---
title: "Damages"
year: 2007
kind: "series"
canonical: "https://film.one/tv/damages"
fi1m_score: 78
critics_score: 74
critics_reviews: 7
published: "2026-09-17T00:17:06.157910+00:00"
updated: "2026-09-17T00:17:19.025148+00:00"
region: "US"
licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL."
---

# Damages (2007)

Created by Allen Coulter, Todd A. Kessler, Glenn Kessler · MPA TV-MA · Mystery, Drama, Crime

**Fi1m score: 78** · Critics 74 from 7 reviews

*In a sentence:* The clever young lawyer gets the job of a lifetime; the lifetime may be about six months

> Glenn Close’s Patty Hewes is the most frightening lawyer we have seen on television, and the first season built around her is a thriller told forwards and backwards at once. The trick wears thin over five seasons, but the first thirteen hours are worth anyone’s evening.

## Synopsis

New York. Ellen Parsons (Rose Byrne), fresh out of law school, takes a job at the firm of Patty Hewes (Glenn Close), a litigator whose name frightens other lawyers. Patty is suing Arthur Frobisher (Ted Danson), a billionaire whose employees lost their savings when his company went under, and Frobisher’s lawyer Ray Fiske (Željko Ivanek) wants it settled quietly. Ellen is planning a wedding to David Connor (Noah Bean), a doctor, whose sister Katie (Anastasia Griffith) turns out to be the witness Patty has been looking for. The series opens six months later: Ellen running through the streets in a raincoat, covered in blood, and taken in by the police. Every episode moves between the two points.

## Review

The pitch is simple and the telling is not. Ellen Parsons (Rose Byrne) is hired out of law school by Patty Hewes (Glenn Close), the most feared litigator in New York, and within the first minutes of the pilot we have also seen her six months on, half-dressed under a raincoat and covered in someone’s blood. Every episode of the first season moves between the two points, the hiring and the ruin, and the pleasure is watching them close on each other. Todd A. Kessler and Glenn Kessler, who created the series, treat the structure as the main character. It is a legal thriller in which almost nothing happens in a courtroom.

Patty is the reason to watch. Close plays her as a woman who is kindest at the moment she is about to do the most harm. There is a scene early on in which she tells Ellen, gently, over a table, what she expects of her, and we felt the temperature in our own living room drop. Nothing had been threatened. Close had simply lowered her voice and held the look a beat longer than was polite. Ted Danson’s Arthur Frobisher is the other pole, a billionaire who wants to be liked while he lies, and Danson is good enough that we kept catching ourselves liking him. Željko Ivanek, as Frobisher’s exhausted lawyer Ray Fiske, and Tate Donovan, as Patty’s loyal second Tom Shayes, are the two men in the show who know how much they are not being told.

The craft is sober and it earns the structure. Jonathan Freeman and David S. Tuttman shoot the present in cold glass and clean grey, and the flash-forwards in a drained, dirtier palette, so that a single frame tells you which half of the year you are in. The cuts between the two timelines land on a matching object or a matching word, and the show is careful never to hold a flash-forward long enough to explain it. James S. Levine’s score stays low in the strings and refuses a tune. Frank L. Fleming and Mirela Rupic dress Close in dark tailoring that never creases and put Byrne in cheaper suits that quietly improve as the season goes on, which is the character’s arc told in fabric.

The weakness is Ellen. Byrne plays being watched well, and she is better still when Ellen starts to watch back, but for most of the first season the writers keep her in the dark so that we can stay there too. Noah Bean’s David and Anastasia Griffith’s Katie, the fiancé and the sister, have to carry the ordinary life the show is threatening, and they are written thinner than the people threatening it. The Variety complaint at the time, that unethical lawyers are an old story, is fair as far as it goes; the answer is that the story here is not the lawyers but the girl who took the job.

Then the show has to do it again. Season two brings William Hurt as Daniel Purcell, an old friend of Patty’s with a case of his own, and Marcia Gay Harden as Claire Maddox across the aisle. Season three gives Campbell Scott’s Joe Tobin a family fortune that is not what it seems and hands Martin Short, of all people, the role of the family lawyer Leonard Winstone, and Short is a revelation, dry and watchful and not funny once. Seasons four and five drop to ten episodes and bring in Ryan Phillippe as Channing McClaren. Each run opens on a body or a disaster and rewinds. By the fourth we caught ourselves predicting the shape of the reveal, and being right, which is not what a mystery is for.

Set against the legal dramas it grew up among, it is stranger and crueller than most and less interested in the law than any of them. Nobody wins a case here by being right; they win by knowing something first. Set against its own first season, the later ones are competent and Close is never less than watchable, but the surprise has gone out of the surprises.

Certificate 15. Watch the first season as a thirteen-hour film, in the dark, and decide afterwards whether you want more. If you stop there you will have seen the best of it and none of the worst, and we suspect Patty would approve of the decision.

*Fi1m score 78, published 17 September 2026.*

## What the critics say

Most critics like Damages, and nearly all of them like it for the same reason: Glenn Close as Patty Hewes. The praise is for her ruthlessness, and several reviewers single out the time-shifting structure, with flashbacks used to build suspense rather than to explain. The editing gets credit more than once, and Ted Danson is named alongside Close as a reason to watch.

The reservations are about the story around her. Variety finds the premise of unethical lawyers overly familiar and worries the plotting will tip into implausibility. The AV Club, reviewing the pilot, sees serious problems and thinks Rose Byrne’s character is dominated and underdeveloped, though Collider, writing later in the season, credits Byrne as a driving force. The Guardian admits to being confused as well as intrigued. The spread is moderate: no review is negative, and the two mixed notices come earliest, before the season has shown its hand.

