chris Sanchez, an old high school friend of Ellen's and a decorated soldier suffering from Posttraumatic Stress Disorder. Notable recurring characters during the fourth season were played by Griffin Dunne
, Judd Hirsch
, Fisher Stevens
, and Bailey Chase
.
Damages is also available for purchase through Amazon Video on Demand and Seasons 1-3 on the iTunes Store
. Seasons 1 through 3 are available via Netflix
's Instant service.
), Alessandra Stanley (The New York Times
) and Robert Abele (LA Weekly
) among others. The return of the series for its second season was also met with critical acclaim. TV Guide ranked the season one finale episode #52 on its list of "TV's Top 100 Episodes of All Time".
Award, and a Satellite Award. It has been nominated for a Producers Guild of America Award
, a Writers Guild of America Award
, 3 Screen Actors Guild Awards
, and 4 Television Critics Association Awards, among others.
Damages was nominated for Outstanding Drama Series at the 2008 Primetime Emmy Award
s. Co-creators Todd A. Kessler, Glenn Kessler and Daniel Zelman were nominated for writing and Allen Coulter for directing the pilot episode. Glenn Close received the nomination for her lead role, with co-stars Ted Danson and Željko Ivanek nominated for their supporting roles. Close and Ivanek won in their respective categories, with the series also receiving the Emmy for best casting.
The series earned four nominations at the 65th Golden Globe Awards
, including Best Television Series, Close for Best Actress and Byrne and Danson for their supporting roles. Close won the award in her category.
For its acclaimed second season, Glenn Close received her second nomination for Best Lead Drama Actress
Emmy. Ted Danson also received another nomination, for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Drama Series. Rose Byrne, earned her first Emmy nomination, and William Hurt, was nominated as a supporting actor in a drama. The series again was nominated for direction, and the series itself was nominated again for best drama.
On September 20, 2009, the show won its fourth Emmy Award when Glenn Close won the Best Actress in a Drama Series.
For its third season, Damages earned its most acting nominations yet at the 2010 Primetime Emmy Awards, with, along with Glenn Close, Rose Byrne and Ted Danson returning in their respective categories, featured cast additions Martin Short
and Lily Tomlin
as newly nominated stars. Short was nominated for the Supporting Actor in a Drama award, and Tomlin as a guest actress. Damages was unable to, for the first time, win a major Primetime Emmy despite their success in the nominations, as Glenn Close lost for the first time.
The third season premiere, which aired on January 25, 2010, only managed to draw in 1.483 million viewers,. The third season finale managed to pull in only 975,000 US viewers.
to share the cost of future seasons with its Audience Network (formerly The 101 Network). Several outlets were also approached about sharing the cost of a new season. However, no other network opted to pick it up, leaving The Audience Network as the new broadcaster. Damages made its first premiere on the 101 Network on January 5, 2011. Season one through three will run until the season 4 premiere on July 13, 2011.
Drama
Drama is the specific mode of fiction represented in performance. The term comes from a Greek word meaning "action" , which is derived from "to do","to act" . The enactment of drama in theatre, performed by actors on a stage before an audience, presupposes collaborative modes of production and a...
series created by the writing and production trio of Daniel Zelman
Daniel Zelman
Daniel Zelman is an American actor, screenwriter and television producer. Zelman is the husband of former Will & Grace and The Starter Wife star Debra Messing. The couple have a son, Roman Walker Zelman, born in 2004. Zelman is an executive producer on the FX drama series Damages, which he...
and brothers Glenn
Glenn Kessler (screenwriter)
Glenn Kessler is an American screenwriter and television producer. Kessler grew up in suburban Detroit suburb and graduated from the Cranbrook Kingswood School in Bloomfield Hills in 1988. He is the co-creator and executive producer of the Golden Globe award-winning FX drama series Damages along...
and Todd A. Kessler
Todd A. Kessler
Todd A. Kessler is an American screenwriter, playwright, television producer and director. He is the co-creator and head writer of the FX drama series Damages...
(collectively known as KZK). It is broadcast in the United States on the DirecTV
DirecTV
DirecTV is an American direct broadcast satellite service provider and broadcaster based in El Segundo, California. Its satellite service, launched on June 17, 1994, transmits digital satellite television and audio to households in the United States, Latin America, and the Anglophone Caribbean. ...
channel Audience Network after originally airing on FX and is produced by the creators' own production company, KZK Productions. It premiered on July 24, 2007.
The series revolves around the brilliant, ruthless lawyer
Lawyer
A lawyer, according to Black's Law Dictionary, is "a person learned in the law; as an attorney, counsel or solicitor; a person who is practicing law." Law is the system of rules of conduct established by the sovereign government of a society to correct wrongs, maintain the stability of political...
, Patty Hewes
Patty Hewes
Patricia "Patty" Hewes is fictional character on the American legal thriller Damages, portrayed by Glenn Close. Being described as "ruthless", "master manipulator" and "brilliant", Patty is a high-stakes litigator managing her own law firm called Hewes & Associates...
(Glenn Close
Glenn Close
Glenn Close is an American actress and singer of theatre and film, known for her roles as a femme fatale Glenn Close (born March 19, 1947) is an American actress and singer of theatre and film, known for her roles as a femme fatale Glenn Close (born March 19, 1947) is an American actress and...
), her protégée, Ellen Parsons (Rose Byrne
Rose Byrne
Mary Rose Byrne is an Australian actress.Byrne made her screen debut in 1994 with a small role in the film Dallas Doll...
), and the law firm, Hewes & Associates (located in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
). Each season features a major case that Hewes and her firm take on, while also examining a chapter of the complicated relationship between Ellen and Patty. The series is also known for its depiction of the season-long cases both from the law firm's point of view and from the target's point of view. The series has attracted many stars to play characters on the side against Hewes, including Ted Danson
Ted Danson
Edward Bridge “Ted” Danson III is an American actor best known for his role as central character Sam Malone in the sitcom Cheers, and his role as Dr. John Becker on the series Becker. He also plays a recurring role on Larry David's HBO sitcom Curb Your Enthusiasm and starred alongside Glenn Close...
, William Hurt
William Hurt
William McGill Hurt is an American stage and film actor. He received his acting training at the Juilliard School, and began acting on stage in the 1970s. Hurt made his film debut as a troubled scientist in the science-fiction feature Altered States , for which he received a Golden Globe nomination...
, Marcia Gay Harden
Marcia Gay Harden
Marcia Gay Harden is an American film and theatre actress. Harden's breakthrough role was in Miller's Crossing and then The First Wives Club which was followed by several roles which gained her wider fame including the hit comedy Flubber and Meet Joe Black...
, Martin Short
Martin Short
Martin Hayter Short, CM is a Canadian actor, comedian, writer, singer and producer. He is best-known for his comedy work, particularly on the TV programs SCTV and Saturday Night Live...
, Lily Tomlin
Lily Tomlin
Mary Jean "Lily" Tomlin is an American actress, comedienne, writer, and producer. Tomlin has been a major force in American comedy since the late 1960's when she began a career as a stand up comedian and became a featured performer on television's Laugh-in...
, and John Goodman
John Goodman
John Stephen Goodman is an American film, television, and stage actor. He is best known for his role as Dan Conner on the television series Roseanne for which he won a Best Actor Golden Globe Award in 1993, and for appearances in the films of the Coen brothers, with prominent roles in Raising...
. Close and first-season star Zeljko Ivanek
Željko Ivanek
Željko Ivanek is an Emmy award-winning Slovenian American actor best known for his role as Ray Fiske on Damages. He is also known for playing Blake Sterling on short-lived NBC series The Event and Emile Danko on Heroes....
won Emmys for their performances, while several other actors have been nominated.
Damages has received critical acclaim and numerous television awards, including a Golden Globe and several Emmys. On July 19, 2010 it was announced that DirecTV
DirecTV
DirecTV is an American direct broadcast satellite service provider and broadcaster based in El Segundo, California. Its satellite service, launched on June 17, 1994, transmits digital satellite television and audio to households in the United States, Latin America, and the Anglophone Caribbean. ...
had picked up Damages for two more seasons, to consist of 10 episodes each, to air on their Audience Network. Season 4 premiered on July 13, 2011. The show is noted for its plot twist
Plot twist
A plot twist is a change in the expected direction or outcome of the plot of a film, television series, video game, novel, comic or other fictional work. It is a common practice in narration used to keep the interest of an audience, usually surprising them with a revelation...
s, nonlinear narrative, technical merit, season-long storylines, and the acting ability of its cast.
Conception
Creators Todd A. Kessler, Glenn Kessler and Daniel Zelman devised the series as the relationship between a mentor and a protégée: two women in powerful positions. Although the initial story idea did not have the series set in the legal arena, the creators chose it because they felt the legal world included women who commanded power and influence. The concept was inspired by the creators' interaction with their superiors along with their experiences in the entertainment industry. The series steers away from usual legal dramas, where storyline is set inside the courtroom and instead describes the characters' lives and interactions outside the courtroom and the behind-the-scenes power maneuvering and manipulation. About the characters of the show Zelman notes, "We don't look at any of the characters as good or bad or anything like that. What really motivated us to write about this world, first and foremost, was our interest in power dynamics, the dynamics of power in society."Writing
The series was designed with the main character, Patty Hewes, tackling one case per season. The first season of the series focuses on a class-action lawsuit against the fraudulent multi-billionaire CEO of a defunct company. The plot was inspired by various corporate scandals and characters involved in them, most notably from the 2001 scandalEnron scandal
The Enron scandal, revealed in October 2001, eventually led to the bankruptcy of the Enron Corporation, an American energy company based in Houston, Texas, and the dissolution of Arthur Andersen, which was one of the five largest audit and accountancy partnerships in the world...
surrounding Enron
Enron
Enron Corporation was an American energy, commodities, and services company based in Houston, Texas. Before its bankruptcy on December 2, 2001, Enron employed approximately 22,000 staff and was one of the world's leading electricity, natural gas, communications, and pulp and paper companies, with...
. The second season deals with the energy industry and related environmental issues. The story is influenced by recent and ongoing environmental cases in the United States in the mining industry and also by the events of the 2001 California energy crisis. The writers were guided by environmental lawyer Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.
Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.
Robert Francis Kennedy, Jr. is an American radio host, activist, and attorney specializing in environmental law. He is the third of eleven children born to Ethel Skakel Kennedy and Robert F. Kennedy and is the nephew of John F. Kennedy and Edward M. Kennedy...
, who shared his experience in the field with various corporations and CEOs. The third season is largely based on the 2009 epic Bernie Madoff scandal, with veiled references and similarities to the case of the collapse of the Stanford Financial Group
Stanford Financial Group
The Stanford Financial Group was a privately held international group of financial services companies controlled by Allen Stanford, until it was seized by United States authorities in early 2009....
of companies and their use of Antigua's opaque banking laws.
The series uses nonlinear narrative while employing flashforwards, foreshadowing
Foreshadowing
Foreshadowing or adumbrating is a literary device in which an author indistinctly suggests certain plot developments that might come later in the story.-Repetitive designation and Chekhov's gun:...
and red herring narration techniques. This approach has given the writers flexibility in storytelling. The narrative handles multiple plot lines and has loose ends. Zelman explains, "We know where we’re going. We have tent-pole moments that we’re building to all the way through to the end, and it’s very clear to us where we want to end up. [However], we want to leave room for improvisation..." While the two different time-frames format was initially intended for the first season, in preparation for the second season the producers felt that the nonlinear format had become a signature of the series and decided to continue it for the second season. With the serialized format of the show decreasing the viewership, Todd Kessler contended that the second season would contain stand-alone storylines to make the show more accessible.
