Damages: The Complete Second Season

The most savage legal series on TV—which launched on FX in 2007—stars Glenn Close as Patty Hewes, the alpha wolf of New York's high-priced attorneys. The 2009 second season finds Patty basking in the success of her huge class action suit against arrogant millionaire CEO Arthur Frobisher (Ted Danson), while her bright young junior lawyer, Ellen Parsons (Rose Byrne), is working as an informant for the FBI. Soon Patty is dragged into a murder case and a corporate conspiracy by an old friend, Daniel Purcell (William Hurt), who leaves her hanging and hungry for payback. Damages forgoes courtroom theatrics for the behind-the-scenes machinations and hardball tactics of legal gamesmanship; everyone is playing an angle in this world, and trust is in short supply. Adding to the dramatic weight provided by Close, who earned a second consecutive Emmy for her performance here, is some amped-up star power in the form of Marcia Gay Harden, Timothy Olyphant, Mario Van Peebles, Darrell Hammond, and Clarke Peters. If things wrap up a little too neatly with Patty and Ellen's story, the collateral damage of last season's unfinished business and stray narrative threads featuring other characters following their own agendas do provide some solid surprises. Compiling all 13 episodes, DVD extras include four episode audio commentaries with cast and crew, a first season recap, seven character profiles, and deleted scenes. Recommended. (S. Axmaker)