Patty hires Ellen despite Ellen's having missed the interview. Ellen is assigned to the Arthur Frobisher case. Frobisher offers a settlement of $100 million with the help of one of the foremen of the employees, Larry Popler (Victor Arnold). When the employees reveal that they had earlier decided to accept such an offer, Patty pretends to fire her second-in-command, Tom Shayes (Tate Donovan), for not having known about it. David proposes to Ellen. David's sister, Katie, reveals to Ellen that her upcoming restaurant is being financed by Frobisher. Ellen wonders if Patty hired her simply because of her relationship with Katie. Patty intimidates Katie, making her believe Frobisher is after her.
At Ellen's birthday party, Katie gifts her a pair of Statue of Liberty bookends. In the light of Katie's appearance as a potential witness, Patty asks her clients to reject the settlement for the moment. Patty asks Katie to give her a complete and accurate account of her time in Florida. Still intimidated by Frobisher's people, and upon Patty's advice, Katie signs a confidentiality agreement with Frobisher. Katie finally admits to Patty that she lied earlier, and confides she had one night stand with Gregory Malina while in Florida. Patty offers Ellen a new apartment.
When Patty and Ray Fiske are called by the judge about the Frobisher case, Patty is tasked to provide, by Friday, a brief documenting a substantial reason to continue with the litigation. Patty receives a hand grenade mailed to her office. Seeing this as possible death threat, Patty takes 24-hour protection. Patty has Tom investigate Gregory Malina. Patty's husband Phil (Michael Nouri) has an accident when he finds another hand grenade in his car. Ellen has to skip her engagement party when she is stuck delivering the brief to the judge. Patty's son Michael (Zachary Booth) tells his school counselor about Patty's dream (in which she is assassinated) as if it were his. Patty has him transferred to a reform academy when she discovers he planted the grenades.
Katie perjures herself during deposition after Gregory intentionally provides her with incorrect information. Patty, knowing all along that Katie was never a viable witness, lets this happen so that Frobisher will withdraw his settlement offer. Patty also discovers that Gregory owned shares of Frobisher's company in 2002, and sold them on the same day Frobisher sold his. David tries to fend off advances from Lila (Carmen Goodine), his patient's granddaughter. Tom explores alternative job opportunities.
Patty's clients, disappointed by Frobisher's withdrawal of his settlement and the discrediting of Katie as a witness, decide to fire Patty and hire Tom as their attorney. Using the clients as leverage, Tom finally succeeds in negotiating a partnership with Patty. Katie reveals that she has been in contact with Gregory Malina after their first encounter in Florida.
Ellen contacts Gregory and tries to make him cooperate with the Frobisher case. Gregory tells Ellen that Frobisher's Florida meeting was not with his broker. Frobisher plans to have his biography written in order to clean up his image, but ends up getting drunk and physically assaulting the writer. Lila asks for David's help at her home and steals his keys.
Patty's firm subpoena's Gregory Malina in the Frobisher case. Fiske's failed attempt to cancel the subpoena causes him to advise Gregory to leave the city, and Gregory flees, despite Patty's attempt to convince him to appear at the deposition. Tom and Ellen think Patty suspects that Tom tried to hire Ellen while he was planning to start his own law firm. Patty offers her son Michael emancipation papers when he refuses to come home from reform academy.
Patty confronts Larry Popler, one of the client representatives, after she discovers he is leaking information to Frobisher. Larry agrees to help Patty from thereon. Frobisher confirms to Larry that Gregory Malina is still alive. Tom and Ellen meet George Moore (Peter Riegert), an SEC official involved in Frobisher's investigation. Ellen tries to help her father with an accident case he was involved in.
George Moore provides Ellen with information about Frobisher's past criminal case in order to force Frobisher to settle the class action suit. Gregory visits Katie and explains why he provided her false information; he also makes a videotape confessing his relationship with Ray Fiske and Moore's involvement in Frobisher scandal. He is hit and killed by a car outside Katie's house, on Moore's instructions. Lila DiMeo harasses both David and Ellen.
After Frobisher quashes Patty's only lead against him ahead of the deposition, Ellen proposes to contact Moore again for further information, but Patty forbids her to do that. Ellen pursues Moore anyway and discovers that he hindered the SEC investigation. Patty fires Ellen for insubordination. Frobisher's wife files for divorce, and Patty uses this against him in the deposition.
For its first season, Damages was nominated for Outstanding Drama Series at the 2008 Primetime Emmy Awards, along with six other nominations. Co-creators Todd A. Kessler, Glenn Kessler, and Daniel Zelman were nominated for writing and Allen Coulter for directing the pilot episode ("Get Me a Lawyer"). Glenn Close received a nomination for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series, with co-stars Ted Danson and Željko Ivanek nominated for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series. [5] Close and Ivanek won in their respective categories, with the series also receiving a Creative Arts Emmy for Outstanding Casting for a Drama Series. [6] The series earned four nominations at the 65th Golden Globe Awards, including Best Television Series – Drama, Close for Best Actress, and Rose Byrne and Ted Danson for their supporting roles. Close won the award in her category. [7]
The first season of Damages was met with mostly high praise, and it earned 75 out of 100 based on 27 reviews on the aggregate review website Metacritic. This qualifies as "generally favorable reviews". [8] On Rotten Tomatoes, the season has an approval rating of 83% with an average score of 8 out of 10 based on 24 reviews. The website's critical consensus reads, "Damages injects a high dosage of quality storytelling into a familiar genre with terrific performances and some amusing psychological unrest." [9]
The series premiere on July 24, 2007 drew 3.7 million viewers, with total of 5.1 million viewers including re-airing on the same night, [10] [11] becoming the most watched cable television program for the night. [12] However, the viewership declined over the first season, partially due to the story's serialized approach, with the season finale drawing 1.4 million viewers. [13]
Glenda Veronica "Glenn" Close is an American actress. In a career spanning over six decades, she has garnered numerous accolades, including three Tony Awards, three Emmy Awards, and three Golden Globe Awards. She has been nominated eight times for an Academy Award, sharing the record for most nominations in acting categories without a win with Peter O'Toole. In 2016, she was inducted into the American Theater Hall of Fame, and in 2019, Time magazine named her one of the 100 most influential people in the world.