Casting
When creators Kesslers and Zelman pitched the show to executives at FX, network president John LandgrafJohn Landgraf
John Landgraf is the FX Network president and executive producer of the show 30 Days.-Producing credits:*30 Days*Reno 911!*Reno 911!: Miami *Karen Sisco*Other People's Business*UC: Undercover*The American Embassy...
suggested that they should consider Glenn Close for the main character Patty Hewes. Close had earlier worked on FX's The Shield
The Shield
The Shield is an American television drama series starring Michael Chiklis which premiered on March 12, 2002 on FX in the United States and concluded on November 25, 2008 after seven seasons...
and had conveyed to the network officials that she would be interested to be cast as a lead in another show, so long as the show was set in New York City. After a three-hour meeting with the creators, Close accepted the role, impressed particularly by the powerful persona of the character "as the head of her own law firm [...] in a male-dominated world." In preparation for the role, Close met with several female attorneys in New York, including Mary Jo White
Mary Jo White
Mary Jo White was the first woman to be U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, serving from 1993 to 2002.White was born in Kansas City, Missouri and grew up in McLean, Virginia. She received her B.S...
, Lorna Scofield and Patricia Hynes. The creators chose Ted Danson for the part of Arthur Frobisher, a corrupt billionaire CEO, because of his role in the 1979 film The Onion Field
The Onion Field (film)
The Onion Field is a 1979 American drama film directed by Harold Becker. The screenplay by Joseph Wambaugh is based on his 1973 true crime novel of the same title...
. Danson was immediately attracted to the project after he learned that Close would be playing the lead role. As part of preparation, Danson studied the collapse of Enron
Enron
Enron Corporation was an American energy, commodities, and services company based in Houston, Texas. Before its bankruptcy on December 2, 2001, Enron employed approximately 22,000 staff and was one of the world's leading electricity, natural gas, communications, and pulp and paper companies, with...
by watching documentaries such as The Smartest Guys in the Room and meeting CEOs of various Fortune 500
Fortune 500
The Fortune 500 is an annual list compiled and published by Fortune magazine that ranks the top 500 U.S. closely held and public corporations as ranked by their gross revenue after adjustments made by Fortune to exclude the impact of excise taxes companies collect. The list includes publicly and...
corporations. The producers also suggested that Danson consult Close's acting coach Harold Guskin. Danson was initially hesitant about this suggestion, but found the consultation extremely helpful.
Cast members Rose Byrne
Rose Byrne
Mary Rose Byrne is an Australian actress.Byrne made her screen debut in 1994 with a small role in the film Dallas Doll...
and Tate Donovan
Tate Donovan
Tate Buckley Donovan is an American actor. He is known for his role in the FX drama Damages, as Tom Shayes, and for his role as Jimmy Cooper in the American teen drama television series The O.C....
, portraying Ellen Parsons and Tom Shayes respectively, secured their parts through auditions. Byrne had been unavailable the first time she was approached because she was shooting the film 28 Weeks Later
28 Weeks Later
28 Weeks Later is a 2007 British/Spanish film sequel to the 2002 post-apocalyptic horror film 28 Days Later. 28 Weeks Later was directed by Juan Carlos Fresnadillo and released in the United Kingdom and United States on 11 May 2007...
, but was able to audition later when the part had not yet been cast. Both Byrne and Donovan prepared for their roles by consulting lawyers and attending court trials. According to producers, the characters of Ellen's fiancé David Connor and his sister Katie were the hardest to cast. Noah Bean
Noah Bean
Noah Bean is an American actor best known for his role as David Connor on the FX legal drama Damages and as Ryan Fletcher on the The CW action series Nikita.-Career:...
, who got the role of David, said he "gave an awful first audition," but managed to get the part when he was given a second chance while waiting for an elevator. When British actor Anastasia Griffith
Anastasia Griffith
Anastasia Griffith is a British actress known for her roles on the FX legal drama Damages and the NBC series Trauma.-Career:...
auditioned for the part of Katie Connor, the producers were hesitant to have a British actor play an American, especially since they already had an Australian (Byrne) playing an American. However Griffith convinced the producers by speaking in an American accent throughout their follow-up meeting. At the time of casting, Griffith's role was intended only for three episodes, but was extended after the producers realized the success of the character.
Title Sequence
The title sequence, set to the V.L.A. song "When I Am Through With You," depicts images of New York CityNew York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
public sculpture, including "The Glory of Commerce," atop Grand Central Terminal
Grand Central Terminal
Grand Central Terminal —often incorrectly called Grand Central Station, or shortened to simply Grand Central—is a terminal station at 42nd Street and Park Avenue in Midtown Manhattan in New York City, United States...
, "Civic Fame" atop the Manhattan Municipal Building
Manhattan Municipal Building
The Manhattan Municipal Building, at 1 Centre Street in New York City, is a 40-story building built to accommodate increased governmental space demands after the 1898 consolidation of the city's five boroughs. Construction began in 1907 and ended in 1914, marking the end of the City Beautiful...
, and "Asia" in front of the Alexander Hamilton U.S. Custom House
Alexander Hamilton U.S. Custom House
The Alexander Hamilton U.S. Custom House is a building in New York City, built 1902–1907 by the federal government to house the duty collection operations for the port of New York. It is located near the southern tip of Manhattan, next to Battery Park, at 1 Bowling Green...
. The frieze
Frieze
thumb|267px|Frieze of the [[Tower of the Winds]], AthensIn architecture the frieze is the wide central section part of an entablature and may be plain in the Ionic or Doric order, or decorated with bas-reliefs. Even when neither columns nor pilasters are expressed, on an astylar wall it lies upon...
of the New York County Supreme Court Building is also shown, inscribed with a quote from George Washington
George Washington
George Washington was the dominant military and political leader of the new United States of America from 1775 to 1799. He led the American victory over Great Britain in the American Revolutionary War as commander-in-chief of the Continental Army from 1775 to 1783, and presided over the writing of...
, "The true administration of justice is the firmest pillar of good government." The title sequence, produced by the graphic design firm BigStar, was nominated for a Smithsonian’s
Smithsonian Institution
The Smithsonian Institution is an educational and research institute and associated museum complex, administered and funded by the government of the United States and by funds from its endowment, contributions, and profits from its retail operations, concessions, licensing activities, and magazines...
Cooper–Hewitt, National Design Museum People's Design Award
National Design Awards
The National Design Awards, founded in 2000, is funded and awarded by Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum. There are seven official design categories, and three additional awards...
.
Season One
The show begins at what appears to be the end. A young woman, Ellen Parsons, is found running through the streets half naked and covered in blood. Investigation by the police reveals that her fiancé, David, has been bludgeoned to death in their apartment, and Ellen is quickly arrested.The scene shifts to six months earlier when Ellen, a newly minted lawyer
Lawyer
A lawyer, according to Black's Law Dictionary, is "a person learned in the law; as an attorney, counsel or solicitor; a person who is practicing law." Law is the system of rules of conduct established by the sovereign government of a society to correct wrongs, maintain the stability of political...
, is being courted for prestigious jobs. She turns down an offer to work with the defense attorney Hollis Nye (Philip Bosco
Philip Bosco
-Personal life:Bosco was born in Jersey City, New Jersey, the son of Margaret Raymond , a policewoman, and Philip Lupo Bosco, a carnival worker. Bosco went to high school at St. Peter's Preparatory School in Jersey City. He attended the Catholic University of Washington, D.C. Bosco married Nancy...
) in favor of working for notorious lawyer Patty Hewes. When Nye finds out about this, he warns Ellen that working for Patty will change her.
Ellen soon becomes engrossed in the major case which Patty's firm, Hewes and Associates, is pursuing. Hewes and Associates has been retained in a class action suit by the former employees of billionaire Arthur Frobisher (Ted Danson
Ted Danson
Edward Bridge “Ted” Danson III is an American actor best known for his role as central character Sam Malone in the sitcom Cheers, and his role as Dr. John Becker on the series Becker. He also plays a recurring role on Larry David's HBO sitcom Curb Your Enthusiasm and starred alongside Glenn Close...
). In a case reminiscent of Enron
Enron
Enron Corporation was an American energy, commodities, and services company based in Houston, Texas. Before its bankruptcy on December 2, 2001, Enron employed approximately 22,000 staff and was one of the world's leading electricity, natural gas, communications, and pulp and paper companies, with...
, Frobisher is accused of insider trading and lying to his employees about the health of his company even as he unloaded hundreds of millions of his own stock, depriving his employees of their retirements and benefits.
Early on in the series Patty shows that she is willing to go to extreme, even unethical and illegal, lengths to win her case. One such instance is when she has the pet dog of a reluctant witness killed in a manner which makes it look as if Frobisher is responsible. This action emboldens the witness to testify against Frobisher.
As the season progresses Ellen becomes more and more involved in the case, and in Patty's shady dealings. Part of this is due to Ellen's personal connections to the case. Her fiancé's sister turns out to be an important witness in the case. For most of the season Ellen skirts the edge of what is unethical, but eventually comes to cross that line.
As Ellen becomes more and more devoted to the case, her relationship with her fiancé becomes strained. The situation is not helped when Patty betrays his sister. Eventually Ellen and David tire of Patty and Ellen publicly leaves Hewes and Associates. However, she still has an interest in the case and soon becomes personally embroiled in it again.
Throughout the first season, the series plays with time. The narrative switches back and forth between a traditional linear narrative of events happening in "the past" and a more temporally disjointed narrative of events happening in "the present." The main plot focus of these flashes was the murder of Ellen's fiancé David and the apparent attack on Ellen that same day when she was staying at Patty's apartment. The flashes served to increase speculation among viewers since the audience was privy to information about the future which the characters were not. Until the final episode, speculation over the identity of the murderer switched between a whole host of characters including Ellen, Patty, Frobisher, and a stalker whom David acquired.
By the end of the first season the main narrative of the show has "caught up" with the flash forwards and most of the questions raised by them are resolved. The murder charges against Ellen are dropped. The identities of David's murderer and Ellen's attacker are revealed to the audience, and the Frobisher case is resolved with Frobisher giving up two billion dollars of his own fortune to the employees, in exchange for no criminal charges being filed against him. He is later shot and left for dead by a former employee he double crossed earlier by manipulating him for information.
Season Two
Glenn CloseGlenn Close
Glenn Close is an American actress and singer of theatre and film, known for her roles as a femme fatale Glenn Close (born March 19, 1947) is an American actress and singer of theatre and film, known for her roles as a femme fatale Glenn Close (born March 19, 1947) is an American actress and...
, Rose Byrne
Rose Byrne
Mary Rose Byrne is an Australian actress.Byrne made her screen debut in 1994 with a small role in the film Dallas Doll...
, and Tate Donovan
Tate Donovan
Tate Buckley Donovan is an American actor. He is known for his role in the FX drama Damages, as Tom Shayes, and for his role as Jimmy Cooper in the American teen drama television series The O.C....
returned as regulars for the second season of Damages. Season 1 recurring star Anastasia Griffith
Anastasia Griffith
Anastasia Griffith is a British actress known for her roles on the FX legal drama Damages and the NBC series Trauma.-Career:...
became a regular and season 1 regular Ted Danson
Ted Danson
Edward Bridge “Ted” Danson III is an American actor best known for his role as central character Sam Malone in the sitcom Cheers, and his role as Dr. John Becker on the series Becker. He also plays a recurring role on Larry David's HBO sitcom Curb Your Enthusiasm and starred alongside Glenn Close...
returned for five episodes. William Hurt
William Hurt
William McGill Hurt is an American stage and film actor. He received his acting training at the Juilliard School, and began acting on stage in the 1970s. Hurt made his film debut as a troubled scientist in the science-fiction feature Altered States , for which he received a Golden Globe nomination...
