DVD : Damages - Season 1 [2007]

Rating: - TV At It's Best
At first glance you might read this as a typical boring lawyer, police and 'killer' drama...in some respects it is. However, its top of its class. It's a clever, witty, and thought provoking drama -and it comes highly recommended.

---

Rating: - Compulsive viewing
I watched all thirteen episodes of this drama within four days. The perfomances of the main actors, Glenn Close (as the hard as nails Lawyer), Rose Byrne (the new recruit to her firm) and Ted Danson (the wealthy chief exective they are chasing with a damages claim) are all excellent. The suspense level is maintained throughout, helped by using a flashback style in reverse to tell the story. The bulk of the viewing is done showing the months leading up to the catastrophic finale. This is interspersed with later events leaving you following both the build up and the 'last chapter' at the same time until they meet near the end.
The story line follows a legal battle lead by Glenn Close's character Katey Hewes representing over 5000 former employees cheated out of their savings and pensions by former boss Arthur Frobisher (Ted Danson). With hundreds of millions of dollars at stake both sides will do anything it takes to gain or protect the fortune. The twists and turns continually make you unsure of who's the 'goodie' and whose the 'baddie', whose telling the truth, lying etc.
Watching on DVD allows you the obvious advantage of watching this drama at your own pace, essential as you won't be wanting to wait a week between episodes.

---

Rating: - Great start but then drops off towards the end...
The central premise of this series is rather weak (ie that a young lawyer is employed by a highly successful law firm just because she knows someone central to a big case) but, as with the first series of 24, the first half of this series is a thrill ride. The makers have used a clever plot device whereby most of the action takes place in retrospect but every now and then the action switches to the present day (filmed in a dark and grainy style) leaving you hungry to see how the characters end up as they do. But, as with the first series of 24, as the series progresses the twists and turns become more and more rediculous and harder and harder to accept until by the very end you really don't care what happens as long as it happens quickly.

The writers of the original series of 24 apparently had only written the first few episodes of the series prior to the first episode being screened which is why it fell apart so badly later in the series. Damages has a similar feel and I wonder if the same thing happened here. Instead of keeping the story simple and writing good character led drama with a focussed storyline, the writers have chosen to throw realism out of the window and keep the viewer on the edge of their seat. Unfortunately they went too far and left the viewer caring little for any of the empty characters on screen.

If you like 24 then I heartily recomend this. If you don't then I recommend The Wire Series 2.

---

Rating: - Hilariously like Rainbow
I bought this on the strength of the great reviews. At first I was dissapointed, but by the third episode we were all roaring with laughter at the low IQs the writers had given the characters. If you watch it and imaginge the characters are from Rainbow (UK childrens TV) you'll see what I mean! Full marks to the actors for trying but I thought the script felt wooden.

---

Rating: - Very very addictive
Very complex plot - Think it would have been diffcult to enjoy if I had had to wait a week between each episode. Fantastic acting and so many very dark charactors.

The use of broken time lines and fractured story telling is amazing - you think you know the end at the begining but you don't and no matter how many jumps back and foreward in time the director takes you on you are constantly supprised at how the threads come together.

Buy it - Open a bottle of wine and get through as many episodes in one go as you can - this is the perfect "Lost weekend" box set