Product Description

Hot new legal thriller on FX! Set in New York's world of high stakes litigation, Damages follows the lives of Patty Hewes, the nation's most revered and most reviled litigator, and her bright, ambitious protégée Ellen Parsons as they become embroiled in a class action lawsuit targeting Arthur Frobisher, one of the country's wealthiest CEOs. As Patty battles Frobisher and his attorney, Ellen learns what it takes to win at all costs, and that lives, not just fortunes, are at stake.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #38070 in DVD
• Brand: SONY PICTURES HOME ENT
• Released on: 2008-01-29
• Rating: NR (Not Rated)
• Aspect ratio: 1.78:1
• Formats: AC-3, Color, Dolby, Subtitled, Widescreen
• Original language: English
• Subtitled in: English, French
• Number of discs: 3
• Dimensions: .55 pounds
• Running time: 581 minutes

Customer Reviews

Machiavellian characters dominate legal drama "Damages" featuring terrific performances and a top notch Blu-ray transfer
There aren't any eccentric characters that make you laugh like Denny Crane on "Boston Legal" nor are there any cases neatly tied up at the conclusion of each episode with a bow on them. "Damages" follows a single case and the follow out from that case from its beginning until its bitter end. "Damages" begins with Ellen Parsons (Rose Byrne from "28 Weeks Later" and "Sunshine") bloodied and battered walking the streets of New York until she is discovered by the police. From there the series takes a trip back in time six months earlier a case that Ellen worked on as a new attorney at Patricia Hewes (Glenn Close) & Associates. It's a civil case where Hewes is suing multi-billionaire Arthur Frobisher (Ted Danson) for hollowing out his company and robbing 5000 employees of his company of their pension plans in the process. Having escaped the prosecution of the U.S. Attorney's Office, Frosbisher now must defend himself from claims that he benefited by selling his stocks before his company collapsing and getting away scot-free. Frobisher of course insists that he is innocent and was as much a victim losing the company he cared for as the employees. We see the entire case unfold before our eyes, the double dealings, double crosses and underhanded attempts by both the Hewes and Frobisher's attorney to gain the upper hand in this litigation.

"Damages" is compelling, fascinating and well written featuring a wide variety of characters with their own agendas. No one truly is an angel here although the naïve Ellen comes mighty close as she finds herself dragged into Hewes' world and manipulated as much by her boss as she is by the opposition in the case. A personal connection between Ellen and the case is uncovered which also makes Ellen suspect that the only reason she got the job was so that she could be used to gain the upper hand in the case. In the process Ellen sees her ambitions and dreams pull further and further away from her reach just as she thinks she is climbing the corporate ladder of success. Hewes tells Ellen at one point, "trust no one" and the same could be applied to everyone involved in the case.

Academy Award nominee/Emmy winner Close, Emmy Award winner Danson, Bryne, Tate Donovan, Peter Riegert, Michael Nouri and a host of film/TV/Broadway veterans bring these characters to life with a vibrancy rare in series television. If the story sounds like it was ripped from the headlines, the Enron, Worldcom and other scandals where corporate CEO's betrayed the public trust and manipulated the market inspired the series but it's the compelling characters and drama that will make you stick around to the conclusion of this 13 episode FX series.

The opening had me scratching my head in puzzlement--it looked like crappy low-rez video. It's a façade like everything else here as it is simply a sequence showing us the raw reality that Ellen finds himself trapped in. As the show jumps back six months in time to the beginning of the case, we get a beautifully rendered high definition video image. There are a couple of problems with video noise that occur. It isn't a perfect presentation on Blu-ray but it looks extremely good.

Audio sounds marvelous with a TrueHD 5.1 mix that uses the format quite well. It isn't compressed and has terrific dynamic range. The 5.1 format is nicely used given that this is primarily a dialogue driven show with nice ambient effects captured in the surround channels.

I was surprised that we only get two audio commentaries on this set as I had hoped for more but both are effective and insightful. Glenn Close, writers/producers Todd Kessler & Glenn Kessler, Daniel Zelman and director Allen Coulter appear on the pilot episode discussing issues they ran into shooting on location in New York during a nasty winter, issues they ran into with trying to bring the series in on budget but without messing with the quality of the show. Close is a bit quiet during the commentary it would be fun to hear her let loose on one by herself or with a moderator. I would have loved to hear Close and her co-stars on a separate audio commentary track discuss the craft of acting, their approach to the material and some of their thoughts during their performances but what we do get is quite good.

The second audio commentary features actor Zeljko Ivanek front and center dominating the discussion with the Kesslers and Zelman joining in with technical tidbits from time-to-time. Ivanek has long been one of my favorite character actors and he has largely been underused in many TV shows and movies so its nice to see him get a character as juicy as defense attorney Ray Fiske to sink his teeth into southern drawl and all.