, Timothy Olyphant
Timothy Olyphant
Timothy David Olyphant is an American actor whose notable roles in television drama series include Deadwood as Seth Bullock, Justified as Raylan Givens, The Office as Danny Cordray, and Damages as Wes Krulik...
and Marcia Gay Harden
Marcia Gay Harden
Marcia Gay Harden is an American film and theatre actress. Harden's breakthrough role was in Miller's Crossing and then The First Wives Club which was followed by several roles which gained her wider fame including the hit comedy Flubber and Meet Joe Black...
joined the cast.
Season 2 begins with once naive young attorney Ellen Parsons (Rose Byrne
Rose Byrne
Mary Rose Byrne is an Australian actress.Byrne made her screen debut in 1994 with a small role in the film Dallas Doll...
) talking to an unknown person off-screen. Suddenly, she pulls a gun into the frame and pulls the trigger twice.
Six months earlier, a mysterious scientist named Daniel Purcell (William Hurt
William Hurt
William McGill Hurt is an American stage and film actor. He received his acting training at the Juilliard School, and began acting on stage in the 1970s. Hurt made his film debut as a troubled scientist in the science-fiction feature Altered States , for which he received a Golden Globe nomination...
) sends Patty (Glenn Close
Glenn Close
Glenn Close is an American actress and singer of theatre and film, known for her roles as a femme fatale Glenn Close (born March 19, 1947) is an American actress and singer of theatre and film, known for her roles as a femme fatale Glenn Close (born March 19, 1947) is an American actress and...
) a box of documents after her victory over Arthur Frobisher. Purcell asks for Patty's help, proclaiming he is being threatened, but she refuses. The following night, Purcell's wife, Christine (Paige Turco
Paige Turco
Jean Paige Turco is an American actress. She is known for playing April O'Neil in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Secret of the Ooze and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III.-Early life:...
), turns up dead and Patty agrees to help him. As the case of the murder unfolds, Patty realizes that there is a major conspiracy taking place between Purcell's scientific firm and a huge energy corporation, Ultima National Resources. As they continue to make headway the case rolls on. Over time, the presumed killer of Purcell's wife is arrested and the corporation's environmental hazards are exposed. When Patty is moments away from bringing UNR down, however, Daniel turns on her in open court and defends UNR. We later realize that Purcell has been working for UNR all along and he is indirectly yet knowingly responsible for the murder of his wife. UNR CEO Walter Kendrick (John Doman
John Doman
John Doman is an American actor best known for playing Deputy Police Commissioner William Rawls on HBO series The Wire from 2002 to 2008 and Colonel Edward Galson on Oz in 2001....
) is revealed to be merging his company with another corporation for reasons far more complicated, bizarre and secretive than meet the eye. When Patty realizes this, she decides to use a plaintiff of the UNR lawsuit to stop what could happen. She is then able to convince Frobisher (Ted Danson
Ted Danson
Edward Bridge “Ted” Danson III is an American actor best known for his role as central character Sam Malone in the sitcom Cheers, and his role as Dr. John Becker on the series Becker. He also plays a recurring role on Larry David's HBO sitcom Curb Your Enthusiasm and starred alongside Glenn Close...
) to become involved, to repair his image. Meanwhile, unbeknown to Patty and the remaining plaintiffs, Kendrick's attorney, Claire Maddox (Marcia Gay Harden
Marcia Gay Harden
Marcia Gay Harden is an American film and theatre actress. Harden's breakthrough role was in Miller's Crossing and then The First Wives Club which was followed by several roles which gained her wider fame including the hit comedy Flubber and Meet Joe Black...
), had an affair with Purcell. Claire at this time is unaware of Kendrick's involvement in Christine's murder.
The mystery of the murder later comes to a close when it is discovered that Purcell choked his wife when she threatened to tell the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
United States Environmental Protection Agency
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is an agency of the federal government of the United States charged with protecting human health and the environment, by writing and enforcing regulations based on laws passed by Congress...
about UNR's contamination. He thought he had killed her, but she was still alive when Deacon (Darrell Hammond
Darrell Hammond
Darrell Hammond is an American actor, stand-up comedian and impressionist. He was a regular on Saturday Night Live from 1995 until 2009, the longest tenure of any cast member. Upon his departure, Hammond, at age 53, was the oldest cast member in the show's history...
) arrives at the house. Kendrick tells Deacon to finish the job. He does just that, leaving Purcell to think he had murdered his wife. Purcell cannot bear the guilt and confesses to police that he murdered his wife.
Ellen, meanwhile, still under the impression that Patty had tried to have her killed, is working with Agent Werner (Glenn Kessler
Glenn Kessler
Glenn Kessler is a veteran diplomatic correspondent who writes the popular "Fact Checker" column for The Washington Post, in which he examines the truth behind political and diplomatic rhetoric.-Career:...
) and Agent Harrison (Mario van Peebles
Mario Van Peebles
Mario "Chip" Cain Van Peebles is an American director and actor who has appeared in numerous Hollywood films. He is son of filmmaker Melvin Van Peebles.-Life and career:...
) of the FBI to bring her down. The audience discovers it was possible that it was Uncle Pete who commissioned Ellen's attempted murder. In grief counseling, Ellen meets and befriends a mysterious loner named Wes Krulik (Timothy Olyphant
Timothy Olyphant
Timothy David Olyphant is an American actor whose notable roles in television drama series include Deadwood as Seth Bullock, Justified as Raylan Givens, The Office as Danny Cordray, and Damages as Wes Krulik...
) and begins to confide in him. Wes, however, is secretly working with Rick Messer, the police detective on Frobisher's payroll who had murdered David Connor and who is still working for Frobisher. Krulik also has a shrine of newspaper articles on Arthur Frobisher, articles about David's murder, and articles from Ellen's arrest, as well as a large variety of guns and other weapons. As the season closes, Wes refuses to follow Detective Messer's order to kill Ellen, as Ellen has begun to suspect police involvement. As Messer tries to lure Ellen into a trap, Wes executes Messer in the season finale.
When Katie (Anastasia Griffith
Anastasia Griffith
Anastasia Griffith is a British actress known for her roles on the FX legal drama Damages and the NBC series Trauma.-Career:...
) re-enters Ellen's life, she begins to bring up old conflicts as well as new issues. Katie recognized a police officer as the man who tried to kill her. She told Ellen, who enlisted Patty's help. They got nowhere, so Katie went to the police dept. and filed a report against him. This led to an argument between Ellen and Katie, with Katie claiming that if Ellen had never met Patty, David would still be alive. Katie questions Ellen's reasoning for going back to Patty. Ellen attempts to explain that she has her reasons, reasons that Katie would not understand. When Messer realizes that his partner's cover has been blown, he shoots and kills him.
Frobisher returns as a plaintiff against UNR for Patty in an effort to "get his name back". This creates an opportunity for Ellen to find new information and eventually link Frobisher to Detective Messer's agency. Wes recovers this information and lets Messer know, and he threatens Frobisher's life, forcing him to pull out of the case. Messer's problems continue. However, as Wes begins to develop feelings for Ellen, he wonders if Wes can be trusted. When he tells Wes to take Ellen out, Wes refuses until Messer brings up his past and Wes feels he has no choice but to comply.
Walter Kendrick is now initiating a merger which is discovered to be a scheme to make money based on manipulated energy fraud. His partner, Dave Pell (Clarke Peters
Clarke Peters
Clarke Peters is an American actor, singer, writer and director best known for his role as Detective Lester Freamon on the HBO drama The Wire.-Early life:...
), has much more incentive than Kendrick because he has a relationship with Patty's husband Phil (Michael Nouri
Michael Nouri
Michael Nouri is an American television and film actor. He may be best known for his role as Nick Hurley, in the 1983 film Flashdance. He has had recurring roles in numerous television series, including NCIS as Eli David, the father of Mossad officer Ziva David, The O.C. as Dr...
). Pell makes Phil a tempting offer, which Phil accepts. It is at that time that Phil's extramarital affair comes to light. When it is leaked to the press, Patty kicks him out of their house and Phil is no longer considered a candidate. We also find that Pell has been talking to the FBI with information on Patty. Subsequently, when Agent Werner's cover is blown, Pell executes Harrison.
Kendrick's illegal activities continue. When Claire attacks Patty, Patty mentions Fin Garrity (Kevin Corrigan
Kevin Corrigan
Kevin Fitzgerald Corrigan is an American actor who has appeared mostly in independent films and television since the 1990s.-Life and career:Corrigan was born in The Bronx, New York to an Irish-American father and a Puerto Rican mother...
), the energy trader being used by Walter and Dave. Claire begins to realize she is being used in a conspiracy and asks for the assistance of Daniel. Claire lets the idea of power get the best of her, realizing she could head up UNR. A suspicious Kendrick catches her having sexual relations with Daniel. Kendrick uses this to get Claire thrown out of UNR, and she immediately goes to Patty saying, "I want you to destroy him." Claire tells Patty that she can trust Daniel Purcell. Patty therefore successfully uses Purcell to crack the energy codes which gives Patty enough evidence to testify against UNR in court.
Tate Donovan returns as Patty's partner Tom Shayes. After he is given an infant mortality case which the FBI wanted Patty to take in order to bring her down, the witness asked Tom for some money to hold her over until the trial or she would go to another attorney. He was about to hand over the money until Patty heard about the bribe and convinced Tom to join her in the case against UNR. While chasing a lead to find out more information on Fin Garrity, Tom is propositioned by a call girl. It is unknown whether Tom gave in to her advances. Despite being named a partner with Patty, he is still left in the dark when it comes to certain issues regarding the case. Tom's wife also just gave birth to a son this season.
Patty realizes that victory in the UNR case relies on the GPS code from Walter Kendrick's Cadillac to be entered into evidence. Because the car was stolen to retrieve the codes, it cannot be entered into evidence. To fix this, Patty puts Ellen up to the task of bribing the judge. But Patty soon takes back the request and gives the job to Tom. After Ellen and Agent Werner were planning to use this to bring down Patty, they target Tom and take him into custody, citing his almost-bribe with Agent Hawkins in the infant mortality case as the reason, while he is on his way to the hospital where his wife is giving birth. Ellen convinces Tom to wear a wire and he goes back to Patty and turns down the job of bribing the judge, and urging Patty not to do so either. Angry, Patty fires Tom for letting her down.
In the season finale, Ellen convinces Patty to bribe the judge after the judge makes it clear that in the current state of the case, he will not allow the evidence of the stolen SUV (a subtle hint to Patty's firm that he needs a payoff). Ellen feels she has Patty setup and arranges with Agent Werner to monitor the payoff. Meanwhile Patty confronts Fin Garrity, the energy trader involved with UNR. This sets off a chain reaction between Garrity, Kendrick, and Patty and which causes Garrity to seek out Patty as she is taking the bribe to hand over to Ellen at Ellen's hotel room. In the run-up to the final confrontation between Patty and Ellen (alluded to in flash forwards all season), Patty makes a deal with Pell. Pell will call off the FBI and reveals Ellen to be the insider working for the Feds. Patty gets Pell to hand over the data that UNR is using toxic chemicals. In return, Patty will drop the energy trading angle of the case. She also sets up Ellen as the fall guy for bribing the judge. Ellen, meanwhile, works a deal with Tom, procuring a handgun in the process, after Wes refuses to get her one.
