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Damages

Glenn Close as Patty Hewes in Damages
  • Posted at 12:46pm
  • 27 March 2008
  • by AlisonGraham-RT
  • 1 comment

It's the music that gets me every time - the jangling, nerve-shredding guitar then the barbed, black, yet strangely sinuous lyrics "When I am through with you, there won't be anything left"…over and over. It's like being slapped around the face as your hair is being pulled. But in a good way. That's Damages for you (Mondays, BBC1), and its fabulous Simple Mindsy-New Ordery theme tune by the LA-based band The VLA. Listen for yourself at MySpace.

As the weeks have rolled by Damages has burrowed under my skin like a painful, bloodsucking insect. I simply cannot miss it. We even have our own little Damages "community" here at RT, a knot of acolytes who worship every immaculately shod step taken by the terrifying Patty Hewes (Glenn Close, giving the performance of a lifetime in a lifetime of great performances. And where did she get those insanely fabulous, retro sunglasses from?).

We will, of course, be bereft when Damages ends in a couple of weeks (too soon!). Until then, we'll just have to make the most of a gripping, beautifully woven, multi-layered mystery (are you listening, Lewis? It can be done, you know) packed with flawed, believable characters who aren't what they seem (or are they? Cue nasty, Vincent Price-type laugh).

In Monday's (31 March) penultimate episode we find out a bit more about what Ellen actually meant a few weeks ago when she and Patty had their little discussion and Ellen asked: "Do you regret what we did?". Don't be fooled if you think you've got it all worked out - the writers just keep piling on the agony. Pain has never been such fun.

It's a shame that such fine US dramas can't help but show up our own frequently pale efforts. He Kills Coppers (Sundays, ITV1) should have been great, as it's based on a great book, by Jake Arnott, who wrote The Long Firm. You might remember BBC2's adaptation of The Long Firm starring a mesmerising Mark Strong as the central character, the brutal, yet oddly alluring and even sympathetic gangster Harry Starks. Sadly Harry isn't in He Kills Coppers, which is a shame, as it needs a good, strong character to anchor it and give it a bit of gravitas. But it's all a bit so-so.

Poppy Shakespeare (Monday 31 March, 9:00pm, Channel 4) has nothing to do with crime. Based on Clare Allan's bestselling novel, it's the tale of a friendship between two damaged women forged in the strange netherworld of a psychiatric day hospital. Granted, it doesn't sound particularly appealing, but two strong central performances by Anna Maxwell Martin and Naomie Harris make it well worthwhile.

**

Alison Graham is TV editor of Radio Times.

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  • Posted on 16 April 2008
  • at 1:01pm
  • by domher
As always, Ms Graham, you're spot on (about plotting, writing, music, uptodateness, the whole presentational confidence and imagination, with which the guys on the other side of the ocean -yeah, forget mileage, its that metaphorically big!- put together fictional TV. It really does show up the dearth of wit that inhabits the consciousness of ? Who? -Commissioners?, Programme Makers? I really don't know 'cos I'm not on the inside.That's what makes the arrival of Pushing Daisies on mainstream ITV1 remarkable; its so clearly a crib from the Daffy Housewives, the Fisher funeral home, the Buffy genre, yet it doesn't slavishly follow -as would any number of uninspired Brit creations. Sorry. this is turning into a tirade (but only against Brit fictional TV) when it was meant as an intro to a plea for you to turn your attention to not only The Wire ('cos you must get lotsa calls for that), but also for a superb Canadian series "Intelligence", in which Hallmark clearly have only limited confidence -it always goes out at 11pm and repeats at 3am. This series closed its Season 2 last night and carries the most convoluted plot lines you've ever come across, but its fast cutting not only give it real style but help to quickly lose any poorly developed scenarios. I urge you to give it a whirl and proclaim its virtues for mainstream presentation.Dom Herlihy

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