The Devil doesn't always wear Prada; sometimes, the boss who is unstoppably shady yet charismatic and admirable wears a smart suit into court and takes care of business with a sturdy gaze and a level voice.Glenn Close, one of the most brilliant actresses ever to have graced a screen, and the only competition for Meryl's Queen Of Dramatics in the 80s, had something of a career dip when, after five Oscar nominations and one of the most talked-about and controversial films of all time (Fatal Attraction) she disappeared and had no major presence in movies for many years.Thank God for television, the savior of many a 40+ woman's career, because after winning a Golden Globe (her first!) for The Lion In Winter in 2005, she landed what is probably the richest and most enjoyable role of her life.Damages takes place in the world of million-dollar litigation, the first season opening with Close's Patty Hewes running a sterling-silver law firm that is handling a giant fraud case against a billionaire employer (Ted Danson) who stayed rich even after his company went bankrupt.Rose Byrne is terribly weak as Ellen Parsons, the fresh lawyer who is hired to the firm and goes on to be Hewes' right-hand woman, but she isn't nearly bad enough to ruin an otherwise pristine experience.Besides, do we really know just how much Hewes believes in her employee?There are shades of morality that get more and more complex as the series wears on; goodness knows you have to find out the answer to the riddle that is posed at the beginning of each episode.The show always begins in the present day, where Parsons has been arrested for murder and Hewes has gone missing, then flashes back to the moments of the case that are creeping towards this grim conclusion. It's one of the richest and most satisfying cable shows to be created in this golden age of American television, and Close's character, a combination of stately deportment, immoral glee and even a few shades of the Marquise de Merteuil in Dangerous Liaisons (her best ever film role, and one of the biggest Oscar robs in history) make it easy to see why she committed to three more seasons before the first was even finished filming.Damages is available on DVD from Sony.
