March 7, 2010
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ADVANCE DAMAGES REVIEW/SPOILERS: You Haven’t Replaced Me
I wonder if they know how gross hotel bedspreads can be? Campbell Scott and Lily Tomlin in DAMAGES. PH: ERic Liebowitz / FX
I may be in a unique position of being in LOVE with the FX series DAMAGES without having ever seen any of season 1 or 2. I’ve only begun watching season 3, and I can’t seem to pause myself from watching as new episodes come out every week. As a TV purist, normally this is behavior I’d find pretty horrible in myself. But I really like watching in real time with my other friends, and I’m so caught up in this Tobin case! I DO intend to catch up on every episode of DAMAGES season 1 & 2, asap. In the meantime, I’m perfectly happy loving season 3.
I was sent a copy of Damages 3×07 “You Haven’t Replaced Me” to watch in advance. And what can I say? The episodes just keep hitting all the marks that makes this a striking, must-watch series. This is truly a TV series that feels like it could easily be a high-budget movie because the quality of the elements (acting, music, editing) is so distinguished.
If you love dramatic, thriller-y movies like The Usual Suspects, The Pelican Brief, Double Jeopardy, Unbreakable, A Time to Kill (a Sandra Bullock movie from the 90’s!), The Net (Another Sandy movie!), or Se7en I would highly recommend you check out this series. I’m proof that you can start at season 3, or just rent/buy the season 1 DVDs and start on your own – and fall in love with this show.
Rose Byrne as Ellen. CR: Eric Liebowitz / FX.
So, what can I tell you about the episode “You Haven’t Replaced Me”? Well. Under penalty of TV LAW I really can’t tell you TOO much. And I don’t think I’d do well in jail.. (Oh, if you liked the TV series Prison Break, I bet you’d like this, too). In this episode Tom is in a tropical locale (and it made me envious, I should go buy some new flip flops…) trying to follow where the Tobin’s hidden money may be. It’s hard to know who to trust, and every time Tom thinks he’s getting somewhere, he can’t be sure. I kinda feel bad for the poor guy…considering we know what happens in the end. Anytime he gets threatened, or makes someone mad, I wonder if that’s the person who ends up killing Tom. And in this episode you’ll learn that the killer was…pretty cold-hearted.
Because I’ve only seen season 3, I’ve never seen much of Ellen’s personality other than kind of…well, sweet? She’s never seemed overly devious, even if I can tell she’s tough. But this episode opened my eyes to seeing that there is way more to Ellen Parson’s than I’d thought. It had me asking myself, “What’s her angle, here?” And I think you’ll really like the decisions Ellen makes in this episode. It makes her interesting. And it makes me wish I could read minds of fictional characters.
Martin Short continued his magnificent portrayal of Leonard Winstone, and in this episode they actually delve into his mysterious personal life.
Once you watch this episode, come back here and let me know what you thought!
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March 9th, 2010 at 3:54 am
I watched Damages for the first half of the first season but could not keep up with it. I just was not as interested, but while channel surfing I stumbled on a repeat of the first episode in January and found myself addicted to the new season. Now I want to go back and finish season one and two.
This is the show I have begun look forward to every week. It just keeps getting better, when I think about the best Drama on Television right now Damages is the first show that comes to mind.
March 9th, 2010 at 5:36 am
Rose Byrne was fantastic in this episode! I can’t express how much I love watching her and Glenn Close perform together.
March 9th, 2010 at 8:47 am
Robyn, that is so cool. Sometimes we don’t like a series or it isn’t right for us at a time, but then later we’ll love it (or hate it). Guess we’ll both be going back to watch season 1 and 2! Damages is really one of the shows I never worry about being bad.
Rose Byrne was so sneaky in this episode – I mean Ellen – but Rose’s performance was great.
March 14th, 2010 at 3:40 pm
I have been a hardcore fan since season 1 and what makes this season’s Ellen SO wonderful is that what you see now is the pitch-perfect culmination of the first two seasons.
All of the creatives (for season 1 especially) featured her as a sort of mirrored version of Patty. One in particular showed the two women being each other’s reflection. Now we are really getting to see that play out.
Talk about sweet Ellen… wait until you see season 1. But even then, as unjaded as she was, you could see the seeds of the sneaky behaviour featured in this episode.
That’s why I think season 3 is so rewarding. The writers have done such a brilliant job of showing the evolution of character and relationship in such a real way.
I am addicted. And it’s so awesome to see that I’m not the only one.
Perhaps we should start a support group?