‘Damages’ gets off to a cracking good start

Posted Jan 26, 2010 by Walt Belcher

Updated Jan 26, 2010 at 07:44 PM

I confess that I bailed out of Season 2 of “Damages” because it got to be too much work.

FX’s dark, complex legal drama that has more twists and turns that a Busch Gardens roller-coaster requires that one pay attention because everything that happens on the show is suspect.

I dropped in last night for the third season debut and got hooked again. Good stuff. Plenty of mystery and intrigue.

The legal caper this season is ripped from the headlines. They are doing a Bernie Madoff story. An old coot named Louis Tobin has swindled investors out of $80 million. And sly, sinister Lady Macbeth of the Legal System Patty Hewes (Glenn Close) is out to get some of the money back as a court-appointed trustee.

Tobin (character actor Len Cariou) has stashed his cash somewhere. But what does his wife, played by Lilly Tomlin, know about it? Hmm. Glenn Close and Lilly Tomlin had a great scene in the opener. So much fun to watch them on the screen together. And a subdued Martin Short is playing the Tobin family lawyer. Cool.

Close is still really scary as Hewes. You can see why she wins awards. Once again, the story shifts back and forth in time. Six months after taking on the swindler case, Hewes is under attack and her life may be in danger. Is the threat from the Tobins, from a mysterious suitor (Keith Carradine) or from her seemingly faithful lackey law partner Tom Shayes (Tate Donovan)?

Or is state assistant prosecutor Ellen Parsons (Rose Byrne) involved in the assault? Parsons is supposed to be the hero of this drama. She says that she has forgiven Hewes for all that went down in previous seasons when her fiancé David Connor was murdered and Parsons sought revenge.

But there’s always the thought that Parsons will one day become as cold and calculating as Hewes. 

Meanwhile, Parsons has her own probems this round, taking on drug dealers who may seek revenge. Wanna bet that the drug case will be somehow connected to the Tobin case?

And something very bad is going to happen to Shayes over the six-month storyline. Hang on, it’s going to be a fun ride.

“Damages” continues at 10 p.m. Mondays on FX.

Rose Byrne