Ellen confronts Patty about her actions from season one. She has evidence from Uncle Pete's wife that she feels is proof Patty set her up to be killed. However, when she hands the evidence to Patty, the folder is shown to hold only a message that the Feds are watching, not the evidence of Patty's involvement with Ellen's attempted murder. Ellen fires two shots at Patty, but instead of aiming for Patty, she aims at the camera installed by the FBI. She then gets Patty's confession that she indeed was responsible for setting up Ellen to be murdered. Satisfied with the confession, Ellen leaves with the bribe for the judge. Patty leaves after Ellen, but is shown to be bleeding. Patty is found in the elevator by Agent Werner, who assumes Ellen shot Patty and leaves to pursue Ellen. Wes, who was monitoring Ellen from across the hall, also finds Patty (right after Agent Werner leaves) and gets her to the hospital. It is revealed that Patty had been stabbed by Fin Garrity on the elevator before her confrontation with Ellen. When Ellen bribes the judge, Agent Werner has her and the Judge arrested for bribery. As they leave, Federal Marshals (led by Tom's sister) arrest Agent Werner for corruption. Tom reveals to Ellen that Patty, apparently, had discovered the FBI scheme and worked with him to record the conversation with Pell. This leads to both Kendrick and Pell getting arrested. The season ends one month later with Patty recovering at home, Tom returning to Patty's firm, and Ellen with a new unrevealed job offer (and out of touch with Hewes and Associates). However, Patty states she feels that Ellen will be in contact with them soon.
Season Three
Glenn Close, Rose Byrne and Tate Donovan returned as regulars for the third season of Damages. Campbell ScottCampbell Scott
Campbell Scott is an American actor, director, producer, and voice artist.-Life and career:Scott was born in New York City, the son of George C. Scott, an actor, director, and producer, and Colleen Dewhurst, a Canadian-born actress. He graduated from Lawrence University in 1983. His brother is...
and Martin Short
Martin Short
Martin Hayter Short, CM is a Canadian actor, comedian, writer, singer and producer. He is best-known for his comedy work, particularly on the TV programs SCTV and Saturday Night Live...
joined the cast, while high-profile actors Lily Tomlin
Lily Tomlin
Mary Jean "Lily" Tomlin is an American actress, comedienne, writer, and producer. Tomlin has been a major force in American comedy since the late 1960's when she began a career as a stand up comedian and became a featured performer on television's Laugh-in...
and Keith Carradine
Keith Carradine
Keith Ian Carradine is an American actor who has had success on stage, film and television. In addition, he is a Golden Globe and Oscar winning songwriter. As a member of the Carradine family, he is part of an acting "dynasty" that began with his father, John Carradine.-Early life:Keith...
were special guest stars.
At the start of Season Three, Patty is involved in a car accident. The other car belongs to her partner, Tom Shayes, who is later found dead in a Dumpster. It is implied that Ellen is involved in Tom's death, as her blood-stained purse is found among a homeless man's belongings. Prior to his death, Tom is seen handing Ellen a bag full of money from Leonard Winstone, the Tobin family's attorney. The police discover that Tom had drowned, and died two hours after Patty's accident. When Patty finds out about his death, we see her making a phone call, hysterical, screaming "I told you not to go through with it! I don't understand, I told you to stop!"
When Detective Huntley questions Ellen, he discusses what the homeless man told him and asks if she was romantically involved with Tom. Ellen replies "We were starting a law firm together."
Six months earlier, Patty Hewes is tackling a new case. Appointed a trustee by the US government, she is tasked to recover billions of dollars lost to the largest investment fraud in Wall Street history; a fraudent Ponzi scheme
Ponzi scheme
A Ponzi scheme is a fraudulent investment operation that pays returns to its investors from their own money or the money paid by subsequent investors, rather than from any actual profit earned by the individual or organization running the operation...
run by Louis Tobin (Len Cariou
Len Cariou
Leonard Joseph “Len” Cariou is a Canadian actor, best known for his portrayal of Sweeney Todd in the original cast of Sweeney Todd, the Demon Barber of Fleet Street...
), a Bernie Madoff-type. Patty believes Tobin has hidden the money, and that members of his family, most notably his loyal son Joe (Campbell Scott), his secretive wife Marilyn (Lily Tomlin), daughter Carol, and his trusted attorney and family friend Leonard Winstone (Martin Short), know much more than they claim to. It is revealed that Tom has a personal involvement in the case; he invested in the Tobin fund and lost his savings, which compromises his professional involvement. Ellen, meanwhile, has stayed true to her promise not to return to Patty, and has not seen her for the past year that she has been working at the District Attorney's office. Ellen runs into Tom and she mentions she has trouble cracking a drug case. Shortly afterward, Ellen's case is suddenly resolved under suspicious circumstances, and she receives a package from Hewes & Associates containing an expensive Chanel bag from Patty (the same bloodstained bag that ends up in the hands of the homeless man). While Hewes & Associates is working on recovering money for the victims, the District Attorney's office is only interested in bringing criminal charges against the Tobin family. Believing Hewes and Associates is more capable than the district attorney to bring about restitution, Ellen starts to secretly cooperate with Patty and Tom and they all get drawn into the Tobin family's world of lies and deceit.
The story begins on Thanksgiving night when Louis Tobin tells his family the truth about the fraud. Knowing he will be imprisoned, he shares his secrets with his much-loved but weak son Joe. The night before his prison sentence is set to begin, Louis Tobin commits suicide, leaving Joe to take responsibility for the disgraced family. A recovering alcoholic and a disappointment to his father, Joe finds Louis's body along with a potassium mixture his physician supplied earlier that night and an envelope addressed to Patty Hewes. The envelope contains all details about the fraud and instructions on how to recover the hidden money. Joe must decide whether to give the money up and clear his name or risk imprisonment and take care of the family and its future. Not wishing to lose his wife and son and wanting to provide for his mother, Joe chooses money over the truth and begins working with the family's lawyer, Leonard Winstone, to follow his father's conspiracy plan. Leonard, who was intensely loyal to Louis and considers himself part of the Tobin family, shifts his allegiance to Joe. Already devastated by his father's fraud and death, Joe learns his old flame, Danielle Marchetti (Madchen Amick
Mädchen Amick
Mädchen Amick is an American actress best known for playing Shelly Johnson on the cult television series Twin Peaks and its 1992 prequel film Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me.-Early life:...
), had an affair with his father that resulted in a daughter, his half-sister. Her involvement with Louis may have drastic influence on the family's future with regard to Patty finding the money. Joe crumbles under the pressure and starts drinking again, spiraling out of control. Leonard has him followed and is prepared to have him committed to rehab to prevent compromising the family further; but Joe realizes how important he is to the family and stops drinking. As more obstacles and threats appear and the plan to recover the family fortune is endangered, his remaining moral integrity becomes more sompromised. He almost lets his ex-girlfriend and his father's mistress die, trying to get her out of the country so she could not testify against them.
Danielle doesn't escape death though and after a brief visit by Carol Tobin, Joe's sister, Danielle is found poisoned with the same mixture Louis Tobin used to invoke his heart attack. Joe and Leonard are recovering the money through Louis Tobin's old friend, shady businessman Mr. Zedeck. The money is stashed in a secret account in Antigua in the Caribbean, transported to the US in smaller amounts by a courier and then laundered through a charity. The courier is a young flight attendant and no one else but Danielle Marchetti's daughter Tessa. Tessa makes weekly visits to the bank but seems to think she is signing legitimate documents to receive her salary, unaware of any fraud. Fond of Louis Tobin, whom she believes was her father, she withholds information that could incriminate the family and make her a witness for Patty and the DA.
Joe is pleased with Tessa at first but she's contacted by the lawyers repeatedly Joe expresses concerns about her loyalty. Leonard hastily meets with Marilyn Tobin, telling her that Tessa isn't safe and that Joe needs to know the truth. Marilyn promises to tell Joe that Tessa is, in fact, his daughter. Meanwhile, Tessa is approached by both by Patty and the DA's office and when Tom desperately tries to make her testify and he tells her Tobins killed her mother, she agrees to cooperate. Tessa is found dead together with Patty's private investigator Malcolm in Antigua where they were trying to obtain the documents from the bank. Leonard is seen talking to Marilyn Tobin again, clearly outraged she did not tell Joe the truth, thus causing Tessa's death. With that, each member of the family has caused somebody's death.
After Tessa's demise, Patty is desperate and the case stalls. Patty decides the only way to win is to "rip that family apart". Carol is guilt-ridden over killing Danielle and is the first to be apprehended for her crime. Joe receives information about their attorney Leonard Winstone, who turns out to be a small-time crook with stolen identity and no law degree so Joe fires him. In return, Leonard and his career-criminal father get access to the account and make withdrawals without the knowledge of Joe or Mr. Zedeck. Marilyn Tobin eventually tells Joe that his father only devised the fraud to cover up Joe's mistake which left his investors high and dry. Joe is furious, tells his mother she will never see him or her grandson again and kicks her out. Marilyn gets drunk and sentimental watching old home videos, leaves home, takes a taxi and just asks the driver to take her to the East River and jumps off the bridge. Her body is later found in the water. With nothing left to lose, Joe decides to find Tom whom he blames for losing his house, family, and everything.
In the meantime, Tom has made a deal with Winstone. Tom and Ellen promise Winstone immunity from prosecution in return for money for Tom and the envelope Louis Tobin left on the night of his death. Patty doesn't trust Winstone and has an odd feeling about the arrangement and instructs Tom and Ellen not to go through with the deal. But Tom is motivated by being scammed himself and refuses to let go of his chance for revenge. Waiting for the Tobin lawyer, Tom gets stabbed by Zedeck's associate when he wouldn't give up Winstone's whereabouts but is saved by Leonard in the last moment, injured but able to make his way home. Joe finds Tom, bleeding in the bathroom of his house and after Tom calls Louis Tobin a thief, Joe becomes enraged, drowns Tom in the toilet and puts his body in a dumpster. Joe is arrested and after a short, private talk with Patty, confesses all. Winstone calls Ellen to let her know he left the evidence with the homeless man because he didn't trust Tom or Patty. When he hangs up, we see he has a bag full of money and is boarding a flight. It is when Tom's body has been found that Patty calls Ellen and screams "I told you not to go through with it! I told you to stop!"
Arthur Frobisher (Ted Danson
Ted Danson
Edward Bridge “Ted” Danson III is an American actor best known for his role as central character Sam Malone in the sitcom Cheers, and his role as Dr. John Becker on the series Becker. He also plays a recurring role on Larry David's HBO sitcom Curb Your Enthusiasm and starred alongside Glenn Close...
) returns, launching his new environmentally-friendly company. He is working with an actor (Craig Bierko
Craig Bierko
Craig Philip Bierko is an American actor and singer.-Early life:Bierko was born in Rye Brook, New York, the son of Pat and Rex Bierko, who ran a local community theatre. Bierko's mother was a Jewish convert to Roman Catholicism...
), who originally showed little interest in working with him beyond an investment. However, after reading Arthur's book, he decides that he wants to make this into a movie about Frobisher's case against Patty – and he is given the film rights to the book in exchange for being Frobisher's company spokesman. In the season finale, Ellen contacts Wes who comes back to tell her of his previous covert role and execution of Messer, who murdered her fiance David. He offers to help her convict Frobisher, but she rejects his offer on the grounds she does not want Wes to go to prison. Wes nonetheless later corners Frobisher at gunpoint in his car and with Frobisher begging for his life, Wes calls the police to confess everything. Frobisher's last scene is sitting in the back of a police car under arrest for murder, trying to figure out how he can get off.
