TCA: New mysteries abound in FX’s ‘Damages’

This article was originally on a blog post platform and may be missing photos, graphics or links. See About archive blog posts.

Oh, “Damages” fans, where do we begin?

There were so many tantalizing tidbits from today’s panel with the producers and cast of the critically acclaimed FX series, which returns for its second season in January 2009.

In no particular order of importance:

• Arthur Frobisher is back –- and alive? There were conflicting reports on his status. FX President John Landgraf said Ted Danson’s character –- who was shot in last season’s finale -- will return for several more episodes.

“He’s not terribly healthy at the moment, but as you now know, he did survive,” Landgraf said.

But Todd A. Kessler, one of the show’s three creators, said Danson’s return “doesn’t necessarily mean that Arthur Frobisher has survived.”

Hmmm…

• Marcia Gay Harden is coming aboard as a high-profile attorney for a company that appears mixed up in some kind of wrongdoing

• William Hurt plays a mysterious character who has a past with Patty Hewes and turns to her for help with a legal problem.

• Rose Byrne’s character, Ellen Parsons, is working as an informant for the feds, helping them with an investigation into Patty. She’s also in grief counseling, where she meets another shadowy character played by Timothy Olyphant, and bonds with him over being a victim of trauma.

“We all wanted to approach Ellen in a different way to make her more of a warrior,” Byrne said. “This season she’s made of steel a little bit more, which is really interesting to play.”

As for Patty, she’s “suffering through post-traumatic stress syndrome” herself after ordering a hit on Ellen, Glenn Close said.

Close called working on the show “a great creative adventure.”

“I think we are pioneering a true art form,” she added. “Personally, it’s like living a novel.”

Hurt said that when he was contemplating joining the cast, he sat down to watch last season’s episodes and “couldn’t turn them off.”

“I watched until 5 o’clock in the morning,” he said.

While he was wary of the relentless pace of making television, Hurt said Close’s performance convinced him that it would be worth it.

“I could see she had made really strong, powerful, thematic choices as a character,” he said. “So I thought, ‘OK, maybe the format has been busted.’”

Executive producer Daniel Zelman said that they aim to make the program’s signature flash-forward scenes “slightly less complex,” but will still utilize time-jumping in the storytelling.

“The flash forward is more like a genre element to us,” Zelman said, adding that it “creates a thriller element to the show.”

Production on the season premiere is complete and the cast has started shooting the second episode, but the writers have not yet finished all 13 scripts for the season.

Spinning out the narrative while the show is in production “creates a great energy for us and a strain at times in our lives,” Kessler said.

-- Matea Gold