Homeluxury bag → Blogs Damages. Glenn Close in its purest form

Blogs Damages. Glenn Close in its purest form

Damages (Damage) is a series of authentic luxury, with an all-star cast led by Glenn Close and some legal stories that make direct references to recent scandals in American society. It has recently finished its journey after five years, and we consider that it is a good time to dedicate a well-deserved reminder to it on our blog.

File: Damages59episodes. Jul 2007- Aug 2012 FX- DirecTV (USA) Canal +(E)

Synopsis: A prestigious, ruthless and relentless lawyer hires a young lawyer with a brilliant resume, to have her as an assistant in civil lawsuit cases against large American corporations, but hiding from her the real reasons she has for having her by her side. she. Her first case is a multimillion-dollar lawsuit from the workers of a corporation that has gone bankrupt due to the shady dealings of its president.

The credit titles of the series, with the magnificent tune of the group The Vla 'When I'm through with you'

The beginning: In 2007, Todd Kessler, writer and producer who participated in the second and third seasons of The Sopranos, joined forces with his brother Glenn and his friend Daniel Zelman, to make a series based on two women, one experienced in the top and powerful and another a rookie who would be his protégé, creating a mentor-mentee relationship, which would evolve into a bitter rivalry over time. Here are the three creators of the series from left to right Todd, Glenn Kessler and Daniel Zellman

After various drafts, they decided to focus the action on the judicial world and sold the idea to the FX chain, famous for its series of certain risk such as The Shield, Nip/Tuck or Rescue Me. The chain proposed the possibility of hiring Glenn Close for the main role, with whom they had already worked in the fourth season of The Shield, and with which the FX chain had been summoned to repeat in case of an interesting project.

The producers were delighted with the idea and with Glenn Close on board, the series had immediate viability, premiering the first season of 13 episodes in July 2007 with a large audience that faded throughout the season due to the complexity of the plot. .

This is the promotion of the first season of the series, where some of the keys of the series are taught

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The Plot: Damages featured a central and unique case outline per season in which Patty Hewes (Glenn Close), the chief attorney at Hewes & Associates, led a lawsuit over some famous scandal, which varied from season to season, against megacorporations and diverse tycoons.

At her firm, she has the help of her right-hand man, Tom Shayes (Tate Donovan), who is basically the 'associate' of the firm's title, and for the case that begins the series, he hires a brilliant but inexperienced young woman.

The series develops the plot in a quite complex way, in which the lack of linearity stands out, with continuous time jumps forward and backward. The jumps forward, have the mission of teaching part of the end of the story, but in an incomplete way, so the interpretation and the real ending are never what they seem at first. To this fact we must add a large number of plot twists and surprises, which meant that great attention had to be paid so as not to miss a detail among so much apparently unconnected information.

In spite of everything, the series was not confusing or messy, but it was like a great puzzle, of which they provided us with parts that in the end fit perfectly, but, as in any puzzle, patience was needed to distinguish and join the pieces.

This great serialization and timelessness was the greatest virtue of the series, but at the same time it made it quite complicated to follow for most of the people who prefer simpler and more linear forms in their television series, and the series lost audience in abundance, for the density of the plot.

Parallel to the central annual case, the backbone of the series is the relationship between mentor Patty and her pupil Ellen Parsons (Rose Byrne), Patty is capable of anything, bordering on and going beyond the illegality if necessary to win a case, always succeeding. what he wants, although paying the price of destroying his personal life, but his goal is plain and simple to win at any cost. Patty is not a very nice character for the viewer, but she instills great respect and fear, because we are aware of what she can do to achieve her goals, and that is what makes her a really fascinating character.

From the beginning, Patty wants to instill these principles in her protégé, but she resists many times due to her personal scruples, questioning many of Patty Hewes' manipulative and ruthless methods, which causes her and her relatives to end up being victims of some of them. the boss's methods. Their relationship evolves into a bitter rivalry, becoming archenemies over the years.

In the first season the case was based on the Enron-type fraud, with Patty Hewes suing on behalf of some workers an industry tycoon, Arthur Frobisher (Ted Danson, in one of his few dramatic roles), who has bankrupted his company for his shady financial investments, featuring two willing adversaries, Patty to win and Frobisher to survive.

The second year the action moves against an opaque mega corporation accused of large-scale contamination of drinking water, causing multiple diseases, this year the key character is a chemist who knows about contamination (William Hurt) who makes him the key witness, while that Ellen has a personal relationship with someone who has vested interests in the case (the magnificent Timothy Olliphant of Justified).

The third season was the last on the FX network, which decided to cancel the series at the end of it, due to its low audiences and high costs, the annual case was dedicated to a Madoff-type pyramid scheme, which affected large fortunes in Manhattan, with a constellation of actors such as Campbell Scott, Martin Short, Lily Tomlin or Keith Carradine.