The relationship between Patty and Ellen is different than in past seasons, because they have reached a point of clarity and distance between them. The unspoken bond between the two resurfaces as they work on the same case. Throughout the third season, Ellen is trying to prove that she can get to and manipulate Patty although she never really succeeds. Ellen is bitter about being replaced by a new, young and highly ambitious girl, Alex, who is willing to do just about anything to get the job and please Patty. Unaware of the animosity, Alex comes to Ellen for advice and Ellen is sabotaging her every step of the way. Patty eventually gets tired of Alex being so submissive and enslaved and fires her anyway. Patty is trying to come to terms with her son Michael being grown up and leaving home but she cannot overcome the fact he is dating a woman (Jill) at least fifteen years his senior. When Patty finds out the couple is expecting a baby, she decides to step in and offers Jill money to leave her son and the city. Jill returns to accept the offer, asks for five hundred thousand but breaks the conditions of the deal, stays with Michael and spends the money on a luxury car and an apartment. Before long, Jill finds herself in custody for having sex with a minor and about to lose everything including her freedom and the baby. In one brief moment we learn that indeed the car that hit Patty was driven by Michael, raging because of Jill's incarceration.
Ellen too deals with a family crisis when her sister is arrested on a drug charge. She denies selling drugs and blames a friend for ratting on her. Ellen uses Malcolm, Patty's investigator, to try to help but digs out her sister was lying to her all along and has been dealing drugs for some time. Ellen decides not to help her out of jail to straighten her out but also not to tarnish her reputation at work. Finally, we also learn about an old and painful secret Patty has been keeping for years. Through memories and dreams Patty repeatedly sees herself, highly pregnant, walking somewhere up to a ranch with horses and a man she briefly talks to. He asks her what she's doing so far away from her home in her condition and Patty answers her doctor said she'd be ok. In a flashback Patty is talking to a doctor and they agree that the child is more important than school, work or anything else. In another flashback however, the doctor is telling Patty she absolutely must stay in bed and avoid any physical activity or else the baby will die. Then her memories and dreams reveal the walk and that she started bleeding at the ranch. Following Tom's funeral, Patty indirectly admits to Ellen that she brought on the miscarriage so that she could go to New York and accept an important job offer thus beginning her climb to the top of the legal profession. Ellen then asks her "Is it worth it?". Patty doesn't reply, and Ellen leaves.
Season Four
On July 19, 2010 DirecTV announced that it had officially picked up the series for a fourth and fifth season, each consisting of ten episodes.Glenn Close
Glenn Close
Glenn Close is an American actress and singer of theatre and film, known for her roles as a femme fatale Glenn Close (born March 19, 1947) is an American actress and singer of theatre and film, known for her roles as a femme fatale Glenn Close (born March 19, 1947) is an American actress and...
returns as Patty Hewes and Rose Byrne
Rose Byrne
Mary Rose Byrne is an Australian actress.Byrne made her screen debut in 1994 with a small role in the film Dallas Doll...
as Ellen Parsons in season four, which focuses on private military contractors in Afghanistan.
John Goodman
John Goodman
John Stephen Goodman is an American film, television, and stage actor. He is best known for his role as Dan Conner on the television series Roseanne for which he won a Best Actor Golden Globe Award in 1993, and for appearances in the films of the Coen brothers, with prominent roles in Raising...
and Dylan Baker
Dylan Baker
Dylan Baker is an American actor, known for playing supporting roles in both major studio and independent films.-Early life:...
join the cast as series regulars with Chris Messina
Chris Messina
Chris Messina may refer to:*Chris Messina *Chris Messina...
, Judd Hirsch
Judd Hirsch
Judd Hirsch is an American actor most known for playing Alex Rieger on the television comedy series Taxi, John Lacey on the NBC series Dear John, and Alan Eppes on the CBS series Numb3rs.-Early life and education:...
, Fisher Stevens
Fisher Stevens
Fisher Stevens is an American actor, director and producer. His most recent successes include the 2010 Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature for his film The Cove and 2008 Independent Spirit Award for Best Documentary Feature for his film Crazy Love...
, Griffin Dunne
Griffin Dunne
-Personal life:Dunne was born Thomas Griffin Dunne in New York City, New York, the son of Ellen Beatriz Dunne and Dominick Dunne. His mother founded the victims' rights organization Justice for Homicide Victims and his father was a producer, writer, and actor...
, Julie White
Julie White
Julie White is an American actress. She is known for her role in Grace Under Fire and for her role as Judy Witwicky in the Transformers film series.-Personal life:...
, Bailey Chase
Bailey Chase
Bailey Chase is a stage and television actor known for his role as Butch Ada in the television series Saving Grace, his recurring roles as Graham Miller in Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Christopher "Chris" Robert Hughes in the soap opera As the World Turns and Beckett 'Becks' Scott on Ugly...
and Derek Webster
Derek Webster
Derek Webster can refer to:* Derek Webster .* the publisher and editor of Maisonneuve magazine....
in recurring roles. The show was created and is executive produced by KZK and co-executive produced by Mark A. Baker.
The fourth season of Damages finds Patty and Ellen embroiled in a wrongful-death suit against a private military contractor, Howard T. Erickson (John Goodman). Erickson has made a fortune supplying the U.S. Government with security forces in Afghanistan and is protected by his connections within the highest echelons of power in Washington, D.C. Chris Sanchez (Chris Messina), a decorated soldier who now works for the security firm is drawn into the web of intrigue when Ellen and Patty set their sights on his corrupt employer. Complicating matters is Jerry Boorman (Dylan Baker), a shadowy opportunist with ties to both Erickson and the Middle East who is intimately involved in the season-long conspiracy at the heart of the lawsuit. Griffin Dunne plays a foreign correspondent who’s looking to write a story about the embattled company, Bailey Chase plays Ellen Parson's love interest and Judd Hirsch as an old mentor of Patty's.
Season Five
On July 19, 2010 DirecTV announced that it had officially picked up the series for a fourth and fifth season, each consisting of ten episodes. Production for Season 5 is scheduled to begin sometime in October 2011, although, an air date for the fifth season has not been set.At the finale party for Season 4, Todd Kessler stated that the fifth season would indeed be the final season of the series and that the writers are coming up with an idea where Patty and Ellen are forced to go head to head against one another during a case.
Glenn Close
Glenn Close
Glenn Close is an American actress and singer of theatre and film, known for her roles as a femme fatale Glenn Close (born March 19, 1947) is an American actress and singer of theatre and film, known for her roles as a femme fatale Glenn Close (born March 19, 1947) is an American actress and...
returns as Patty Hewes and Rose Byrne
Rose Byrne
Mary Rose Byrne is an Australian actress.Byrne made her screen debut in 1994 with a small role in the film Dallas Doll...
as Ellen Parsons in the upcoming fifth season. Ryan Phillippe
Ryan Phillippe
Matthew Ryan Phillippe , better known as Ryan Phillippe, is an American actor. After appearing on the soap opera One Life to Live, he came to fame in the late 1990s starring in a string of films, including I Know What You Did Last Summer, Cruel Intentions, and 54...
has been cast as Channing McClaren, a Julian Assange type-character who becomes the lynchpin in the case between Ellen and Patty. Jenna Elfman
Jenna Elfman
Jennifer Mary "Jenna" Elfman is an American television and film actress. She is known for her role as Dharma on the ABC sitcom Dharma & Greg and as Billie on the short-lived CBS sitcom Accidentally on Purpose....
has a recurring role and will play an investment bank employee who is troubled by her company’s conduct, while Alexandra Socha
Alexandra Socha
Alexandra Socha is an American actress who took over the leading role of Wendla in the rock musical Spring Awakening in May 2008. She next appeared in the first Broadway revival of the Neil Simon play Brighton Beach Memoirs, as Nora.-Life and career:...
will play her daughter. John Hannah
John Hannah (actor)
John David Hannah is a Scottish actor of film and television. He has appeared in Stephen Sommers' Mummy Series, Richard Curtis' Four Weddings and a Funeral and Sliding Doors with Gwyneth Paltrow...
has also been cast and will play Rutger, McClaren’s loyal adviser.
Characters
The series main focus is the mentorMentor
In Greek mythology, Mentor was the son of Alcimus or Anchialus. In his old age Mentor was a friend of Odysseus who placed Mentor and Odysseus' foster-brother Eumaeus in charge of his son Telemachus, and of Odysseus' palace, when Odysseus left for the Trojan War.When Athena visited Telemachus she...
-protegee relationship between high-stakes attorney Patty Hewes (Glenn Close
Glenn Close
Glenn Close is an American actress and singer of theatre and film, known for her roles as a femme fatale Glenn Close (born March 19, 1947) is an American actress and singer of theatre and film, known for her roles as a femme fatale Glenn Close (born March 19, 1947) is an American actress and...
) and newly graduated attorney Ellen Parsons (Rose Byrne
Rose Byrne
Mary Rose Byrne is an Australian actress.Byrne made her screen debut in 1994 with a small role in the film Dallas Doll...
). During the first three seasons Tom Shayes (Tate Donovan
Tate Donovan
Tate Buckley Donovan is an American actor. He is known for his role in the FX drama Damages, as Tom Shayes, and for his role as Jimmy Cooper in the American teen drama television series The O.C....
) acts as Patty's associate, right-hand man and later partner. Michael Nouri
Michael Nouri
Michael Nouri is an American television and film actor. He may be best known for his role as Nick Hurley, in the 1983 film Flashdance. He has had recurring roles in numerous television series, including NCIS as Eli David, the father of Mossad officer Ziva David, The O.C. as Dr...
recurs throughout the series as Patty's spouse, and Zachary Booth
Zachary Booth
Zachary Booth is an American actor. He appeared in several productions with the Peterborough Players, before starring in The N's What Goes On as openly gay teen Ethan and on FX's Damages, as Michael Hewes, the son of lawyer Patty Hewes .Booth had supporting roles in the films Assassination of a...
as her son.
The first season mainly focused on a case involving Arthur Frobisher, played by Ted Danson
Ted Danson
Edward Bridge “Ted” Danson III is an American actor best known for his role as central character Sam Malone in the sitcom Cheers, and his role as Dr. John Becker on the series Becker. He also plays a recurring role on Larry David's HBO sitcom Curb Your Enthusiasm and starred alongside Glenn Close...
, a man blamed for embezzlement
Embezzlement
Embezzlement is the act of dishonestly appropriating or secreting assets by one or more individuals to whom such assets have been entrusted....
and fraud
Fraud
In criminal law, a fraud is an intentional deception made for personal gain or to damage another individual; the related adjective is fraudulent. The specific legal definition varies by legal jurisdiction. Fraud is a crime, and also a civil law violation...
; Zeljko Ivanek
Željko Ivanek
Željko Ivanek is an Emmy award-winning Slovenian American actor best known for his role as Ray Fiske on Damages. He is also known for playing Blake Sterling on short-lived NBC series The Event and Emile Danko on Heroes....
played his regretful attorney Ray Fiske. Noah Bean
Noah Bean
Noah Bean is an American actor best known for his role as David Connor on the FX legal drama Damages and as Ryan Fletcher on the The CW action series Nikita.-Career:...
starred as David Connor, Ellen's fiancée, with Anastasia Griffith
Anastasia Griffith
Anastasia Griffith is a British actress known for her roles on the FX legal drama Damages and the NBC series Trauma.-Career:...
recurring prominently as Katie Connor, David's sister and the key witness in the Frobisher case (At the end of the first season Bean and Ivanek leave the main cast with the death of their characters, but still serve as occasional guest stars with their characters appearing in flashback
Flashback (narrative)
Flashback is an interjected scene that takes the narrative back in time from the current point the story has reached. Flashbacks are often used to recount events that happened before the story’s primary sequence of events or to fill in crucial backstory...
s). Notable recurring characters during the first season were played by Peter Facinelli
Peter Facinelli
Peter Facinelli is an American actor. He became known as the star of Fox's 2002 television series Fastlane. He plays Carlisle Cullen in the film adaptations of the Twilight series. He is also well known for his role as Mike Dexter in the film Can't Hardly Wait...