Edward BridgeDanson III is an American actor. He achieved stardom playing the lead character Sam Malone on the NBC sitcom Cheers, for which he received two Primetime Emmy Awards and two Golden Globe Awards. He was nominated for more Emmy Awards for roles in the legal drama Damages (2007–2010) and the NBC dramedy The Good Place (2016–2020). He was awarded a star on Hollywood's Walk of Fame in 1999.
Something About Amelia is a 1984 television film about psychological trauma caused in a family by a father's molestation of his daughter.
Željko Ivanek is a Slovenian-American actor. Known for his work in film, television and theatre, he is the recipient of a Primetime Emmy Award, a Screen Actors Guild Award and a Drama Desk Award, as well as three Tony Award nominations.
Damages is an American legal thriller television series created by writing and production trio Daniel Zelman, Glenn Kessler, and Todd A. Kessler. It premiered on July 24, 2007, on FX and aired for three seasons before moving to the DirecTV channel Audience Network in 2010, airing for two further seasons, and concluding in 2012.
Noah Whipple Bean is an American actor best known for his roles as Ryan Fletcher on The CW action-thriller series Nikita, as David Connor on the FX legal drama Damages and his leading performance in the independent film The Pill. He also starred as Aaron Marker in the first season of Syfy's 12 Monkeys.
Todd A. Kessler is an American screenwriter, playwright, television producer and director.
Glenn Kessler is an American screenwriter, television producer, actor, and director.
Ellen Parsons is a fictional character on the American legal thriller series Damages. The character was created by the writer trio of Glenn Kessler, Todd A. Kessler, and Daniel Zelman.
"Get Me a Lawyer" is the pilot episode of the legal drama series Damages, which first aired on July 24, 2007 on FX in the United States. It was written by series creators/executive producers Todd A. Kessler, Glenn Kessler, and Daniel Zelman, and was directed by producer Allen Coulter. In the episode, recent law school graduate Ellen Parsons is recruited to Hewes and Associates, a law firm headed by Patty Hewes, where she is assigned to the "Frobisher case". Billionaire Arthur Frobisher is being sued by his former employees, whom he advised to invest in his company while unloading his own stock, and while Frobisher's attorney Ray Fiske pleads for a settlement price, Patty insists on taking the case to court.
Patricia "Patty" C. Hewes is a fictional character on the American legal thriller Damages, portrayed by Glenn Close. Being described as "ruthless", "master manipulator" and "brilliant", Patty is a high-stakes litigator managing her own law firm called Hewes & Associates. Conceived as a "woman who commands power and influence in a male-dominated world" the character and its portrayal by Close has garnered significant praise.
"There's Only One Way to Try a Case" is the first episode of the fourth season of the DirecTV legal drama series Damages and the show's fortieth episode overall. It was written by creators and executive producers Todd A. Kessler, Glenn Kessler and Daniel Zelman and directed by Todd A. Kessler. It originally premiered in the United States on DirecTV's Audience Network on July 13, 2011, and was the first episode of the series to air on DirecTV after the series moved from the FX network.
The fourth season of the legal drama series Damages premiered on the Audience Network, an entertainment channel owned by DirecTV, on July 13, 2011 and concluded on September 14, 2011. The season featured 10 episodes, bringing the series total to 49. The fourth season was released on DVD in region 1 on June 26, 2012.
The third season of the FX legal drama series Damages premiered on January 25, 2010 and concluded on April 19, 2010. It consisted of 13 episodes, bringing the series total to 39. Damages was created by brothers Todd and Glenn Kessler, along with Daniel Zelman, each of whom served as executive producer and contributed four scripts for the season, including the premiere and the finale.
The fifth and final season of the legal drama series Damages premiered July 11, 2012 on the DirecTV owned Audience Network concluding on September 12, 2012. The season has 10 episodes, making a series total of 59 episodes. The fifth season was released on DVD in region 1 on July 16, 2013.
The second season of the FX legal drama series Damages premiered on January 7, 2009 and concluded on April 1, 2009. It consisted of thirteen episodes, bringing the series total to 26. Damages was created by brothers Todd and Glenn Kessler along with Daniel Zelman, each of whom served as executive producers and contributed seven scripts for the season, including the premiere and the finale.
Glenn Close is an American actress, screenwriter and film producer with an extensive career in film, television, and stage. She began her professional career on stage in 1974 with Love for Love and was mostly a New York stage actress until the early 1980s. Her work included Broadway productions of Barnum in 1980 and The Real Thing in 1983, for which she won the Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play. Her film debut came in The World According to Garp (1982), which was followed by supporting roles in the films The Big Chill (1983) and The Natural (1984); all three earned her nominations for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress. Close went on to establish herself as a Hollywood leading lady with roles in Fatal Attraction (1987) and Dangerous Liaisons (1988), both of which earned her nominations for the Academy Award for Best Actress.
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