Search - Damages: The Complete Second Season on DVD

Still Great - But not as riveting as Season 1

D. Dell | Oakland, CA USA | 07/20/2009

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Season 1 was taught and terrifying magic. Season 2 tries to mix in a major new storyline while still carrying forward the lethal fallout from last season's Arthur Frobisher case. Although teasing and confusing the viewer are part of the stylistic tone of this production, things got a little muddy with too many characters in mid-season. Still, the Season Finale was so brilliant, it more than paid off its mid-season markers. Meanhile, the acting of the major characters - Rose Byrne deserves more credit, IMHO - continues to shine."

Moral relativism

H. Schneider | window seat | 11/01/2009

(4 out of 5 stars)

"I am not a TV addict. I only watch news (CNN, BBC, DWTV) and football (the real one, not the USaberration). But there are always exceptions... Like now, I am stuck at home with a cold, have to cancel a trip to avoid swine flu quarantine.

What does one do with mountains of windfall time, when one is not fit for serious pursuits? Either one reads pulp fiction, or Hegel (just joking), or one watches TV show DVDs.

This is how I ended up investing hours, that I could have used more productively, with Damages, Season 2. I never watched Season 1, which is supposed to be better, more coherent, more compact. (Watching DVDs when sick has social advantages over reading; one can more easily share the activity.)



My conclusion: if you have to waste your time, this series is not the worst of all options!

What do you get? You get a high society crime soap, focused on a female lawyer, Glenn Close, with unclear morality. You get a beautiful young colleague and co-worker of hers, a Queen Rania look alike, who bears grudges and conspires against her boss. You get the worlds of class action suits, of big capital bosses and their hobbies, of financial manipulations, of environmental crime, of corruption and betrayal... And it is highly complex and complicated and you are forgiven if you sometimes lose track of who did what when and where.



It is good on suspense. It is intriguing on the level of motivation. Some people are easy to understand, they want money and power. Our heroines here, and also some of the men, eg the William Hurt character, are harder to read.

And hardest is the moral evaluation: it is doubly vexing. Not only don't we know the facts, so we can't justly judge, but we are also shown things in differing and conflicting lights, which is of course designed to confuse us. What has actually happened and why? Who are the good guys and who the bad ones? Which moral code counts more in case of a clash?



First class entertainment with brilliant actors. Deduction of one star due to the excessive flipping about with time lines.

"

Sometimes Less Is More

J. McQueen | Hartford, CT | 01/25/2010

(3 out of 5 stars)

"The first season of "Damages" was brilliant.



The second season was very good as well. But, it seems to be missing something.



Upon reflection, I believe the missing ingredient was villians who were just as compelling as the "heroes."



In Season 1, the series benefitted greatly from Ted Danson portrayal of the wayward billionaire Arthur Frobisher. Danson's Frobisher was equal parts "average joe made good" and inaccessible, plutocratic jerk; the rare character who you find yourself both repulsed by and rooting for. (This combination made him a yin to Patty Hewes's yang.)



There are no "villians" who the viewers can identify with in the 2nd season. The primary antagonist in this installment was an industrialist who would not acknowledge the illegal dumping of hazardous waste because he would "have his company taken away from him" if he did. There's nothing nuanced, complicated or vaguely sympathetic about that.



Glenn Close once again turns in an Emmy-worthy performance as a "Race Horse Haynes" -esque class-action litigator, Patty Hewes. She's worth the price of the dvd set by herself.



This season kept my attention and was entertaining from beginning to end. But, the first season was virtually perfect and thus, this season which certainly fell short of that, suffers in comparison.

"

Fantastic Follow Up

Steven Carrier | 02/05/2010

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This second season of Damages is more of a sequel than a true second season of a television series. I say this because Damages is a very cinematic show. From its cast of big name star, elaborate and inventive plot, dark content, beautiful cinematography and first rate direction; nothing about this show feels like something that came from TV. Season 1 was groundbreaking and thrilling television. Season 2 is a continuation of that, upping the ante for good and for worse. The story is so large and so complex it was, for me really fun to try and put all the pieces together. Most people will complain that it was not as straight forward as Season 1 but I didn't care, the writing was seamless and just made you pay more attention. The acting is stepped up as well, especially from Rose Byrne, the true star of this season. If you are a fan of Season 1 I urge you to check out this sequel season. It really is a continuation of the excellence we found in Season 1.



And how could anyone pass up with a show with this cast: Glenn Close, Rose Byrne, Tate Donovan, Anastasia Griffith, Ted Danson, Michael Nouri, Marcia Gay Harden, Timothy Olyphant, William Hurt and John Doman."