, Philip Bosco
Philip Bosco
-Personal life:Bosco was born in Jersey City, New Jersey, the son of Margaret Raymond , a policewoman, and Philip Lupo Bosco, a carnival worker. Bosco went to high school at St. Peter's Preparatory School in Jersey City. He attended the Catholic University of Washington, D.C. Bosco married Nancy...
, and Peter Riegert
Peter Riegert
Peter Riegert is an American actor, screenwriter, and film director, best known for his role as Boon from Animal House and crooked New Jersey State Assemblyman Ronald Zellman on the HBO original series The Sopranos.-Early life:...
.
The second season found Patty and her firm inadvertently thrown into a massive case against the billion dollar-worth energy corporation Ultima National Resources (UNR). William Hurt
William Hurt
William McGill Hurt is an American stage and film actor. He received his acting training at the Juilliard School, and began acting on stage in the 1970s. Hurt made his film debut as a troubled scientist in the science-fiction feature Altered States , for which he received a Golden Globe nomination...
played Daniel Purcell, a mysterious man from Patty's past that initiates the case and puts it in Patty's hands. John Doman
John Doman
John Doman is an American actor best known for playing Deputy Police Commissioner William Rawls on HBO series The Wire from 2002 to 2008 and Colonel Edward Galson on Oz in 2001....
played Walter Kendrick (in a billed recurring role), the primary antagonist of the season as the CEO of UNR, while Marcia Gay Harden
Marcia Gay Harden
Marcia Gay Harden is an American film and theatre actress. Harden's breakthrough role was in Miller's Crossing and then The First Wives Club which was followed by several roles which gained her wider fame including the hit comedy Flubber and Meet Joe Black...
joined the cast as UNR's misinformed but smart and vicious lead counsel Claire Maddox. On the personal front, Anastasia Griffith returned as Ellen's friend Katie Connor, who helps her in taking down Frobisher, while Timothy Olyphant
Timothy Olyphant
Timothy David Olyphant is an American actor whose notable roles in television drama series include Deadwood as Seth Bullock, Justified as Raylan Givens, The Office as Danny Cordray, and Damages as Wes Krulik...
played a man in grief counseling that bonds with Ellen under ambiguous motives. Returning recurring actors in prominent roles were Ted Danson
Ted Danson
Edward Bridge “Ted” Danson III is an American actor best known for his role as central character Sam Malone in the sitcom Cheers, and his role as Dr. John Becker on the series Becker. He also plays a recurring role on Larry David's HBO sitcom Curb Your Enthusiasm and starred alongside Glenn Close...
, David Costabile
David Costabile
David Costabile is an American actor. Born in Washington, D.C. He is best known for his recurring television roles on The Wire , Flight of the Conchords , Damages , and Breaking Bad...
, Tom Aldredge
Tom Aldredge
Thomas Ernest "Tom" Aldredge was an American television, film and stage actor.-Life and career:Aldredge was born in Dayton, Ohio, the son of Lucienne Juliet and W. J. Aldredge, a colonel in the United States Army Air Corps...
, Mario van Peebles
Mario Van Peebles
Mario "Chip" Cain Van Peebles is an American director and actor who has appeared in numerous Hollywood films. He is son of filmmaker Melvin Van Peebles.-Life and career:...
and Glenn Kessler
Glenn Kessler
Glenn Kessler is a veteran diplomatic correspondent who writes the popular "Fact Checker" column for The Washington Post, in which he examines the truth behind political and diplomatic rhetoric.-Career:...
. Notable recurring characters during the second season were played by Clarke Peters
Clarke Peters
Clarke Peters is an American actor, singer, writer and director best known for his role as Detective Lester Freamon on the HBO drama The Wire.-Early life:...
, Brett Cullen
Brett Cullen
Peter Brett Cullen is an American actor who has appeared in numerous motion pictures and television programs. Early in 2007, he was cast as the role of an estranged father to one of the American football players, Tim Riggins , in the NBC drama series Friday Night Lights.Cullen was born in Houston,...
, Kevin Corrigan
Kevin Corrigan
Kevin Fitzgerald Corrigan is an American actor who has appeared mostly in independent films and television since the 1990s.-Life and career:Corrigan was born in The Bronx, New York to an Irish-American father and a Puerto Rican mother...
and Darrell Hammond
Darrell Hammond
Darrell Hammond is an American actor, stand-up comedian and impressionist. He was a regular on Saturday Night Live from 1995 until 2009, the longest tenure of any cast member. Upon his departure, Hammond, at age 53, was the oldest cast member in the show's history...
.
The third season, inspired by the Bernie Madoff scandal, tracked Patty's aggressive pursuit of bringing down the disgraced Tobin family after they were revealed to be a part of a Ponzi scheme
Ponzi scheme
A Ponzi scheme is a fraudulent investment operation that pays returns to its investors from their own money or the money paid by subsequent investors, rather than from any actual profit earned by the individual or organization running the operation...
that ripped off millions of citizens. Campbell Scott
Campbell Scott
Campbell Scott is an American actor, director, producer, and voice artist.-Life and career:Scott was born in New York City, the son of George C. Scott, an actor, director, and producer, and Colleen Dewhurst, a Canadian-born actress. He graduated from Lawrence University in 1983. His brother is...
played Joe Tobin, the shamed but ultimately spoiled and selfish youngest son of the family. Martin Short
Martin Short
Martin Hayter Short, CM is a Canadian actor, comedian, writer, singer and producer. He is best-known for his comedy work, particularly on the TV programs SCTV and Saturday Night Live...
played the family's longtime trusted lawyer Leonard Winstone that finds his place in this family changes as the Tobins reveal their true colors. Lily Tomlin
Lily Tomlin
Mary Jean "Lily" Tomlin is an American actress, comedienne, writer, and producer. Tomlin has been a major force in American comedy since the late 1960's when she began a career as a stand up comedian and became a featured performer on television's Laugh-in...
special guest starred throughout the season as the secretive matriarch Marilyn Tobin, while Len Cariou
Len Cariou
Leonard Joseph “Len” Cariou is a Canadian actor, best known for his portrayal of Sweeney Todd in the original cast of Sweeney Todd, the Demon Barber of Fleet Street...
appeared as the patriarch of the family blamed for all of the fraud and conspiracy. Returning recurring actors in prominent roles were Ted Danson
Ted Danson
Edward Bridge “Ted” Danson III is an American actor best known for his role as central character Sam Malone in the sitcom Cheers, and his role as Dr. John Becker on the series Becker. He also plays a recurring role on Larry David's HBO sitcom Curb Your Enthusiasm and starred alongside Glenn Close...
, and also Timothy Olyphant
Timothy Olyphant
Timothy David Olyphant is an American actor whose notable roles in television drama series include Deadwood as Seth Bullock, Justified as Raylan Givens, The Office as Danny Cordray, and Damages as Wes Krulik...
in a single guest appearance. Notable recurring characters during the third season were played by Dominic Chianese
Dominic Chianese
Dominic Chianese is an American film, television and theatre actor, perhaps best known for his role as Corrado "Junior" Soprano on the HBO TV series, The Sopranos.-Early life:...
, Madchen Amick
Mädchen Amick
Mädchen Amick is an American actress best known for playing Shelly Johnson on the cult television series Twin Peaks and its 1992 prequel film Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me.-Early life:...
, Ben Shenkman
Ben Shenkman
Benjamin Shenkman is an American television, film and stage actor.-Life and career:Shenkman was born in New York City and raised in what he described as "the secular Eastern European Jewish tradition". He graduated from Brown University, and obtained a Masters of Fine Arts in 1993 from New York...
, and Keith Carradine
Keith Carradine
Keith Ian Carradine is an American actor who has had success on stage, film and television. In addition, he is a Golden Globe and Oscar winning songwriter. As a member of the Carradine family, he is part of an acting "dynasty" that began with his father, John Carradine.-Early life:Keith...
. Wallace Shawn
Wallace Shawn
Wallace Michael Shawn , sometimes credited as Wally Shawn, is an American stand-up comedian, actor, writer, author, voice artist, and intellectual. His best-known film roles include Wally Shawn in My Dinner with Andre , Vizzini in The Princess Bride , and debate teacher Mr...
also made a notable guest appearance.
The fourth season, the first without Tate Donovan, followed a wrongful-death suit filed against a military contractor over a mysterious incident in a war zone. John Goodman
John Goodman
John Stephen Goodman is an American film, television, and stage actor. He is best known for his role as Dan Conner on the television series Roseanne for which he won a Best Actor Golden Globe Award in 1993, and for appearances in the films of the Coen brothers, with prominent roles in Raising...
played Howard Erickson, the CEO of the shadowy military contractor who becomes the defendant against Patty and Ellen over the corruption that occurred in the war zone. Dylan Baker
Dylan Baker
Dylan Baker is an American actor, known for playing supporting roles in both major studio and independent films.-Early life:...
played Jerry Boorman, a mysterious figure with secretive ties to the Middle East. Chris Messina
Chris Messina
Chris Messina may refer to:*Chris Messina *Chris Messina...
played Chris Sanchez, an old high school friend of Ellen's and a decorated soldier suffering from Posttraumatic Stress Disorder. Notable recurring characters during the fourth season were played by Griffin Dunne
Griffin Dunne
-Personal life:Dunne was born Thomas Griffin Dunne in New York City, New York, the son of Ellen Beatriz Dunne and Dominick Dunne. His mother founded the victims' rights organization Justice for Homicide Victims and his father was a producer, writer, and actor...
, Judd Hirsch
Judd Hirsch
Judd Hirsch is an American actor most known for playing Alex Rieger on the television comedy series Taxi, John Lacey on the NBC series Dear John, and Alan Eppes on the CBS series Numb3rs.-Early life and education:...
, Fisher Stevens
Fisher Stevens
Fisher Stevens is an American actor, director and producer. His most recent successes include the 2010 Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature for his film The Cove and 2008 Independent Spirit Award for Best Documentary Feature for his film Crazy Love...
, and Bailey Chase
Bailey Chase
Bailey Chase is a stage and television actor known for his role as Butch Ada in the television series Saving Grace, his recurring roles as Graham Miller in Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Christopher "Chris" Robert Hughes in the soap opera As the World Turns and Beckett 'Becks' Scott on Ugly...
