» Damages: The Complete First Season

Damages: The Complete First Season Reviews

Customer Rating:
Summary: Damages Keeps Us On The Edge Of Our Seats
Comment: We can't wait for the new season of Damages. It has plenty of plot twists and turns to keep you guessing. The acting is excellent. Everything about it is first class.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: Damages
Comment:
Great to see all of them at once to prepare for the new season in January.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: Excellent Buy!
Comment: Prompt delivery. Perfect packaging. All DVDs were in excellent (new) condition. I recommend that everyone purchasing Damages via Amazon. You will not be disappointed.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: Four Stars for Zeljko Ivanek
Comment: I don't think this show has enough of a soul to win five stars. The acting is very good, but the characters are wildly overdrawn. A world this corrupt would not be like this. It would be armed militias of young men, riding around in trucks with torches. I guess this is a vision of America if it were as corrupt as parts of Africa, if it could maintain 4% GDP growth.

I think the standout role is Zeljko Ivanek. This is the most tortured lawyer I have run across. He is working for the bad guy, for starters, not that there are any good guys in this litigation. Ted Danson plays a man who is in the Enron mold. The company was all accounting tricks, and Frobisher, the baddy, cashed his stock moments before the collapse. The other employees had money in the stock, lost it all, and Glenn Close as Karen Hewes is trying to get it back.

On the surface the Close character is the knight in shining armor. Well, that lasts about 20 minutes into the first episode. From this first revelation the question becomes "how bad is she". Even at the end it is not crystal clear.

There are two many layers of corruption in the scripts. The Ivanek character, southern lawyer Ray Fiske, sort of shines for his glimmers of humanity. But this is layered on top of buried sexual issues, a culture of murder, and twists that aren't entirely plausible. Watch what happens to the main hit man. Really, is that plausible.

There were great noir actors like Robert Ryan, Mitchum. Even Bogart. They all had a grim quality. Mitchum used to get paid to let people beat him up in boxing matches. The Fiske character comes off as apart, unable to share in the corruption. Beyond that, Ivanek can create a character who is deeply troubled, sad, or, relating to the title, damaged. And, in the end, he is not able to cope.

There's no redemption, in this series. The semi-heroic character is, in the end, left with what? Grudges? The Close character is interesting, even if it suggests that gender equality is a race to the bottom of morality.

I guess it's a little sad that the story underneath this, of corporate corruption, is lost in the mix.

So, it's interesting, but a little light on credibility. Don't take it too seriously, it's fine, if dark, television.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: "Damages" Is As Good As It Gets
Comment: Without a doubt one of the best dramas, not just of last years TV season, but of recent memory. Glenn Close gives a phenomenal performance and Ted Danson opens a lot of eyes for those who associate him with sitcoms. Why can't the major networks produce quality television like this? I can only hope they are able to maintain this high standard through Season 2.

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