Women rule the world of ‘Damages’
Images of the Brooklyn Navy Yard conjure up a certain swagger, strength and confidence that you can easily kick the world’s collective butt.
If you can do it in heels, a designer jacket and tight skirt, so much the better, as Glenn Close knows. She plays Patty Hewes, star litigator of FX’s “Damages,” returning for a second season at 10 p. m. Wednesday.
“What happens when a woman, rather than man, has the seat of power?” Close asks, while petting her terrier mutts, Billy and Julie. “We have Hillary and Michelle and some very strong women as part of our focus. It’s fun to have someone in charge of her destiny.”
Last season’s 13 episodes were a magnificent example of how mesmerizing television can be, and this season’s first two episodes sustain that emotional tautness. The sleek world that is Patty’s is tucked away in a new studio on the piers at the Brooklyn Navy Yard. Here, The brothers Kessler — Todd A. and Glenn — and their partner, Daniel Zelman, create a world where no one is who he seems. No one tells the truth, yet frailties keep seeping through.
“This season we see her more vulnerable,” Close says of Patty.
As Patty softens slightly — she’s not exactly a pushover — her first-year associate, Ellen (Rose Byrne), hardens.
“This season is totally opposite,” Byrne says. “She’s tougher than Patty. She’s like steel.”
Ellen needs that toughness just to survive. The first season saw Ellen transform from an uncertain, shy, newly minted law-school grad to Patty’s supposed confidante. Patty requires qualifiers because she does whatever necessary to whomever, as long as she achieves her goal.
“She is a general at heart,” says Marcia Gay Harden, who joins the cast this year as Claire Maddox, an energy company attorney opposing Patty. “She knows the good fight will require bad avenues, and she doesn’t think twice about it.”
Harden says her character is tough enough to stand up to Patty. Just as Ellen silently observes, and Patty relies on maneuverings, legal and illegal, Claire uses another weapon in her arsenal — herself.
“What I have wanted to bring to her is a strong sexuality and a willingness to use it,” Harden says. “Patty’s more buttoned- up, conservative. She wears more jackets. She has her suit of armor. Claire’s suit of armor is her body. She uses her breasts and her sway. She is smart, and we are just beginning to see how she may outthink people.”
Outsmarting others is an undercurrent on this show. Even after viewing 15 hours of it, one is left wondering why people were killed. Sure, vast sums of money are involved, but no one seems motivated solely by that.
It’s more basic; it’s the lust for power.
Though these three strong women propel the show, there are significant male characters. Patty has a husband and a son, and her ostensibly second in command is a man, Tom (Tate Donovan, who also directs). Though they matter, it’s the women who rule this show.
“We wanted to explore power and ambition,” says Zelman. “It’s more interesting to explore through women because it’s been done with men.”
The three, who also act, are pleased that the Emmy-winning show, rushed into production last year, has already been picked up for a third season.
“The show really is an exploration of relationships,” says Todd A. Kessler. “It is a lot of ourselves.”
Still, none of them seems remotely like these duplicitous characters. Zelman marvels at how unapologetic Patty is.
Glenn Kessler describes Patty’s barreling through life without regard to others as a strange form of liberation. “How nice it would be to not be responsible,” he says. “It’s interesting to watch a woman do that.”
This season also sees other new characters, including William Hurt’s Daniel Purcell, a scientist whose discovery about toxins could take down an industry.
Ellen is conspiring with FBI agents (Mario Van Peebles, Glenn Kessler), and all are determined to bring down Patty. Ellen holds Patty responsible for the fatal beating of her fiance.
It’s another tangle of betrayal and revenge — which promises to make this another season of what Close describes as a “13-hour movie” filled with complicated characters — that one would rather watch on TV than know in real life.
“I love Patty,” Close says. “She is fearless, but not without fear.”
