'Damages' is dark, delicious fun

Posted at 8:30 a.m. Wednesday, Jan. 7

DAMAGES
9 p.m. Wednesday, FX
Tune in or out? out of four.

Patty Hewes better watch her back.

The manipulative lawyer played with unsentimental brilliance by Emmy winner Glenn Close won her case in the first season of FX’s legal thriller “Damages.” But she made a lot of enemies along the way, and they’re rallying against her in Season 2.

She faces the most dangerous foe in her protégée, Ellen Parsons (Rose Byrne), who is working with the FBI to take down her boss after Patty tried to have her killed in Season 1.

“I want to destroy her,” Ellen tells her FBI handlers.

She’s not alone. Patty’s old nemesis, former billionaire Arthur Frobisher (Ted Danson), still is lurking, as is Patty’s guilt over the death of Frobisher’s lawyer—a suicide Patty caused by blackmailing him.

Patty’s haunted by her past in other ways, too. An old, um, “friend” comes to her for help. Scientist Daniel Purcell seems to have run afoul of an energy conglomerate.

I say seems because, as Patty herself says, “everyone is looking to play an angle.” And in “Damages,” the angles are sharp—and deadly.

Purcell, played by Close’s “The Big Chill” co-star William Hurt (right), is most definitely more than Patty’s newest client. They have a past, we learn, that may mean he’s gunning for her as well.

Watching Close and Hurt work together is a thrill. They’re incredible actors, as is Marcia Gay Harden, who digs into her role as Patty’s new competition, lawyer Claire Maddox. Rounding out the new cast is Timothy Olyphant as Ellen’s grief counseling acquaintance Wes Krulik, who’s working an angle of his own.

There’s no simple character in “Damages,” which means there’s no simple plot line either. But I’m happy to report that although the writers still are playing with timelines, they don’t jump back and forth nearly as much as they did in Season 1.

I have to be honest, though, the show demands your concentration and dedication. This isn’t “The Mentalist” or some “Law & Order” series. But unraveling the twisted mysteries surrounding Patty Hewes is what makes watching “Damages” so deliciously fun.