.
| Actor or actress | Name | Starring seasons | Recurring seasons |
|---|---|---|---|
| Glenn Close Glenn Close Glenn Close is an American actress and singer of theatre and film, known for her roles as a femme fatale Glenn Close (born March 19, 1947) is an American actress and singer of theatre and film, known for her roles as a femme fatale Glenn Close (born March 19, 1947) is an American actress and... |
Patty Hewes Patty Hewes Patricia "Patty" Hewes is fictional character on the American legal thriller Damages, portrayed by Glenn Close. Being described as "ruthless", "master manipulator" and "brilliant", Patty is a high-stakes litigator managing her own law firm called Hewes & Associates... |
1, 2, 3, 4 | |
| Rose Byrne Rose Byrne Mary Rose Byrne is an Australian actress.Byrne made her screen debut in 1994 with a small role in the film Dallas Doll... |
Ellen Parsons | 1, 2, 3, 4 | |
| Tate Donovan Tate Donovan Tate Buckley Donovan is an American actor. He is known for his role in the FX drama Damages, as Tom Shayes, and for his role as Jimmy Cooper in the American teen drama television series The O.C.... |
Tom Shayes | 1, 2, 3 | |
| Ted Danson Ted Danson Edward Bridge “Ted” Danson III is an American actor best known for his role as central character Sam Malone in the sitcom Cheers, and his role as Dr. John Becker on the series Becker. He also plays a recurring role on Larry David's HBO sitcom Curb Your Enthusiasm and starred alongside Glenn Close... |
Arthur Frobisher | 1 | 2, 3 |
| Željko Ivanek Željko Ivanek Željko Ivanek is an Emmy award-winning Slovenian American actor best known for his role as Ray Fiske on Damages. He is also known for playing Blake Sterling on short-lived NBC series The Event and Emile Danko on Heroes.... |
Ray Fiske | 1 | 2, 3 |
| Noah Bean Noah Bean Noah Bean is an American actor best known for his role as David Connor on the FX legal drama Damages and as Ryan Fletcher on the The CW action series Nikita.-Career:... |
David Connor | 1 | 2, 3 |
| Anastasia Griffith Anastasia Griffith Anastasia Griffith is a British actress known for her roles on the FX legal drama Damages and the NBC series Trauma.-Career:... |
Katie Connor | 2 | 1 |
| Timothy Olyphant Timothy Olyphant Timothy David Olyphant is an American actor whose notable roles in television drama series include Deadwood as Seth Bullock, Justified as Raylan Givens, The Office as Danny Cordray, and Damages as Wes Krulik... |
Wes Krulik | 2 | 3 |
| William Hurt William Hurt William McGill Hurt is an American stage and film actor. He received his acting training at the Juilliard School, and began acting on stage in the 1970s. Hurt made his film debut as a troubled scientist in the science-fiction feature Altered States , for which he received a Golden Globe nomination... |
Daniel Purcell | 2 | |
| Marcia Gay Harden Marcia Gay Harden Marcia Gay Harden is an American film and theatre actress. Harden's breakthrough role was in Miller's Crossing and then The First Wives Club which was followed by several roles which gained her wider fame including the hit comedy Flubber and Meet Joe Black... |
Claire Maddox | 2 | |
| Campbell Scott Campbell Scott Campbell Scott is an American actor, director, producer, and voice artist.-Life and career:Scott was born in New York City, the son of George C. Scott, an actor, director, and producer, and Colleen Dewhurst, a Canadian-born actress. He graduated from Lawrence University in 1983. His brother is... |
Joe Tobin | 3 | |
| Martin Short Martin Short Martin Hayter Short, CM is a Canadian actor, comedian, writer, singer and producer. He is best-known for his comedy work, particularly on the TV programs SCTV and Saturday Night Live... |
Leonard Winstone | 3 | |
| Lily Tomlin Lily Tomlin Mary Jean "Lily" Tomlin is an American actress, comedienne, writer, and producer. Tomlin has been a major force in American comedy since the late 1960's when she began a career as a stand up comedian and became a featured performer on television's Laugh-in... |
Marilyn Tobin | 3 | |
| John Goodman John Goodman John Stephen Goodman is an American film, television, and stage actor. He is best known for his role as Dan Conner on the television series Roseanne for which he won a Best Actor Golden Globe Award in 1993, and for appearances in the films of the Coen brothers, with prominent roles in Raising... |
Howard T. Erickson | 4 | |
| Chris Messina Chris Messina Chris Messina may refer to:*Chris Messina *Chris Messina... |
Chris Sanchez | 4 | |
| Dylan Baker Dylan Baker Dylan Baker is an American actor, known for playing supporting roles in both major studio and independent films.-Early life:... |
Jerry Boorman | 4 | |
| Ryan Phillipe | Channing McClaren | 5 |
Home video release
| DVD Season | Format | # Episodes |
# Disc(s) |
Region 1 | Region 2 | Region 4 | Special Features | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| The Complete First Season |
DVD | 13 | 3 |
|
||||
| Blu-ray | ||||||||
| The Complete Second Season |
DVD | 13 | 3 |
|
||||
| Blu-ray | ||||||||
| The Complete Third Season |
DVD | 13 | 3 |
|
||||
| Blu-ray | ||||||||
| The Complete Fourth Season |
DVD | 10 | 3 | rowspan="2" | ||||
| Blu-ray | ||||||||
| The Complete Fifth and Final Season |
DVD | 10 | rowspan="2" | rowspan="2" | ||||
| Blu-ray |
Damages is also available for purchase through Amazon Video on Demand and Seasons 1-3 on the iTunes Store
ITunes Store
The iTunes Store is a software-based online digital media store operated by Apple. Opening as the iTunes Music Store on April 28, 2003, with over 200,000 items to purchase, it is, as of April 2008, the number-one music vendor in the United States...
. Seasons 1 through 3 are available via Netflix
Netflix
Netflix, Inc., is an American provider of on-demand internet streaming media in the United States, Canada, and Latin America and flat rate DVD-by-mail in the United States. The company was established in 1997 and is headquartered in Los Gatos, California...
's Instant service.
International broadcasts
| Country/region | Channel | Debut |
|---|---|---|
| Australia | Nine Network Nine Network The Nine Network , is an Australian television network with headquarters based in Willoughby, a suburb located on the North Shore of Sydney. For 50 years since television's inception in Australia, between 1956 and 2006, it was the most watched television network in Australia... W GEM GEM (Australian TV channel) GEM is an Australian free-to-air high definition digital television channel, launched by the Nine Network on Sunday 26 September 2010 at 6am... |
September 16, 2007 |
| Austria | ORF 1 | April 14, 2008 |
| Belgium (Flanders Flanders Flanders is the community of the Flemings but also one of the institutions in Belgium, and a geographical region located in parts of present-day Belgium, France and the Netherlands. "Flanders" can also refer to the northern part of Belgium that contains Brussels, Bruges, Ghent and Antwerp... ) |
2BE 2BE 2BE may refer to:* 2BE Belfast, an Irish radio station* 2BE , a commercial TV channel in Flanders* 2BE , the former call sign of radio station 2EC in Bega, New South Wales, Australia... |
|
| Belgium (French) | RTL-TVI | |
| Bulgaria | Nova Television Nova Television Nova Television is the first Bulgarian commercial television network launched on July 16, 1994.... AXN AXN AXN is a Pay television, cable and satellite television channel owned by Sony Pictures Entertainment, which was first launched on May 22, 1997. The network is now spread across several regions in the world, including Japan, Europe, other parts of Asia and Latin America... |
January 8, 2008 October 12, 2009 |
| Canada (English) | Showcase | February 18, 2008 |
| Canada (French) | TVA TVA (TV network) TVA is a privately owned French language television network in Canada. The network is currently owned by Groupe TVA Inc. , a publicly traded subsidiary of Quebecor Media... |
January 21, 2009 |
| Catalonia Catalonia Catalonia is an autonomous community in northeastern Spain, with the official status of a "nationality" of Spain. Catalonia comprises four provinces: Barcelona, Girona, Lleida, and Tarragona. Its capital and largest city is Barcelona. Catalonia covers an area of 32,114 km² and has an... |
TV3 TV3 (Catalonia) TV3 is the primary television channel of Catalan public broadcaster Televisió de Catalunya, a subsidiary of the CCMA. TV3 broadcasts programs only in Catalan, with an optional dual track in the original language for some foreign-language series and movies... |
January 7, 2010 |
| Chile | MEGA Red Televisiva Megavisión MEGA, formerly known as Red Televisiva Megavisión, is the first private TV channel of Chile. It currently airs in Santiago on digital frequency channel 27 for HDTV.Among the many TV shows broadcast on MEGA are:... |
November 16, 2008 |
| Croatia | Doma TV | January 3, 2011 |
| Czech Republic | TV Nova AXN AXN AXN is a Pay television, cable and satellite television channel owned by Sony Pictures Entertainment, which was first launched on May 22, 1997. The network is now spread across several regions in the world, including Japan, Europe, other parts of Asia and Latin America... |
June 16, 2010 Unknown |
| Denmark | TV3 Puls TV3 Puls TV3 Puls is television channel broadcasting to Denmark. It started broadcasting March 23, 2009.Among the programmes broadcast on the channel from its launch are series such as Mad Men and Pushing Daisies, lifestyle programmes and sports events such as Formula One.-Programming:Recurring elements in... DR1 DR1 DR1 is a Danish national television channel, produced by the public service broadcaster, DR. It was the first television station to be established in Denmark, and began broadcasting in 1951 – at first only for an hour a day three times a week.... |
March 31, 2009 August, 2011 |
| Finland | Nelonen Nelonen Nelonen is a Finnish commercial TV channel. It started out as Helsinki's local television channel PTV in 1989 on the HTV cable network, which name was changed first to PTV4 and then to Nelonen. It started on June 1, 1997. Nelonen, in Finnish, means the glyph of the number four. The channel is... |
2008 |
| France | Canal + Paris Première Paris Première Paris Première is a French TV channel, available on cable, satellite and the digital terrestrial service, Télévision Numérique Terrestre. It was launched on December 15, 1986 and is now wholly owned by M6.-External links:*... M6 |
February 28, 2008 January 27, 2009 July 7, 2009 |
| Germany | Kabel 1 Kabel 1 kabel eins is a commercial television channel in Germany. It started business on 29 February 1992, as the Kabelkanal and belongs to the ProSiebenSat.1 Media AG. The channel is largely known for showing classic American films as well as series and documentaries... , Sixx Sixx sixx is a German commercial television station specialised for women. The channel is distributed via cable and satellite and was launched on 7 May 2010 at 20:15.- Current Foreign series :* 90210* Brothers & Sisters... |
April 21, 2008 |
| Greece | Mega Channel Mega Channel Mega Channel, also known as Mega TV or just Mega, is a major television network in Greece. Teletypos S.A. was founded in 1989 under the name Teletypos Television Programmes S.A... |
June 21, 2011 |
| Hong Kong | ATV World ATV World ATV World , is one of the free-to-air English language television channels in Hong Kong, the other being its arch-rival TVB Pearl. Its sister station, ATV Home, broadcasts in Cantonese language... |
May 15, 2008 |
| Hungary | RTL Klub RTL Klub RTL Klub is a television station owned by RTL Group and broadcast in Hungary. It was one of Hungary's first commercial TV channels and was only two days after the main rival TV2 to begin broadcasting.-About RTL Klub:... |
January 30, 2009 |
| Ireland | RTE2 | February 2, 2010 |
| Israel | HOT3 | March 13, 2008 |
| Italy | AXN | April 30, 2008 |
| Japan | NHK BS 2 | April 2, 2008 |
| Latin America | AXN | February 12, 2008 |
| Malaysia | TV2 TV2 (Malaysia) RTM2, also known as TV2 is a television station in Malaysia owned and operated by the Radio Television Malaysia, a division of the Malaysian Government. RTM2 is now broadcasting for 24 hours a day effective January 2006.- History :... AXN AXN AXN is a Pay television, cable and satellite television channel owned by Sony Pictures Entertainment, which was first launched on May 22, 1997. The network is now spread across several regions in the world, including Japan, Europe, other parts of Asia and Latin America... |
2009 Season 2 premieres on Dec.30th, 2009 Tues at 12midnight |
| Morocco | 2M 2M TV 2M TV is a Moroccan television service. It was established by the largest Moroccan economic conglomerate, ONA, before being sold to the Moroccan state. It is based in Casablanca... |
July 5, 2010 |
| New Zealand | TVNZ One | November 7, 2007 |
| Norway | TV 3 TV3 (Norway) TV3 Norway is a commercial television channel targeting Norway owned by Viasat, which is a part of the Swedish media group Modern Times Group... |
October 31, 2007 |
