It's only fitting that FX's lawman drama Justified should go out with a bang.
The first season of Justified, based on characters created by the incomparable Elmore Leonard, wraps up its run tonight with a fantastic installment ("Bulletville") that is more than aptly titled.
Over the course of the thirteen-episode run, Justified has succeeded in creating a vividly drawn world of crime and punishment, a Southern Gothic landscape set in the hills of Kentucky (and the offices of Lexington) where violence runs amok, fugitives are caught, and the good guy dons a cowboy hat and slings a gun with the best of them.
In the capable hands of Timothy Olyphant and Walton Goggins, Raylan Givens and Boyd Crowder have become some of the most deftly drawn adversaries on television, former friends turned enemies whose relationship is a constantly shifting morass of blame, confession, and enmity. Like Raylan, the audience has never been sure of whether to fully believe Boyd's alleged conversion and newfound religious belief. Can a leopard change its spots? Can a bad man turn good?
Those questions about human nature seem to be at the forefront of tonight's season finale, which wraps up the season-long Crowder family storyline in a hail of bullets and offers some intriguing twists along the way. With the emphasis placed squarely on Raylan/Ava/Boyd, it sadly means very little screen time for the other U.S. marshalls this week but it also means that the pacing is killer, allowing the tension to seep into every scene.
While Raylan and Boyd are the focal points for the episode, it's also about the twisted relationships between fathers and sons and how that formative relationship can shape a man. Can we ever live up to our father's expectations? Do we want to become him or kill him? What happens when we turn our backs on where we came from? Important and weighty questions that both Raylan and Boyd are forced to contend with as the first season comes to a dramatic close tonight.
Additionally, the season finale examines issues of causality. Can one crucial action define a man's life... and possibly his death? Justified began with Raylan's transfer to Harlan because of his "justified" shooting in Miami, an moment in time from which everything else spins out as a result. Returning to Harlan, Raylan finds himself falling into a relationship with Ava Crowder (Joelle Carter)--and reigniting something with his ex-wife Winona Hawkins (Natalie Zea)--and becomes enmeshed in yet another war with the Crowders.
Throughout the season, the threat of the Miami drug cartel--whose lieutenant Raylan shot in a posh Miami restaurant overlooking the ocean--has loomed large and that shooting, justified though it may have been, comes back to haunt to Raylan Givens in no uncertain terms, even as it connects with the meth trade in Harlan and the insidious involvement of Bo Crowder (M.C. Gainey).
We will find out just how far Boyd's supposed religious conviction will take him, what lengths he'll go to for retribution, and the sacrifices he's prepared to make for his cause... whatever that might be. Suffice it to say, there are some surprises remaining in Goggins' wiry self-appointed preacher and some nicely rendered epiphanies to boot.
It all comes down to a final shootout in Bulletville, as these things should, and the body count for tonight's episode is mighty high. Who will walk away and who will be six feet under? Find out tonight in the riveting season finale of a series that's at once smart, provocative, and action-packed. Fire in the hole, indeed.
Justified's season finale airs tonight at 10 pm ET/PT on FX.
The Television Critics Association today announced their short-list nominations for the 2010 TCA Awards, which will be handed out during TCA Summer Press Tour, which kicks off at the end of July.
Among the nominees for Program of the Year, such series as Breaking Bad, Friday Night Lights, Glee, Lost, and Modern Family. In the individual genre categories, Breaking Bad, Mad Men, Lost, Sons of Anarchy, and The Good Wife will compete for the top drama prize, while Glee, Modern Family, Parks and Recreation, Party Down, and The Big Bang Theory are up for comedy kudos and such talents as Eric Stonestreet, Jane Lynch, Aaron Paul, Katey Segal, Nick Offerman, and many others are up for individual honors.
I'm glad to see so many broadcast network series competing side by side with their cable brethren. It almost gives one hope that the network model isn't completely cracked.
Additionally, this year's TCA Awards is also the first time that I'll be voting, as a newly installed member of the Television Critics Association. I was extremely pleased to see so many of my own personal nominations make the list here and I've already gone ahead and cast my ballot. (You can guess who and what I voted for.)
"Breaking Bad" (AMC) "Lost" (ABC) "Mad Men" (AMC) "Sons of Anarchy" (FX) "The Good Wife" (CBS)
Outstanding Comedy Series:
"Glee" (Fox) "Modern Family" (ABC) "Parks and Recreation" (NBC) "Party Down" (Starz) "The Big Bang Theory" (CBS)
Individual Achievement in Drama:
Bryan Cranston ("Breaking Bad," AMC) John Lithgow ("Dexter," Showtime) Julianna Margulies ("The Good Wife," CBS) Aaron Paul ("Breaking Bad," AMC) Katey Sagal ("Sons of Anarchy," FX)
Individual Achievement in Comedy:
Ty Burrell ("Modern Family," ABC) Jane Lynch ("Glee," Fox) Nick Offerman ("Parks and Recreation," NBC) Jim Parsons ("The Big Bang Theory," CBS) Eric Stonestreet ("Modern Family," ABC)
Outstanding New Program:
"Glee" (Fox) "Justified" (FX) "Modern Family" (ABC) "Parenthood" (NBC) "The Good Wife" (CBS)
Outstanding Movie, Miniseries or Special:
"Life" (Discovery Channel) "The Pacific" (HBO) "Temple Grandin" (HBO) "Torchwood: Children of Earth" (BBC America) "You Don't Know Jack" (HBO)
Outstanding Achievement in News & Information:
"30 for 30" (ESPN) "America: The Story of Us" (History Channel) "Life" (Discovery Channel) "The Daily Show" (Comedy Central) "The Rachel Maddow Show" (MSNBC)
Welcome to your Thursday morning television briefing.
