By Brandon Nolta
After watching the first four episodes of the FX freshman series DAMAGES, I have to say that what I like about it best so far is that I’m still not sure what exactly it’s about. Oh, the framing story and overarching plot is clear enough; hard to go wrong with a legal thriller, especially one that has such an obvious real-life parallel. No, what’s intriguing about this show is that, depending on the mood you’re in, it can be interpreted in so many different ways.
The commercials and early campaign for the show pitched it as a show about ambition, specifically that of Ellen Parsons (Rose Byrne), a talented attorney who gets dragooned into high-stakes litigation by legal titan Patty Hewes (Glenn Close), the person who probably should have played Satan in THE DEVIL’S ADVOCATE. While there are a few notes on the general theme, what has transpired so far makes one wonder. Is it a show about the various levels of evil and how easily it can corrupt? Is it a show about the struggle of right vs. expedience? Is it an anti-lawyer show?
Of course, it could be all of these things, but then again, it might be none of them. There are so many threads, it’s damn tough to tell, which makes it so intriguing to watch. Using carefully defined characters and intelligent writing, we have a collection of characters that are completely self-consistent embroiled in a narrative that could go anywhere. At this point, I wouldn’t be terribly surprised if an alien conspiracy or a cabal of werewolves turned out to be involved. That may sound like a diss, but challenging drama like this is rare, even in the plethora of excellent programs we viewers can choose from now.
Anyway, despite the different spins and directions DAMAGES takes, this episode focuses in on one question with interesting ramifications: identity. Specifically, the identity of Katie Connor (Anastasia Griffith), future sister-in-law of Ellen and only real witness of use in the case against Arthur Frobisher (Ted Danson). As the episode shifts back and forth in time (we get to see three different time periods), the events of a fateful weekend in June get examined and sifted through the memories of two different people, as well as a battalion of lawyers and a mysterious player to be named later (Peter Riegert?!? Where the hell’s he been?). With every change, new aspects of character are revealed, and everybody has to change their minds about somebody. By the end, the episode is best summed up by the image of Katie and Ellen standing on opposite sides of one-way glass, both looking at the other (although Ellen is only seeing her reflection) and not knowing who they really are.
It’s a haunting image, and one that sums up both this episode’s themes and the increasingly off-center way the characters come to see the world after passing through this particular baptism of fire. This episode plays like RASHOMON for the basic cable set, and it’s one more reason why I’ll say this again, like I’ve said for just about every episode so far: DAMAGES is damn good TV. Even if it is about lawyers.