Wednesday, April 21, 2010

Needling Damages


Yes, Olive is reading Needle and you can too at Lulu.com

Seriously folks, could anyone out there follow the shell game that DAMAGES ended on. Did they need to obfuscate the current season by pulling in strands from Season One and Two.
Maybe they feel this season is their swan song, but killing off or imprisoning almost every major character seemed a bit harsh. What did you think? And why was Patty's prosaic back story given so much attention? Were you surprised given her current actions?
I have so many questions....

18 comments:

George said...

I keep intending to watch DAMAGES but the mixed reviews keep holding me back. Love Glenn Close.

Anonymous said...

We gave up after Season 1.

Jeff M.

Dave Zeltserman said...

2nd season had the same problem--absolutely riveting until the season finale, which just didn't add up. This season had the additional problem where it made no sense for Ellen to be so cozy with Patti--I know there's such thing as forgiveness, but Patti tried to have her killed for Chrissakes! And she certainly wasn't acting like any sort of DA jeopardizing potential prosecutions (including a murder case that was somehow left out of the finale). But there were so many flaws int he finale--why was Patti so adamant that they drop their plan, why didn't Shayes go to a hospital after being stabbed (and why did that killer lawyer think he Shayes was to be killed?, what was the deal with Keith Carradine's character--was he suppose to be a ghost (and if so why) and if he was supposed to be real, why didn't he age in over 30 years, and anyone in NY lock their car doors anymore?

I love good movies/TV where things come together at the end (even or especially if it's open-ended), and I can even love bad movies, but stuff like Damages that comes so close to greatness and then falls apart in a mess are maddening.

Anonymous said...

I have to say, I haven't watched Damages. When it first came out, I was interested, but never actually sat and watched it. Then, too much started happening, and I just knew I wasn't going to be able to pick up the pieces of the stories. You do raise an interesting question about backstory, though. There's always a question of how much backstory on a character one should give, especially on a series (or in a book series). Too little and the characters are "flat." Too much and it's cumbersome.

pattinase (abbott) said...

Exactly, Dave. You feel like a sucker for watching it. Maybe they thought this was the series finale and tried to do too much. Big Love did the same thing this year. Everything doesn't have to be wrapped up, but this doesn't seemed to have had a satisfactory answer to anything. Even the Ted Danson ending seemed too pat. Did the guy have so much evidence that they would haul him right off to jail? And Lily Tomlin doing a dive into the East River, come on. No woman would do that!

pattinase (abbott) said...

Yes, the back story was annoyingly inserted. Not sure why, Margot.

Richard R. said...

and DAMAGES is what?

Oh, a TV show. Don't watch much of that stuff. Too many books to read. When I do watch something, it's FOYLE'S WAR or something similar.

Todd Mason said...

And, as I've mentioned before, DAMAGES kept looking like the kind of hugger-mugger that would have everyone in the crematorium, in the ground or in the East River (women do drown themselves, actually, though obviously I don't know what might make Tomlin not do that) by episode three. And my impression of Close being the opposite of George's didn't help.

The attempt to make series Significant or Intriguing by such piling on is what puts me off any number of things, most obviously LOST, which also incorporated Big Dumb from the pilot onward that could not be sufficiently explained away for me, unless by the much-denied-so-far resolution that they're all dead and in some sort of randomly different afterlife.

So, what would Eco make of DAMAGES?

pattinase (abbott) said...

A fall into the east river is too chancy. It would be the pollution that killed you more than the fall. And also she cared too much about her scarves being in place. The family knew easier ways to die.
This new piling on in the hopes of finding itself is getting on my nerves.
Rick-there are good things on TV, some of it better than in most books. Breaking Bad, The Wire, Homicide: Life on the Streets, Justified (so far), Deadwood, and Mad Men are all deeply satisfying. Of course, the other 98 percent may not be.

Todd Mason said...

I'd add THE GOOD WIFE and at least 30 ROCK among the NBC Thursday block to the regularly satisfying list...hope to catch up with TREME soon and would put PARTY DOWN and SONS OF ANARCHY on at least the provisional satisfying list (I keep hearing CASTLE has been improving, though haven't seen it to say for myself), and I have a continuing fondness for both HOUSE among a number of others. But I suspect Rick is Not looking to add to his plate.

pattinase (abbott) said...

Def. THE GOOD WIFE. We lost the Party Down channel. 30 Rock seems like the same show every week to me--funny but too much the same. Have to try SONS on DVD.

Todd Mason said...

PARTY DOWN unsurprisingly popping up online and on DVD...Lizzy Kaplan, the female lead, should update her website, which still pitches her as a teen actor.

Todd Mason said...

Without Starz, you can't see Bill's favorite new series, SPARTACUS...(mild joke, as you hear the denials out of Alvin)

pattinase (abbott) said...

Starz disappeared when we gave up Showtime.

Paul D Brazill said...

We've only had season 1 of DAMAGES here in Poland and I loved it but part of me had this feeling that they'd bollocks it up at some point in order to keep the series going. Why not just stop while it's good? Oh, of course... I've never been a Glen Close fan but I thought she was CRACKING in Damages. Not sure if I'll bother with season two now.

pattinase (abbott) said...

This was season three. Two wasn't very good IMHO. Three was better, till the end.

Joe Barone said...

Patti,
You have my permission to include any of my little reviews in your Friday Forgotten Books. You don't have to ask. Just leave me a note and tell me you've done it.

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