Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #2870 in DVD
• Released on: 2008-04-14
• Rating: Suitable for 15 years and over
• Formats: PAL, Colour, Subtitled, Dolby
• Original language: English
• Subtitled in: English
• Number of discs: 3
• Running time: 559 minutes

Amazon.co.uk Review
Glenn Close continues the exodus of terrific movie actors and actresses who are finding the more fulfilling and meaty roles on the smaller screen. And with Damages, she’s struck gold in an engrossing legal thriller.

Close plays Patty Hewes, an experienced and high profile litigator. She’s then joined by the eager, and considerably more wet-behind-the-ears Ellen Parsons (played by Rose Byrne), who fits into the role of her protégé. Damages then sees the pair fighting a bitter and prolonged case against Ted Danson’s high-profile and very rich businessman.

Where Damages differs from many in the genre is that its first season effectively covers one single case (albeit with many, many strands), much as Murder One did all those years ago. And this makes for an increasingly layered and intriguing drama, with a healthy number of twists to keep you on your toes.

The entire first season is presented in this Damages set, and very gripping it is too. Superbly acted by its cast of high and lower profile actors, it brings with it a real compulsion to find out what happened next. It’s where the DVD set comes in handy, as there’s no longer a week between episodes to get to the next part of the story!

Damages may not have been the highest profile export from the States of late, but it is one of the very best. And this set is an ideal opportunity to find out what all the fuss is about… --Jon Foster

Synopsis
Damages, the hot new legal thriller airing on BBC is set in New York's world of high stakes litigation. It follows the lives of Patty Hewes, the nation's most revered and most reviled litigator, and her bright, ambitious protégée Ellen Parsons as they become embroiled in a class action lawsuit targeting Arthur Frobisher, one of the country's wealthiest CEOs. As Patty battles Frobisher and his attorney, Ellen learns what it takes to win at all costs, and that lives, not just fortunes, are at stake.

Synopsis
Set in the high-stakes legal world, DAMAGES explores the relationship between high-powered litigator Patty Hewes (Glenn Close) and her naive young underling Ellen Parsons (Rose Byrne). Swept up by Patty's camp, Ellen barely has time to catch her breath before being faced with a lawsuit that will challenge her preconceived notions of justice, fairness, and morality. Ellen will have to start learning fast if she wants to keep up with her fierce mentor, whose no-mercy approach to the law makes her one of the most feared and admired figures in the city. Loyalties will be tested and true colours revealed as a class-action lawsuit involving one of American's richest CEOs (Ted Danson) forces everyone involved to stand up for what they believe in. The show's first series is presented here in full.

Customer Reviews

Watch this series
This is easily the best new TV series so far in 2008. A legal thriller, this show brings back memories of Murder One although it's darker and more twisted. We start with the current time, showing a terrified and broken young lawyer being interrogated for murder. We then go back in time to find out how she arrived at this position, centering on a high profile legal case she was working on. Each episode shows more of how the case evolved and what happened on that fateful day. As the series progresses you are not sure who you should be routing for, how the characters are connected, or what actually happened that night. Full of twists and even some scary moments, I can't rate this series highly enough. In addition it is brilliantly acted especially by Glenn Close (which is somewhat expected) but also by Ted Danson - if you've only seen him in Cheers or Curb Your Enthusiasm, you'll be genuinely surprised by his performance. A brilliant show. I just hope it ends well and that there is another series!

Compulsive viewing
I watched all thirteen episodes of this drama within four days. The perfomances of the main actors, Glenn Close (as the hard as nails Lawyer), Rose Byrne (the new recruit to her firm) and Ted Danson (the wealthy chief exective they are chasing with a damages claim) are all excellent. The suspense level is maintained throughout, helped by using a flashback style in reverse to tell the story. The bulk of the viewing is done showing the months leading up to the catastrophic finale. This is interspersed with later events leaving you following both the build up and the 'last chapter' at the same time until they meet near the end.
The story line follows a legal battle lead by Glenn Close's character Patty Hewes representing over 5000 former employees cheated out of their savings and pensions by former boss Arthur Frobisher (Ted Danson). With hundreds of millions of dollars at stake both sides will do anything it takes to gain or protect the fortune. The twists and turns continually make you unsure of who's the 'goodie' and whose the 'baddie', whose telling the truth, lying etc.
Watching on DVD allows you the obvious advantage of watching this drama at your own pace, essential as you won't be wanting to wait a week between episodes.

Not flawless, but intelligent and entertaining
Some of the characterisation is a little OTT and characters and plot somewhat derivative, but similar criticism could be applied to classics such as NYPD Blue and The Shield, both hugely entertaining and faultlessly crafted. And surely that is the point: we are not critics determined to find fault not pleasure, we are here to be intelligently entertained - and Damage delivers.