I guess someone at Damages decided "We need to be a character-driven show this week."
Rather than devote a lot of time with, say, its rather dense murder/fraud conspiracy storyline, the show chose to spend most of its ninth -- out of a total 13 -- week dealing with things like Arthur Frobisher trying to make his movie, Patty's personal life/renovations* and Ellen's sister and her drug addiction.
*We get it Damages: Every time the Keith Carradine guy talks about there being something valuable below the surface, he's talking about Patty.
None of these things did much to really further the plot -- other than maybe Ellen getting closer to Patty by having to ask her for a favor -- but rather served as a reminder that everything comes back to Patty, the spider at the center of this awful web.
And as much as I like Ted Danson as Frobisher, this week and last week, I wanted more of the Tobins and their world.
This week, Joe was absent entirely, we got one scene with Marilyn and her quasi-granddaughter Tessa, and spent most of our time with dull, depressed Carol.
Now, I seem to be in the minority among Damages watchers, if Twitter is any indication. Over there, it's a blizzard of "OMG, did Tom jump?" "Was he pushed?" "Did he fall?" "How did he end up in that dumpster?"
All legitimate questions, and all ones I asked myself as I was watching. Sure, it's intriguing, but this episode still felt like an intermission.
Other thoughts:
- I love how Frobisher spent most of this episode defending Patty to Terry Brooke and his producer, and yet immediately proved one of her main points -- that he's massively insecure -- as soon as she attacked him.
- What's going on with Patty and her horse dream? It'd be a safe bet to say it's tied into her family -- which, as we learn tonight, she hasn't spoken with since the Nixon administration. Also, if I knew there were a lot of Belle and Sebastian fans reading this, the title of this post would be "Patty and the Dream of Horses."
- OK, so Tom falls into the river, then someone fishes him out, puts him in a car, transfers him into a dumpster. Keep in mind that he'd only been dead a few hours when he was found. There better be a credible outcome to all this.
- We learn very little from Carol Tobin tonight, other than that Tessa lied about where she was on Thanksgiving, and that Winstone lied to Carol about Tessa. (Carol probably wouldn't take the news of an illegitimate half-sister all that well.)
- On a related note: with Tate Donovan behind the camera this week, Tom didn't get a lot to do, which is disconcerting, considering he only has four episodes to live.
- Also, it's kind of weird writing about someone named Tom dying a violent death.
Tom Coombe
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