### Reviews we read (7)

- **Vulture**, Justin Ravitz (85/100, inferred): The season-one finale is praised as shocking, twisty, and satisfying, with lucid resolutions and intriguing lingering clues. Glenn Close's ferocious performance as Patty Hewes and the overall pulpy intrigue are highlighted as strengths. [Read](https://www.vulture.com/2007/10/damages_finale_thrills_dozens.html)
- **Empire**, William Thomas (80/100, inferred): The critic finds that the series lives up to its high-concept pitch as a legal thriller. Strong performances from Glenn Close and Ted Danson are highlighted as standout elements. [Read](https://www.empireonline.com/tv/reviews/damages-season-one-review/)
- **The Times** (80/100, inferred): The critic highlights Glenn Close's intense ruthlessness in the role of Patty Hewes as scarier than her Fatal Attraction character, praising the time-shifting structure and narrative grip. [Read](https://www.thetimes.com/best-law-firms/profile-legal/article/glenn-closes-legal-eagle-is-scarier-than-her-bunny-boiler-nk299tm7pgf)
- **The Guardian**, Nancy Banks-Smith (70/100, inferred): The critic finds the show confusing but intriguing, praising the deviousness of Glenn Close's character Patty Hewes and the sharp editing. [Read](https://www.theguardian.com/culture/tvandradioblog/2008/jan/07/theweekendstvfoyleswar)
- **The AV Club**, Scott Tobias (65/100, inferred): The critic finds serious problems with the pilot but enough compelling elements to recommend it with reservations. The strong cast, dark intrigue, and irresistible opening hook stand out positively, while Rose Byrne's character feels dominated and underdeveloped. [Read](https://www.avclub.com/glorious-miscellany-7-27-07-on-joshua-damages-mary-l-1798212178)
- **Variety**, Brian Lowry (50/100, inferred): The critic finds the FX legal drama intriguing and well-cast with smart dialogue and effective use of flashbacks for suspense, but cautions that the premise of unethical lawyers feels overly familiar and risks veering into implausible territory. [Read](https://variety.com/2007/film/awards/damages-6-1200557677/)
- **Collider**, Jason Davis (90/100, inferred): The series delivers a complex, multi-timeline narrative that keeps viewers engaged with its fearless plotting and redefinition of mysteries. Standout performances from Glenn Close as the ruthless Patty Hewes and Rose Byrne as her protégé drive the show, supported by strong writing, cinematography, and editing. [Read](https://collider.com/damages-the-complete-first-season-dvd-review/)

## Details

- **Created by:** Allen Coulter, Todd A. Kessler, Glenn Kessler
- **Creator:** Allen Coulter, Todd A. Kessler, Glenn Kessler
- **Director:** Timothy Busfield, Matthew Penn, Tate Donovan, Glenn Kessler, Jean de Segonzac, Mario Van Peebles, Greg Yaitanes, Nick Gomez, Ed Bianchi, Colin Bucksey, Thomas Carter, Chris Terrio, Allen Coulter, Michael Pressman, Andy Wolk, Constantine Makris, Lawrence Trilling, Todd A. Kessler, Guy Ferland, Ken Girotti, Steve Shill, David S. Tuttman, Marcos Siega, Dan Attias, Tony Goldwyn, John David Coles
- **Writer:** Glenn Kessler, Daniel Zelman, Todd A. Kessler, Mark Fish, Aaron Zelman, Jeremy Doner, Hans Tobeason, Adam Stein, Davey Holmes, Arthur Phillips, Willie Reale, Nancy Fichman, Jennifer Hoppe
- **Cinematography:** David S. Tuttman, Jonathan Freeman
- **Music:** James S. Levine, Sharon Jones
- **Costume design:** Mirela Rupic, Frank L. Fleming
- **Producer:** Lori Jo Nemhauser, Mark A. Baker, Allen Coulter
- **Cast:** Glenn Close as Patty Hewes; Rose Byrne as Ellen Parsons; Ted Danson as Arthur Frobisher; Tate Donovan as Tom Shayes; Campbell Scott as Joe Tobin; Noah Bean as David Connor; Željko Ivanek as Ray Fiske; Martin Short as Leonard Winstone
- **Certificate (MPA):** TV-MA
- **Release (the US):** 24 July 2007
- **Genres:** Mystery, Drama, Crime
- **Trailer:** https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a_oo8PDJzyE

## Where to watch in the US

- Amazon Prime Video: streaming
- Hulu: streaming, hd
- Disney+: add-on, hd
- Amazon Prime Video: buy, hd

*Checked 2026-09-17.*

Also available in: AR, AT, BR, CL, CO, GB, JP, MX, US. Add `?region=XX` to this URL for another country.

## If you liked this

- *Better Call Saul* (2015), Fi1m 84: Another lawyer who is cleverest at the exact moment he is most dangerous. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/tv/better-call-saul.md)
- *Michael Clayton* (2007), Fi1m 86: Two hours of corporate law as a thriller, with the same cold glass and worse sleep. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/michael-clayton.md)
- *Spiral* (2005): French police and lawyers, none of them clean, and a magistrate to rival Patty.
- *Line of Duty* (2012): British interrogation drama that plays the same game of who knew what, and when.
- *Bloodline* (2015): The Kesslers again, with a family instead of a firm and the same flash-forward dread.

---
© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/tv/damages