Damages – Ripped from the headlines

Damages is back, and I’m thrilled. It’s truly become one of my favorite shows on TV and after watching the premiere of the third season this evening, I’m pretty sure that that isn’t going to change any time soon. Damages has managed, through each of its seasons, to essentially reinvent itself while remaining familiar and I think a lot of shows could take a lesson from that.

This premiere episode introduced a new cast of characters that will be the center of attention for the new season, as well as a look into the future. Boy howdy, there are some big things happening in six months! Suffice it to say, stop reading now if you haven’t watched the premiere yet.

I have to admit that at first, when the show flashed to the car accident “six months later” I was a little ambivalent. I mean, considering the views of endgames that we had in the previous seasons, with Ellen running out of her apartment covered in blood, and Ellen “shooting” an unknown person, a car accident just seemed a little tame. I will happily admit that I was wrong, as the episode took us quite a bit further than just the crash. We learned that the car was registered to Tom, although he most likely wasn’t driving it because he was dead in a dumpster. Yowza. This is really the genius of this show; even though we know the ending there are sure to be a good number of twists and we get to see how everything got to that point. We may have a few answers, but we don’t even know what the question is yet.

This season’s case certainly took a big chunk of inspiration from the Bernie Madoff incident. It looks like we are going to be following the family of a crooked ponzi scheme runner. This is Damages, so I’m sure there is more than what is on the surface. Heck, we’ve already seen that there really is some money hidden and that Louis Tobin was making mysterious phone calls. It will be fun finding out how much everyone knew about the ponzi scheme. Right off the bat, Campbell Scott’s character Joe reminds me of William Hurt’s Daniel Purcell from season two. He seems innocent, and looks like a good guy, but as we found out last season, Purcell was anything but innocent. Is Joe going to end up being the same?

I’m certainly excited about the new cast for this year. Campbell Scott is always excellent and I’m already enjoying Martin Short as the Tobin’s lawyer. Keith Carradine also made an appearance in this episode, and I’m wondering if he is going to be a love interest for Patty, or perhaps someone tied up in the case (perhaps both?).

I also appreciated what I consider to a be a small nod to season one. If you recall, the murder weapon used to kill Ellen’s fiance David was a statue of liberty bookend. Did anyone else notice what was sitting on the dashboard of Tom’s car as it rammed into Patty’s? A statue of liberty bobblehead.

Clacked by Bob Degon
on Jan 25, 2010 @ 23:00 EST5EDT