Damages: Still too Close to call?
11/02/07 02:49 PM
By ED BARK
News this week that FX has renewed Rescue Me for a fifth season begs a companion question. What about Damages?
The year's best new drama series ended a riveting first season on Oct. 23rd by tying up most of its murder mysteries. It also girded viewers for future mind games between ruthless litigator Patty Hewes (Glenn Close) and protege Ellen Parsons (Rose Byrne).
Ratings fell well short of stellar, but weren't appreciably worse than those for two other FX freshmen, Dirt and The Riches. Both of those dramas will return next year with second seasons. But Damages might well be just the second hourlong FX drama series to be canceled after a single season. The other is Over There, the Iraq war series from Hall of Fame producer Steven Bochco (Hill Street Blues, NYPD Blue).
FX otherwise also has green-lighted its signature series The Shield for a seventh season while Nip/Tuck returned for its fifth season earlier this week.
Damages, arguably superior to all of them, had to be watched intently from week to week. But its puzzle pieces all fit together in the end. And its performances should net FX a wealth of Emmy nominations. Not only for Close and Byrne, but for Ted Danson as crooked business mogul Arthur Frobisher and especially Zeljko Ivanek as his ill-fated attorney, Ray Fiske.
Co-creators Todd A. Kessler, Glenn Kessler and Daniel Zelman spun this complex tale in an almost too-good-for-TV manner that gave Damages the look and feel of a big-screen prizewinner. This one was worth getting excited about. It kept wheels turning, viewers guessing. You just don't see drama of this caliber very often anymore, particularly on advertiser-supported television.
Close, who earlier spent a season on The Shield, is on board to do Damages for several seasons to come, says John Solberg, senior vice president of media relations for FX. So are the key supporting players, save for Danson, whose character was left in pretty bad shape.
Still, there are other moving parts in play, just as there were on-screen. A looming writers' strike, which might be called on Monday, further complicates any set-in-concrete commitments to new or returning scripted dramas.
"As it stands right now, they're still working on trying to get a deal done," Solberg says. "Nothing's locked in yet."
It's hoped that Damages somehow will return to the playing field with Close still heading the cast. If not, then by all means get the DVD set whenever it comes out. Watching what you may have missed would be the next best thing to being there.
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