... What's that you say, Ellen? Your fiancé was brutally slain, you were accused of the murder, your boss took out a hit on you, you killed your attacker in self-defence, the FBI entrapped you and now you're forced to go back to work for the woman who wanted you dead? Oh, right, yeah, I suppose you're entitled to look a bit miserable.
So Damages returned to the BBC and it had an extremely shaky restart, with Glenn Close's Patty Hewes character appearing on Regis Philbin's chatshow and waving on Ellen – a law associate – from the wings to get studio applause. Ridiculous. And the flash forward – to make you think "OMG! (is that what you say on the internet?) OMG! Ellen's shot Patty!" – was heavy-handed in comparison to last season. As was the revenge-against-Ted-Danson dream sequence.
However, good things seem to be on their way and they'll be coming from the great William Hurt, as a corporate whistleblower – he does harried and haunted (with a touch of sweaty shiftiness) better than any actor out there. ••Disagree? Your suggestions for alternatives very welcome in Comments•• Hurt and Close (who starred together in The Big Chill) already seem to have a brilliant tense chemistry, so the early hiccups should be suppressed. Plus, that certainly wasn't the only appearance of Timothy Oliphant (of Deadwood fame).
Called to the bar...
God, these lawyers put away the booze. Every other scene, someone had a massive crystal snifter of whisky and the main protagonists, Patty and Ellen, put away two bottles of Château Lafitte in a brief midnight meeting in a bar. They make the Mad Men look like teetotallers. I feel a drinking game coming on.
• Damages, BBC1, Sundays 11.10pm. S2 Ep1 is on BBC iPlayer till Sunday 22 Feb.
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