| Poland | AXN AXN AXN is a Pay television, cable and satellite television channel owned by Sony Pictures Entertainment, which was first launched on May 22, 1997. The network is now spread across several regions in the world, including Japan, Europe, other parts of Asia and Latin America... Polsat Polsat Polsat is Poland's second biggest television channel, founded on December 5, 1992 and owned by Zygmunt Solorz-Żak.Polsat belongs to the Polsat Group , which also owns other channels:*Polsat HD*Polsat 2 International*Polsat News*TV Biznes... |
September 13, 2009 December 6, 2009 |
| Portugal | TVI (Free-to-air) AXN AXN AXN is a Pay television, cable and satellite television channel owned by Sony Pictures Entertainment, which was first launched on May 22, 1997. The network is now spread across several regions in the world, including Japan, Europe, other parts of Asia and Latin America... (Pay-TV) |
|
| Romania | AXN AXN AXN is a Pay television, cable and satellite television channel owned by Sony Pictures Entertainment, which was first launched on May 22, 1997. The network is now spread across several regions in the world, including Japan, Europe, other parts of Asia and Latin America... |
October 6, 2009 |
| Russia | Domashniy | February 16, 2009 |
| Serbia | TV Pink, TV Pink Family | October, 2009 |
| Singapore | AXN AXN AXN is a Pay television, cable and satellite television channel owned by Sony Pictures Entertainment, which was first launched on May 22, 1997. The network is now spread across several regions in the world, including Japan, Europe, other parts of Asia and Latin America... |
April 6, 2008 |
| Slovenia | POP TV POP TV POP TV is a Slovenian commercial television station operated by the multi-media company PRO PLUS d.o.o.It is a TV channel with the highest ratings in Slovenia , and at the same time the most popular and trustworthy... |
Season 1: February 26, 2008 Season 2: September 22, 2009 Season 3: February 22, 2011 |
| South East Asia | AXN AXN AXN is a Pay television, cable and satellite television channel owned by Sony Pictures Entertainment, which was first launched on May 22, 1997. The network is now spread across several regions in the world, including Japan, Europe, other parts of Asia and Latin America... |
January 8, 2008 |
| South Africa | M-Net M-Net M-Net is a subscription-funded television channel in South Africa, established in 1986 by Naspers.... |
|
| Spain | Canal+ Canal+ Canal+ is a French premium pay television channel launched in 1984. It is 80% owned by the Canal+ Group, which in turn is owned by Vivendi SA. The channel broadcasts several kinds of programming, mostly encrypted... |
April 15, 2008 |
| Switzerland | TSR 1 TSR 1 TSR 1 is a Swiss public television channel owned by Télévision Suisse Romande.- History :Launched on 1 November 1954 to succeed Télé Geneva, TSR 1 is the first channel of the two French Swiss networks of television group TSR .... |
February 1, 2009 |
| Sweden | SVT1 SVT1 SVT1 is the primary television station of the Swedish public service broadcaster Sveriges Television in Sweden.-History:The channel began broadcasting in 1956 and was known as Radiotjänst TV, A year later, it was renamed Sveriges Radio TV. In 1969, the second television station TV2 was launched and... |
Season 1: 2011 |
| Tunisia | Hannibal TV Hannibal-TV Hannibal TV is a privately owned television network in Tunisia.... |
September, 2009 |
| Turkey | DiziMax DiziMax DiziMax is a series of Satellite television channels available on Turkish satellite television provider Digiturk. It consists of DiziMax, DiziMax HD, and DiziMaxMore and is available on Sinema Paketi .... |
March 3, 2008 |
| United Kingdom | BBC One BBC One BBC One is the flagship television channel of the British Broadcasting Corporation in the United Kingdom. It was launched on 2 November 1936 as the BBC Television Service, and was the world's first regular television service with a high level of image resolution... and BBC HD BBC HD BBC HD is a high-definition television network provided by the BBC. The service was initially run as a trial from 15 May 2006 until becoming a full service on 1 December 2007... |
January 6, 2008 |
| The Middle East | Showtime Arabia Showtime Arabia Showtime Arabia, as it was called to distinguish itself from its U.S. counterpart , was a subscription television service in the Middle East and North Africa. It was a joint venture between KIPCO and CBS Corporation , CBS Corp being a minor partner... MBC 4 MBC 4 MBC 4 is the first free-to-air national television channel in the Middle East aired specifically for American programs. The downside of this all is that MBC 2, MBC 3, MBC 4, MBC Action, MBC Max,and MBC Drama all show movies and TV programs that are edited: taking out all drug use, sexual content,... |
|
| Colombia | Caracol Television | May 2010 |
Reception
The first season of Damages received positive reviews from critics with the series ranking in the top ten lists of several critics, including Robert Lloyd (Los Angeles TimesLos Angeles Times
The Los Angeles Times is a daily newspaper published in Los Angeles, California, since 1881. It was the second-largest metropolitan newspaper in circulation in the United States in 2008 and the fourth most widely distributed newspaper in the country....
), Alessandra Stanley (The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
) and Robert Abele (LA Weekly
LA Weekly
LA Weekly is a free weekly tabloid-sized "alternative weekly" in Los Angeles, California. It was founded in 1978 by Editor/Publisher Jay Levin and a board of directors that included actor-producer Michael Douglas...
) among others. The return of the series for its second season was also met with critical acclaim. TV Guide ranked the season one finale episode #52 on its list of "TV's Top 100 Episodes of All Time".
Awards/nominations
Damages is a winner of 4 Emmy Awards, a Golden Globe, a Casting Society of AmericaCasting Society of America
Founded in Los Angeles, California in 1982, the Casting Society of America is a professional society of about 350 casting directors for film, television, and theatre in Australia, Canada, Italy, the United Kingdom and the United States. The society is not to be confused with an industry union. The...
Award, and a Satellite Award. It has been nominated for a Producers Guild of America Award
Producers Guild of America Award
The Producers Guild of America Award was originally established in 1990 as the Golden Laurel Awards, created by PGA Treasurer Joel Freeman with the support of Guild President Leonard Stern, in order to honor the visionaries who produce and execute motion picture and television product...
, a Writers Guild of America Award
Writers Guild of America Award
The Writers Guild of America Award for outstanding achievements in film, television, and radio has been presented annually by the Writers Guild of America, East and Writers Guild of America, West since 1949...
, 3 Screen Actors Guild Awards
Screen Actors Guild Awards
A Screen Actors Guild Award is an accolade given by the Screen Actors Guild to recognize outstanding performances by its members. The statuette given, a nude male figure holding both a mask of comedy and a mask of tragedy, is called "The Actor"...
, and 4 Television Critics Association Awards, among others.
Damages was nominated for Outstanding Drama Series at the 2008 Primetime Emmy Award
Primetime Emmy Award
The Primetime Emmy Awards are awards presented by the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences in recognition of excellence in American primetime television programming...
s. Co-creators Todd A. Kessler, Glenn Kessler and Daniel Zelman were nominated for writing and Allen Coulter for directing the pilot episode. Glenn Close received the nomination for her lead role, with co-stars Ted Danson and Željko Ivanek nominated for their supporting roles. Close and Ivanek won in their respective categories, with the series also receiving the Emmy for best casting.
The series earned four nominations at the 65th Golden Globe Awards
65th Golden Globe Awards
The 65th Golden Globe Awards, honoring the best in film and television of 2007, were scheduled to be presented by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association on January 13, 2008...
, including Best Television Series, Close for Best Actress and Byrne and Danson for their supporting roles. Close won the award in her category.
For its acclaimed second season, Glenn Close received her second nomination for Best Lead Drama Actress
Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress - Drama Series
This is a list of winners of the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress – a Drama Series.-Superlatives:-1950s:*1952: Helen Hayes*1953: no award*1954: Loretta Young – The Loretta Young Show*1955: no award...
Emmy. Ted Danson also received another nomination, for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Drama Series. Rose Byrne, earned her first Emmy nomination, and William Hurt, was nominated as a supporting actor in a drama. The series again was nominated for direction, and the series itself was nominated again for best drama.
On September 20, 2009, the show won its fourth Emmy Award when Glenn Close won the Best Actress in a Drama Series.
For its third season, Damages earned its most acting nominations yet at the 2010 Primetime Emmy Awards, with, along with Glenn Close, Rose Byrne and Ted Danson returning in their respective categories, featured cast additions Martin Short
Martin Short
Martin Hayter Short, CM is a Canadian actor, comedian, writer, singer and producer. He is best-known for his comedy work, particularly on the TV programs SCTV and Saturday Night Live...
and Lily Tomlin
Lily Tomlin
Mary Jean "Lily" Tomlin is an American actress, comedienne, writer, and producer. Tomlin has been a major force in American comedy since the late 1960's when she began a career as a stand up comedian and became a featured performer on television's Laugh-in...
as newly nominated stars. Short was nominated for the Supporting Actor in a Drama award, and Tomlin as a guest actress. Damages was unable to, for the first time, win a major Primetime Emmy despite their success in the nominations, as Glenn Close lost for the first time.
Ratings
The series premiere on July 24, 2007 drew 3.7 million viewers, with total of 5.1 million viewers including re-airing on the same night, becoming the most watched cable television program for the night. However, the viewership declined over the first season, partially due the story's serialized approach, with the season finale drawing 1.4 million viewers. Regardless of its critical acclaim, Damages seriously suffered in its second season ratings. Season Two premiered with only 1.7 million viewers watching, even with the momentum that was built following its Golden Globe and Emmy wins. Despite the show's low ratings, FX picked up and secured the program for a third season. John Landgraf hopes the show will continue on the air following its third season; after taking into account the encore presentations and "extraordinary" DVR numbers, the ratings appear to be quite good.The third season premiere, which aired on January 25, 2010, only managed to draw in 1.483 million viewers,. The third season finale managed to pull in only 975,000 US viewers.
Move to DirecTV
Due to the low ratings and high costs, it was speculated early that Season 3 might be the last season of Damages. However, Sony reached an agreement with DirecTVDirecTV
DirecTV is an American direct broadcast satellite service provider and broadcaster based in El Segundo, California. Its satellite service, launched on June 17, 1994, transmits digital satellite television and audio to households in the United States, Latin America, and the Anglophone Caribbean. ...
to share the cost of future seasons with its Audience Network (formerly The 101 Network). Several outlets were also approached about sharing the cost of a new season. However, no other network opted to pick it up, leaving The Audience Network as the new broadcaster. Damages made its first premiere on the 101 Network on January 5, 2011. Season one through three will run until the season 4 premiere on July 13, 2011.
External links
- Official site at DIRECTVDirecTVDirecTV is an American direct broadcast satellite service provider and broadcaster based in El Segundo, California. Its satellite service, launched on June 17, 1994, transmits digital satellite television and audio to households in the United States, Latin America, and the Anglophone Caribbean. ...
- Damages Official DVD Site at Sony Pictures EntertainmentSony Pictures EntertainmentSony Pictures Entertainment, Inc. is the television and film production/distribution unit of Japanese multinational technology and media conglomerate Sony...
- Damages blog at Sony Pictures EntertainmentSony Pictures EntertainmentSony Pictures Entertainment, Inc. is the television and film production/distribution unit of Japanese multinational technology and media conglomerate Sony...
- Ryan Phillipe set to join Damages