“Damages” — Because I Know Patty (Season Finale)
Generally speaking, I like to watch television when I get home from work at night (which is typically sometime shortly after midnight), then go to bed, marinate on it a bit and write up a post in the morning. Last night, after having watched the outstanding season finale of Damages, I went to bed and had one of those really vivid dreams that more or less picked up right where the series left off. Based on my dream I’d like to say to the suits at FX that a second season could be really cool (especially if it involves Patty throwing me in a trunk). More after the jump…
Rapid eye movement aside, last night’s finale was about as perfect a season capper as one could hope. What really impressed me was how much more ground was left to cover this week despite the previous episode answering so many season-long questions. That is what made Damages stand far above just about every other serial on television. It wasn’t afraid to provide answers — a lot of them. From the beginning of the season through the end, the Damages writers answered every single question that they raised, and yet sill managed to introduce some cliffhanger moments that felt neither tacked on nor implausible. It’s the type of show that you watch and immediately begin thinking of all of those network serials that seem completely aimless throwing faux-mysteries against the wall and responding to those that stick. Damages makes these shows look like the Sunday funnies. It’s a shame so few people stuck with it to find this out. The series hemorrhaged viewers over its run with a second season deal yet to be inked. And it’s a damn shame because no matter how good a show may be, it is nearly impossible to make a casual television fan tune in for a series that on its surface isn’t all that compelling. Let’s call this “The Wire Syndrome.”
What’s tragic is that it is precisely these casual fans who have the power to transform the television landscape. Shockingly, most people are not watching four or five hours of television a night like, say, me. They might have one show they tune in for regularly, but how can we possibly convince them that their television hour would be better suited with a show like Damages or The Wire and not Law & Order: SVU? Granted, a lot of this problem has to do with series that build to a climax over the course of a season versus series that build to a climax over the course of an hour. I would say with little hesitation that this first season of Damages was (along with Mad Men) one of the best shows of the year — maybe even one of the best shows of the decade. The problem is we didn’t know this until the seventh or eighth episode when suddenly it hits you like a ton of bricks that, my god, they just might pull this off. Asking someone to trust a new series with their valuable time not knowing if the creators are going to be able to deliver the promised goods is a tall order for most. I suppose the modern solution to this lies with the DVD. Luckily we live in an era where things never really go away; they just change formats.
If you didn’t watch Damages as it aired on FX, you could find many worse ways to kill some free time than by checking out the series’ 13-episodes when it gets its DVD release presumably in a few months (the show is available right now on iTunes).
I hesitate to put Damages in the same category of greatness as The Wire, mostly because the series doesn’t have the socio-political ambitions that The Wire has. As far as tightness of narrative, though, few series have been as expertly mapped out as Damages. Coming off of last week’s revelatory climax I wasn’t even that sure there was anything left for the series to answer this week. My god was I wrong. Perhaps the season’s greatest moment came from one piece of dialogue that has played over and over during the past four or five episode. It involves Ellen and Patty sitting on her sofa with Ellen turning to her and saying, “Do you regret what we did.” This clip has been cut in and around nearly every storyline and each time given a slightly different meaning. Last week the scene was allowed to play out a bit longer showing us what we thought might have been a glimpse at its “truth” only to have the line played a few more times Tuesday night as the season’s real climax. In a moment of brilliantly inspired editing the last five minutes of the finale cut back and forth between four different time periods until like a broken dam the flood finally passed through and illustrated just who the bad guy really was. I want to be more specific, but I also want people to take the time and find this series for themselves, so my vagueness will have to suffice.
There are those shows that you miss during their first run and then hear about incessantly later on. Some seem like things worthy of checking out, others do not. Damages, like The Wire, is a show you want to see. Maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, but soon… and for the rest of your life.
