The Morning After: Damage Assessment

I found the "ellen with a gun" framing device lame, mostly, I suspect, because Byrne is such a lame actress. To me, it looks like she is talking to the mirror (and the lack of any response to what she is saying makes that even more likely).
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And to me, Byrne's weakness rubs off on the rest of the cast. Her inability to create a coherent character makes Close's performance appear inconsistent. (And perception of Close's performance was certainly not helped by juxtaposing it with Meryl Streep's bravura turn in The Devil Wears Prada -- it was "dragon lady" night on FX, and Streep won hands down.)
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The level of red-herrings offered up in Damages is probably its most annoying aspect -- and the plots looks like its going to be complex enough that red-herrings are unnecessary.
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Virtually everyone associated with the show has talked about the fact that they have no idea what they are doing in each scene -- its crucial that actors know what their characters know, but apparently not even the writers know what the characters know. The writers don't appear to have any faith in their actors -- rather than trusting their actors to provide the necessary ambiguity through their performance to keep the audience guessing, they create a phony ambiguity by not even knowing themselves what the characters are really thinking. That's cheating.
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But the 'cheating' isn't the real problem. A show with a complex plot should be rewarding the second time around -- once you find out what is really going on, its just as interesting watch how good actors manage to convey their knowledge of their own secrets without giving those secrets away. But in watching the first season of Damages the second time, one is struck by how little foreshadowing is found in the performances themselves.
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I also had a very hard time with the way the whole "foundation" narrative was written. Patty had just earned herself a couple of hundred million in contingency fees from the Frobisher case -- but there would be no foundation without the other guy's money? Huh?
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Finally, did anyone else find it annoying that William Hurt's wife was so much more younger and "pulled together" than Hurt himself? That marriage was simply not credible, and its probably a good thing that they killed off the wife at the end of the first episode.
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I'll probably keep watching for the next two weeks, just to see Marcia Gay Hardin do her stuff. As with Danson's performance in the first season (which was informed by the fact that he knew he was guilty), Hardin will probably be able to put together a coherent performance because there will probably be not a lot of ambiguity in her role.

Wow--my thoughts are not quite as well thought out as plukasiak's, although I certainly agree about William Hurt's wife. She could as easily have been his daughter--but, unfortunately, that's hardly unusual. Look at the new movie "Last Chance Harvey"--Dustin Hoffman is 71, and Emma Thompson isn't yet 50.

Anyway, I liked the episode, although I worry about all of that star power being overwhelming. I actually don't think Rose Byrne is as bad as some say--consider the cast she's surrounded by. I don't think there'd be much criticism for her performance if she was on, say, Grey's.

Finally, I'm starting to wonder if Patty did indeed order a hit on Ellen last year.

Hmmmm. I checked IMDB, and William Hurt is "only" 15 years older than Paige Turco. She's just aged a lot better than he.

Speaking of damage assessment - what about that awful Toby Young on Top Chef? I don't think I could bear it if they ruin my favorite show with that pompous ass! Where is the hue and cry?

I thought it was great. The tone and quality was just as it was in season one. My only criticism is that the seams were showing, just slightly, in that you could see things being set up to make us question, "Is he a plant," "Did Patty's informant find out about Ellen," etc. But it's still very well done.

I also don't think Byrnes a bad actress. She's just very reserved, maybe a little too much so, but some people are that way. I loved the scene when Patty and Ellen have their meeting, and Ellen (along with the rest of us) expects Patty to confess about trying to kill her, but Patty lies about it - and you can see the expression of anger being held back in the eyes of Ellen. It was greatly handled by Byrne, and the level of incredulity (mirroring our own) is just slightly funny. She's far better than the guy from Love Potion #9.

I'm surprised by the Byrnes hate, I think she's great in this.
I was wondering if Season 2 would be the giant tease that Season 1 was. About 10 seconds in my friends and I laughed because the answer was obviously "Yes".

Finally, I'm starting to wonder if Patty did indeed order a hit on Ellen last year.
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Of course she didn't. It would be completely out of character for her. Its a red-herring--and I'd be willing to bet that "what was taken care of" was the clean-up of Hewes' condo. Its going to turn out that Ted(? the Zelkjo Ivanek character) ordered hits on both Patty and Ellen before killing himself. Hewes ordered the clean up because she didn't want people looking into why a hit had been ordered; at the time she didn't know realize that Ellen's boyfriend had been killed, and that Ellen would be the prime suspect in that murder because her "alibi" didn't hold up.
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As for Byrnes acting -- its entirely one dimensional. Close is giving a multi-dimensional performance; unlike in the first season, thee is an undercurrent of self-doubt/pre-occupation in even her most 'confident' scenes; she's able to project the fact that she is being 'haunted' by never being completely engaged in any conversation.

Patty ordered the hit. She bailed on confessing to Ellen because she got cocky again after pulling out a win on Arnesault. Basically she gets wracked with guilt when she starts to doubt herself, but when her tricks work she gets cocky and doesn't think there's anything wrong with what she has done. She was probably also hoping the half-assed apology would satiate her guilt without going the whole nine yards. Fisk was clearly saying she needs to confess to Ellen and that half assed confession she gave was not what he was talking about.
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As for Hurt's wife, she didn't seem particularly more put together than him. And what world do you live in that older men don't marry younger women? It's very common for older men to marry younger women, it's reality. It's not just rich older men either. I hate it when people think TV is supposed to set an example or something and not just show the world the way it is.

To Bemused:

No kidding! I would LOVE to see, say, Dennis Quaid (58) paired with Judi Dench (74). Or Ryan Gosling (28) and, I don't know, Kathy Bates (50). But that would NEVER happen. Yet we don't blink an eye at Harrison Ford / Anne Heche pairings, or Jack Nicholson / Helen Hunt. Or, God forbid, a Jack Black type ACTRESS linked with a Kate Winslet type ACTOR. Of course, I can't think of any Jack Black type actresses, so maybe that's a moot point.

So, yeah, I don't watch Damages. But I do like to rant!

PS -- I love Ryan Gosling. I would never impugn him. He was just the first youngish, hottish actor to come to mind!

Whoa -- I don't know why the system felt the need to insert random smiley faces. Those are supposed to be 8's. Who knew?

"It's very common for older men to marry younger women, it's reality. It's not just rich older men either. I hate it when people think TV is supposed to set an example or something and not just show the world the way it is." Good pint, rhys.

@murdoc: The smiley faces are WordPress quirk--annoying, aren't they?