The Funnymen of Damages
We heard of the sad news yesterday. One of TV’s most intelligent dramas, FX’s Damages, is most likely being canceled after three seasons due to poor ratings. There has been some speculation as to whether or not DirecTV might step in and rescue the show (which is pretty expensive to produce) like they did for Friday Night Lights, which was also threatened by cancellation a few years ago, but as TVOverMind writes, that is not likely to happen. Damages has a much smaller audience even than Friday Night Lights… so if there is no real fan base for the show, there is no reason to pony up for it. The best part of the show has always been Glenn Close’s performance as the ruthless, high-powered attorney Patty Hewes, as well as the writers’ structure of each season as a jigsaw puzzle where each episode provides another clue to an icy, bloody, complicated legal mystery. Another key to the critical success of the show has been the producers’ willingness to hire old comedians (or actors with a comic past). Watching these old pros try their hand at serious acting has been great fun. Let’s take a look at the funnymen of Damages.
Ted Danson Danson appeared in all three seasons of the show, but was a key player in the first season. He was Arthur Frobisher, a wealthy businessman accused of insider trading and robbing his employees of their life savings while telling them that his failing company was in good health. Guilty as hell, Frobisher returned in the second and third seasons as a reformed man after being shot and almost killed, now an environmental activist trying to regain his soul. A very different role from that of Sam Malone in Cheers, Danson was very convincing (and entertaining) and received two Emmy nominations for his work.
Darrell Hammond The veteran Saturday Night Live comedian and imitator was a hoot as a hit man in the second season of Damages, a guy with an intense stare who freshened up with lip balm between killings. Hardly a great actor, but the off-beat casting was so weird one couldn’t help but love it.
Martin Short I really like Short. He hasn’t made that many great movies, but he’s always been a terrific, funny guest on talk shows. When learning that he had been cast for the third season of Damages I expected something really interesting from him and I wasn’t disappointed. His character, an attorney who’s fiercely loyal to a Bernie Madoff-type investor and his family, turns out to harbor a family secret. Short is very good and I bet Emmy voters can’t resist the chance to reward this comedian’s serious turn.
Lily Tomlin Sure, this is not the first time Tomlin has done serious work. She was on The West Wing, for instance. But this is a bigger part as she plays the wife of the Madoff-type schemer in the third season, a bitter billionaire’s wife who now has to reconcile with the fact that her husband cheated thousands of ordinary Americans out of their life savings.
Published by Stefan Hedmark 2010-04-05 11:30
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