At the end of this season, the pay network Direc TV, in an operation similar to the one it did with Friday Night Lights, rescued the series from cancellation and decided to continue with two more seasons of ten chapters each, and in this fourth season the The central case was that of the military security company operating abroad, based on the Blackwater case, with an excellent John Goodman, as president and founder of the company, and Dylan Baker, as a corrupt CIA operative.

And finally in the season that closes the series, the case was a transposition of Wikileaks, with a lookalike of Julian Assange, being accused of spreading secret information. In the video you can see the promo for the fifth season, in which a softy Ryan Phillippe was the subject of the lawsuit

And here they have the rest of the actors of this fifth season, among which we must highlight John Hannah (on the left of the photo)

Looking back on the entire journey of Damages, I will always consider it a series of excellent workmanship and with a level of interpretation both in its main roles and in the guests out of series. I love complex plots and in this case Damages did not disappoint me at all, only with a few flaws in the final season, which I will explain later, but the narrative rhythm of jumps in time forced us to be glued to the screen and pay maximum attention, something that I personally value positively in the series.

Actors:

Glenn Close, when he received the second consecutive Emmy for his role as Patty Hewes, declared in her acceptance speech that this was the best role of her life, and we are not the ones who are going to contradict her, because she is immeasurable.

His statement has more value when we put his entire professional career into perspective, backed by six Oscar nominations (and no wins, record in this regard). Close has cemented his professional career portraying tough, manipulative and ruthless women, as in Fatal Attraction or Dangerous Liaisons, despite having a good record for comedy as he does in 101 Dalmatians or Mars Attacks.

For this reason, this role suits her perfectly, and you could see in each scene how she enjoyed acting, transmitting that sensation of controlled evil that has placed her in the Olympus of Hollywood actresses for the last thirty years. Due to the lack of film roles for mature women, Close has found a refuge in television series, first giving the answer to the corrupt Vic McKey in the magnificent The Shield, and then with Damages, although if the cinematographic opportunity arises, she will not do it. misses out as he recently did with the interesting film Albert Nobbs, in which he plays a woman disguised as a man in 19th century Dublin.

The difficult role of responding to such a screen monster, like her protégé Ellen Parsons, fell to the Australian Rose Byrne, who has been the great revelation of the series, fulfilling her mission perfectly.

Rose Byrne has given great nuances to her role, transmitting tenderness and principles totally forgotten by her mentor to win her cases. One of the keys to the series is to see his personal evolution, to see if he forgets his principles, his private life and his initial candor to imitate his ruthless boss, as she demands of him on the other hand, or stands firm in his convictions avoiding communion. with treadmills, just like Patty Hewes wants.

Byrne has used the series as a platform for her transition to the cinema, starring in X-Men: First Generation and with great projects ahead for an actress with a great future, because not losing face with Glenn Close in 60 hours of television is within reach. of few actresses

The main secondary of the series is the right hand of Patty Hewes, Tom Shayes is played by the solvent Tate Donovan, veteran of many television series, Donovan is Patty's right hand, but in turn is completely subordinate to his orders, with a tiny margin of maneuver in his decisions, unlike his boss, if he has a more or less happy personal life, although Hurricane Patty will end up taking him ahead. Donovan makes a good creation of his character, one point below Byrne, but he is the ideal counterpoint in the office to try to curb the excesses of his boss.

It is necessary to highlight the presence of one of my favorite secondary actors, the actor born in Slovenia Zeljko Ivanek, a true crack of the screen in representing dark and sinister characters, his role as district attorney in the first season of the series earned him the Emmy for best actor secondary, for another creation true to his style of consummate scene-stealer

We have already commented on the number of postin guest stars that the series had, but one fact to note is the so-called reverse casting or miscasting, with the presence of actors typecast in comedy, who played their first important dramatic roles in this series. , to broaden their view, highlighting in this sense Ted Danson, Lily Tomlin, Jenna Elfman and Martin Short and to a lesser extent John Goodman, which further enhances the interest of the series

The end:

As we have previously mentioned, Damages was saved at the end of the third season from cancellation by the rescue of the DirecTV network, which gave the creators time to create an ending according to expectations.

The problem is that in my opinion, in the last season, the presentation of the pieces of the puzzle was quite tricky and tricky, implying a totally different ending from the true one, and arbitrarily pulling some ace out of the hole at the last moment, to justify the end orientation change

A point in favor of the ending was to surprise the audience who was expecting a great final confrontation with great fireworks between the two archenemies, the mentor Patty Hewes and the pupil Ellen Parsons, instead the plot was resolved with a very effective but anti-climax ending, which with an umpteenth turn resolves the dispute between the two, leaving me particularly with a great taste in my mouth,

Damages is a really excellent series on all levels, don't let its apparent initial complication and complexity of the plots keep you from immersing yourself in the exciting world of Patty Hewes and associates at the hands of a Glenn Close, especially for its splendid first season , which by itself already justifies a viewing of the series in an authentic gourmet dish

We await your opinions and comments, here or on our twitter account (@jefoce) and (@lmejino). Until next time

Mikel Madinabeitia / Lorenzo Mejino

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