"Willful Acts" is a half hour behind-the-scenes documentary on the making of the series. "Understanding Class Action" is designed with an interfact that gives viewers a background on how class action lawsuits work and a definition of the various phrases thrown around in the series. "Trust No One" clocks in under fifteen minutes and focuses more on the characters in the series. We also get a variety of deleted scenes. The really cool feature of this set is that the disc is enabled so that the player can remember which episodes you've watched and jump right back to the one you had next in rotation if you choose the "play all" feature.

"Damages" is a terrific, compelling legal drama. All 13 episodes of the series plus the extras are on three Blu-ray discs and you also get an insert that gives you the title of each episode, a brief synopsis and credits for each one as well.

A couple of amateurish flaws don't even come close to bringing this show down.
Damages is, in a sentence, fully worth your attention if you enjoy a good drama.
That being said, it has a few minor flaws. The "flash-forwards" that pepper the entire season up until the finale are stylized to a point that's dangerously close to ridiculous. If you're used to the kind of "intense" close-ups and quick cuts that shows like CSI utilize and enjoy them, this won't be a problem, but if you're one who enjoys substance over style, it can get slightly grating. For almost the entire first half of the season, these scenes leak irritatingly little information to intrigue, and I felt like the show was carrot-dangling instead of tossing me little bits to interest me further.
Aside from that, there are a few plot points that feel like a bit of a stretch. However, this is a show that thrives on the unexpected, and I won't get into specifics so as to not spoil the fun. That, and they're negligible when compared to the rest of the show.

The show mainly follows Ellen Parsons, a young lawyer who gets hired by Patricia Hewes, a prosecutor notorious for being ruthlessly effective. Hewes' firm is handling the case of Arthur Frobisher, a multi-billionaire pressed with charges similar to the Enron case a few years back (falsified financial reports, dumped stock, thousands of employees' savings and retirement plans gone, etc.). Without getting into details, the only other important thing to mention is that Parsons is engaged.
Glenn Close's performance as Hewes is sharp and convincing, and Ted Danson (who most people seem to have forgotten after Cheers) delivers a surprisingly compelling performance as Frobisher. The majority of other actors around them are very well-picked, and although generally not well-known, keep pace with the headliners.
The acting is truly what elevates this show above the potential mess it could have been. The ruthlessness and insensitivity of Frobisher and his cohorts is utterly disgusting and shocking on many occasions, yet I still found myself feeling bad for him during certain moments. Patty Hewes is an enigmatic figurehead, and when you see the bits and pieces that they allow you every now and then of what goes on in her world and the lengths to which she's willing to go to make her case, I wondered if I should really be rooting for her. Ellen Parsons is a wonderful heroine, and seeing her character evolve and adapt throughout the season is truly a treat. There are plenty of other characters worth appreciating, but all you need to know is that it's very well-acted.

The plot is also excellent. The twists and turns and deaths and near-deaths make each episode feel like a mysterious-yet-thrilling roller-coaster ride. The writers are definitely very gutsy, and pull some genuinely unexpected punches. Although there are points that make you feel kind of iffy about the show (there's a particular incident involving someone getting hit by a car that I found very cheesy and unrealistic), overall the plot shines. The overly stylistic flash-forwards eventually become genuinely intriguing and intense, lending a hand in heightening the tension in the rest of the show. On top of that, I felt an unexpected anxiety as the gaps chronicling how distant the majority of the show is from the flash-forwards became steadily smaller and smaller.

Damages is not a perfect show. However, you'll have a hard time finding a more intriguing new show these days (with the arguable exception of MadMen), and by the end of the season you'll find yourself itching to see more, especially with the premise that the finale leaves you with.
FX has another winner on its hands. Once The Shield finally finishes its run this year, Damages is going to be a strong new leg for them to stand on. The plot is thick and the stage-setting is necessary, so get into it early and settle in for a satisfying and (hopefully) long run.

The most intelligent thriller on US television
Damages is intelligent, complex, beautifully scripted and edited and manages to break with the bog standard format of the legal drama/police procedural/whodunnit/drama genre cliches by combining all of them with top draw Hollywood production and writing standards. Only HBO can do these kinds of things and, as this is not a pure drama in the Sopranos/Mad Men mould, it stands out. Also its underlying critique of ruthless legal and business practices in the US makes it darker, more adult and politically sophisticated than any like dramas which tend to be politically lobotomised or comfortably liberal. This one deliberately stokes the sense of unease. Its got more twists than a frizzy head with a double perm but so far it all seems to hang together - the flashback/flashforward and contrasting film styles (blurry handheld or close up interior style) stops it from ever being dull. More like a Mike Figgis film than a TV drama.