Damages: Yea for lots of Jimmy Cooper!

Damages:
How weird is it that Jimmy Cooper's biking buddy is the dad from Grounded for Life? They're sure liking their spandex. Goodness, the game theory behind Jimmy's job change decision is intimidating.

Did Arthur's lawyer say, "The sun don't shine on the same dog's tail all week?" Ha ha--that's hilarious!

Whoa, Arthur's in cahoots with the head employee guy? That's crafty and sneaky.

Ellen's mom is George O'Malley's mom?

Oh no, the group hired Jimmy! Patty's going to kill him. Good, Jimmy, be a hard ass! I like my Jimmy Cooper when he's not a push over. Unfortunately, that's not going to last long... He should have seen Patty's reaction coming. I knew she was going to tell him he wouldn't be able to cut it. Oh, Jimmy should have held out for the name on the door.

I hope this all doesn't end badly for Jimmy. I love Jimmy. Even though he clearly cannot hold his drink. (I don't think Katie's going to be bringing him into her life of "narcotics and intercourse" anytime soon.) Is he hallucinating, or did Patty follow him into the men's bathroom? Either seems very possible, but it looks like this occasion is a hallucination.

If Katie got screwed over, Jennie Garth's husband sure isn't fairing much better.

Oh no! That's not Jimmy attacking Ellen is it? Because I don't know if I can handle that. By the end of this, all the "good" people will turn out to be evil and all the "bad" people will probably turn out good. Or, more likely, everyone will just end up evil.

So Patty hid the body and cleaned up the scene? Why was Ellen in Patty's apartment wearing yoga clothes/pajamas? The body of the now-dead attacker sure does look like Jimmy. I guess it could also be Jennie Garth's husband though since it looks like Ellen's getting tangled up with him next episode.

Damages: 'This is going to be a shitty week.'

Damages:
Observations....

• Ha ha ha. I love Patty's reaction to receiving a grenade in the mail: "This is going to be a shitty week."
• Maybe it's the Alias fan in me, but I was expecting the package to at least contain someone's severed finger... I mean, come on now.
• Hmm, Katie's a little skanky. Ohh, and her boyfriend's a little married. Great.
• Why do I always feel like Jimmy Cooper could use some help from Sandy Cohen?
• I thought it was hilarious that Patty's son hacked in to the school computer system and even managed to get the passwords to personal faculty email accounts! Score!
• The family therapist has some sort of uncanny resemblance to Joaquin Phoenix. I miss Joaquin...
• Why is Patty so creepy about everything involving family and personal lives. Is she bipolar?
• Uh oh, Patty mentioned the bookends. That can't be good.
• Hmm, Patty has a bad history with disgruntled CEOs. I guess that's no surprise. "Taking power away from a man is a dangerous thing. Someone always pays."
• Patty's kid is just as creepy as she is. I knew she was involved in his "kidnapping" in some way. I didn't realize that he was behind the grenade though. But I'm not really sure that I care. Unless this kid somehow becomes relevant to the big story with Ellen, Ted Dansen, Katie, and the court case, I'm not sure I want to be wasting time delving into his story. I think I accidentally stopped paying attention during the scene with him and Patty in the restaurant. Oops.
• If I were Ellen, I think I may have called off this engagement too. She and her fiance are so boring together.
• I'm glad they brought back the big, showy, movie-esque music from the pilot for the flashback at the end. That music was my favorite part of the pilot, I think. But, oh dear, who was trying to kill Ellen? I hope it wasn't Jimmy Cooper...

Next week's episode looks intense! But this line cracked me up: "Would you characterize your life as one big blur of narcotics and intercourse?" Ha! I can't wait for that.

Pain and Suffering

Damages:

Woohoo! After my third try at watching a new cable show this summer (well, in fairness, I only watched the first five minutes of Saving Grace), I've found one I really, really like! What is impressive is that Damages not only provided one great hour of thrilling television, but it also helped me erase the negative connotations that the word "damages" has for me, which stem from a very late night in the stairwell of Sussex Hall reading a very long book about the very botched delivery of twins and the very drawn out legal aftermath. Helping me forget about that is no small feat.

But anyway: There was so much to like about this show. It started off great with some very sexy (in a judicial sort of way) opening credits. The opening scene was fan-freaking-tastic with the orchestral, movie-esque music contrasting the eventual appearance of a bloody, disoriented Ellen.

Glenn Close was great--so smart and yet so, so creepy! And she's married to Summer Roberts' dad (and Uncle Saul's almost boyfriend) of all people! Of course, any show with Jimmy Cooper (Tate Donovan) in it gets a thumbs up in my book. Well, except for that frawful (freakin awful) astronaut episode of Law & Order: CI.

But, let's be honest, what I really loved about this show was that it's Alias, but with lawyers instead of spies. Actually, I think some of it was so much like Alias that it was encroaching on plagiarism, but ripped off Alias is better than living in an Alias-less world.

Another thing I liked was that I felt smart while watching it. Like any other self-respecting Alias addict, I saw the dead-fiance-in-the-bathtub coming a mile away (that poor guy literally was Danny Hecht without the Australian accent). But I was really impressed with myself that I figured out that Patty didn't really fire Jimmy Cooper. Come on, he's Jimmy Cooper! You wouldn't fire someone that adorable! (Well, maybe if he embezzled several million dollars from you, but that was a different show.) If they were impressed with Ellen's ability to see through bull shit, and I did a better job of it than she did, does that mean that I have a job waiting for me at Patty's firm? Though after watching this hour of television, I think I'll pass on that job.

And I'll admit I enjoyed the extra swearing that basic cable allows in their shows. It just made it seem more authentic.

Highlight:

Patty: "'Hope' is the thing with feathers."

Ellen: Emily Dickinson. That bitch will say anything.

I loved that it ended with Ellen saying, "Get me a lawyer." Unfortunately, it looks like lawyers are what got her into this mess in the first place...

Another wacky similarity to the Alias pilot was that it was presented commercial free. This time, though, I have Cadillac to thank for me having to go to the bathroom and not being able to for 45 minutes.

P.S. Damages has quite a swanky official website.