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Damages

Glenn Close as Patty Hewes
  • Posted at 12:04pm
  • 03 January 2008
  • by AlisonGraham-RT
  • 2 comments

One of last year's most eagerly anticipated US imports, Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip, did no more than limp on to More4 where it gave a little cough and promptly died.

Quite right too. It was smug, self-satisfied and not very good. Expectations for Studio 60 before its launch in the US were high because it was the baby of Aaron Sorkin, creator of The West Wing, that overrated series beloved of TV snobs everywhere. (That and The Sopranos. Yes, gawd save us all from West Wing and Sopranos bores. And you can add Dexter and The Wire to that little list too. Both good, but not THAT good.)

Anyway, the fate of Studio 60 shows the folly of expecting anything from US imports that are overburdened with expectation. Which should stand Damages (Sunday 6 January, 10:20pm, BBC1) in good stead.

With little fanfare, it's tiptoed over here to be put into the post-news slot recently vacated by the magnificently awful Patricia Arquette vehicle, Medium.

Damages isn't half bad, either. Glenn Close is terrifyingly good as amoral New York lawyer Patty Hewes, a woman who will have a dog killed to frame an adversary. (This aroused a furore in the States among an audience presumably unmoved by the brutal, bloody murder of a human being in the first episode.)

You might get sick of hearing how absolutely brilliant Hewes is, because everyone goes on and on and on about her astonishing abilities. Yeah, yeah, we get the message. And it's quite complex. But, so far, on the evidence of the pilot, the signs are good.

Best news of the week is the start of the new series of CSI: Crime Scene Investigation (Tuesday 8 January, 9:00pm, Five). It's the original, and it remains the best of the CSI "franchise". Unfortunately the opening episode concentrates on the search for the drab Sara, trapped under a car in the desert by the so-called "Miniature Killer". Let her stay there, I say, though her lover Gil Grissom (William Petersen) would of course disagree and busts a gut to try to find her. But fear not, we return to the more familiar territory of outrageous gore and outlandish plots in the second episode.

BBC1's big launch of the week is Mistresses (Tuesday 8 January, 9:00pm), effectively a chick flick in five parts about a group of women who drone on endlessly about men. You'll probably realise, very quickly, that you've heard it all before.

And Wire in the Blood (9:00pm, ITV1) goes to America on Monday 7 January when psychologist Dr Tony Hill (twinkly Robson Green) is called to help with the prosecution of a murderer. There's little to say, except that Wire in the Blood is just as daft set in Texas as it is when it's set in the north of England.

**

Alison Graham is TV editor of Radio Times.

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Comments

  • Posted on 11 February 2008
  • at 7:30am
  • by WilliamJMurphy
I really enjoyoed the West Wing, but there were times when I winced. The cliched English ambassador comes to mind, and the episode where the US President has to calm down a war-loving UK prime minister. Quite ironic really given Iraq etc etc. Sopranos series 1 was really strong, but it lost its way soon after. In defence of US TV, at least they try new things. UK Drama seems to be summed up by navel gazing, cops and accidental pregnancies.
  • Posted on 20 January 2008
  • at 3:37pm
  • by crystalmeths19

The reason why these so-called tv snobs go on about how good shows like The Sopranos and The Wire are is because they are. They go on and on about them because they are that good, and when you find a shows that good, you want to shout it from the rooftops. If you call them bores, I'm bored with the comments made in this column going on and on and on about shows like The Thick of It, 30 Rock and so on. Yes we know about them and if we wanted to watch then we would have done so by now. Shows like Dexter are as good as these so-called tv snobs say, and the only reason why people disagree is that either they haven't seen them, and so can't comment, or that they have and don't get them. Shows are all treated with the same amount of hype, so if one show gets an awful lot of hype from critics, like The Sopranoes, then it's because it deserves it and it is as they say, brilliant.

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