"Damages" Ensnares Mario van Peebles

Mario van Peebles is heading back to Damages.

The legal drama-turned-labyrinthine mystery series has been quietly filling out its cast for its sophomore season, set to kick off on FX sometime in early 2009. After all, a series that kills off most of its freshman year characters definitely needs to fill out its ranks in time for its return to the airwaves.

Joining Damages for its second year of legal briefs, backstabbing, and betrayal so far are William Hurt, who has been cast as a new high-profile client of Patty Hewes who also shares a link to her secret past (could it be her first husband? or the father of the child she lost?), and Timothy Olyphant, who will play an ambitious attorney and potential love interest for Rose Byrne's Ellen Parsons.

Additionally, Mario van Peebles will reprise his role as FBI Special Agent Harrison, involved in an ongoing investigation of Patty Hewes herself. Van Peebles guest starred at the end of Damages' first season and, given Ellen's deal with the FBI to spy on Patty, something tells me we'll be seeing a lot of Harrison. He'll appear in six episodes next season.

Van Peebles isn't a stranger to either side of the camera on Damages; he directed several installments of the series' first season.

Me, I'm just still salivating with anticipation for Damages to return. It doesn't quite feel like summer this time around without a fresh batch of episodes to obsess over and we've still got quite a long stretch to go before Patty, Ellen, and hopefully Frobisher return to do some more, er, damage.

Stay tuned.

What's On Tonight

8 pm: Ghost Whisperer (CBS); Most Outrageous Moments/Most Outrageous Moments (NBC;); Friday Night SmackDown! (CW; 8-10 pm); Dance Machine (ABC); 2 Fast 2 Furious (FOX; 8-10 pm)

9 pm: NUMB3RS (CBS); Dateline (NBC; 9-11 pm); Duel (ABC)

10 pm: Flashpoint (CBS); 20/20 (ABC)

What I'll Be Watching

9 pm: Doctor Who on Sci Fi.

Season Four of Doctor Who continues tonight with "Midnight," in which the Doctor's vacation plans don't turn out quite the way he hoped when he joins some tourists on a flight over the planet Midnight, where they encounter a malevolent force.