By Brandon Nolta
Every now and then, I like to get out and surf through various TV-related sites and blogs, see what’s happening or find out if there’s something I’ve missed. Anyway, I was tooling through one site when I came across Nielsen ratings for Tuesday, September 25th. I read through them, and what caught my eye were the ratings for DAMAGES, one of the shows I regularly review. The reported ratings were an audience of 1.16 million, and a 0.5/1 share.
Even when adjusting for the effect of DVRs and cable audience size, that number seems pretty damn low. In comparison, REAPER scored nearly three times the audience at 3.28 million, and even EUREKA—which airs on prototypical niche network the Sci-Fi Channel—pulled in nearly 400,000 more viewers. Now, I understand DAMAGES isn’t your typical legal thriller; it’s complex and morally murky, which is the kind of thing FX specializes in (THE SHIELD? NIP/TUCK? Hello?), and it’s hard to root for anyone in particular. But, I guarantee you won’t see much else like it on cable this season. With top-notch writing and acting, strong production values and enough anti-heroes to make Sam Peckinpah weep, DAMAGES is TV that a lot more people ought to be watching.
What’s it all about, you might ask? Well, here’s DAMAGES in a nutshell: Arthur Frobisher (Ted Danson), the head of a major corporation, is being sued by 5,000 of his employees for his role in an Enron-like accounting scandal that wiped out stock portfolios and retirement funds. He’s already survived an attempted federal prosecution, but the lawsuit is spearheaded by Patty Hewes (Glenn Close), a legal piranha so ruthlessly efficient that she probably figures in Beelzebub’s nightmares. The central character of the show, however, is Ellen Parsons (Rose Byrne), a young law school grad who is lured away from a stable, potential-filled law firm to work with Patty. The timeline is fractured: one track follows Ellen’s arrest for the murder of her fiancé (Noah Bean) and her efforts to find out what happened, and the other follows the progress of the suit against Frobisher. Nothing is clear-cut, nobody says anything until the words have gained at least three layers of meaning, and “Trust no one” should be engraved above every door and window. In short, it’s mesmerizing drama.
Whether or not DAMAGES will survive to haunt the airwaves for a second season is anyone’s guess. The second episode improved its numbers in the coveted 18-49 demographic over the premiere, but since then, the stats have dropped off, and there just isn’t as much chatter in the ether about this show as it deserves. Complex shows reward multiple viewings and devoted followings, and DAMAGES fits the bill better than the vast majority of what’s playing now does. If you haven’t had a chance to discover it yet, make time to do so. Fans of multi-arced intelligent dramas won’t regret it.
If you want to see DAMAGES continue, then email FX President John Landgraf and give him your two cents. Glenn Close deserves this show, and let's see them renew it. You can reach him at JLandgraf@fxnetworks.com.