Hitfix's Alan Sepinwall has a fantastic (and lengthy) interview with Lost showrunners Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse about this week's divisive "Across the Sea" episode and the end of the series. "We told the story the way we wanted to. Like David Chase, we tried to make the show to entertain the audience. That was our primary goal," said Cuse about making the sixth and final season of Lost. "We kind of planned this episode to come at this period of time because we actually wanted to take a break after the deaths of these major characters. It felt like this was the perfect time to take a time out from the main narrative. And since this was the final big mythological episode that we were going to do, we felt like it was a good placement for it, and now we'll roll into the finale. We make no apologies. We planned this to be the way it is. Again, it is funny, because there are a lot of people who are very happy with the show, there's going to be a very vocal group of people who are not happy, and that just kind of comes with the territory. We're making the show the best way we know how to make it, and we stand by it, and we're excited about how it ends and how the journey's unfolded." (Hitfix)
Over at Los Angeles Times, Maria Elena Fernandez has a fantastic piece on Lost's composer Michael Giacchino, who will be conducting a full symphony orchestra at tonight's Lost Live event here in Los Angeles (I'll be attending, of course) and speaks to Lindelof and Cuse about Giacchino's impact on the series. "We've always talked about the central aspect of Lost being character, character, character, and his music is so evocative of a certain moment or person in the show," Lindelof told Fernandez. "If you close your eyes and play 30 seconds of one of Michael's themes, you'd know which character's theme that is." (Los Angeles Times)
Vulture's Josef Adalian is reporting that Heroes is very unlikely to earn a spot on NBC's fall schedule and that all indications are currently pointing towards the superhero drama being deader than a dodo. Previous reports had indicated that the Peacock was considering ordering a final chapter of thirteen episodes but that appears not to be the case any more for the Tim Kring-overseen drama after screening the pilots that they had ordered. "NBC (which declined to comment for this story) is nothing if not appreciative of the few Heroes fans who still care about the saga and doesn't want to leave them hanging," writes Adalian. "While a half-season appears to be out of the question, we hear there's a good chance the network will at least try to find a way to fund a two- or four-hour movie event in order to give some finality to the franchise." (Vulture)
Entertainment Weekly's Lynette Rice has an interview with 24's Cherry Jones about the "trippy story arc" this season for President Allison Taylor. "By the end of the season, these guys are just this side of brain dead," said Cherry about Howard Gordon and 24's writers. "They have been trying so hard. They don’t have an arc. Most TV shows would have an arc and they would figure out how to nudge everybody in the direction they wanted to go in. These guys look at the performances, look at who they’ve got and try to follow things they think will be the most shocking. The fact that my character has suddenly taken this turn was never anticipated by anyone, but they have to figure out a way to justify it. They and I have managed to do that. I’ve got to hand it to them, they live right on the edge. They don’t take the easy road." (Entertainment Weekly's Hollywood Insider)
E! Online's Megan Masters takes an early look at Part One of season finale of FOX's Fringe (airing tonight), offering up side-by-side photos of Olivia Dunham (Anna Torv) and Walter Bishop and their alternate reality counterparts. [Editor: I think that Olivia looks amazing in either reality but her "over there" counterpart has got a smoldering look.] (E! Online's Watch with Kristin)
And here's the promo for the two-part Fringe season finale:
[Editor: FOX and NBC ordered a whole slew of series yesterday afternoon, which you can read about here.]
Former Sopranos star James Gandolfini has been cast opposite Diane Lane and Tim Robbins in HBO's telepic Cinema Verite, a dramatization of the seminal 1970s reality series An American Family, where he will play the series' producer Craig Gilbert. (Robbins and Lane will play Bill and Pat Loud, the married couple at the center of the series.) Project, written by David Seltzer and directed by Shari Springer Berman and Robert Pulcini, will begin production this summer. (Variety)
BBC One has unveiled the cast of its upcoming eight-part sci-fi drama series Outcasts (created by Ben Richards), which will include Battlestar Galactica's Jamie Bamber, Ashes to Ashes's Daniel Mays, Clash of the Titans' Liam Cunningham, Spooks' Hermione Norris, Being Human's Amy Manson, Small Island's Ashley Walters, Ugly Betty's Eric Mabius, Shameless'Michael Legge, Generation Kill's Langley Kirkwood, Invictus' Patrik Lyster, and Jeanne Kietzmann. Series revolves around a group of human colonists who are attempting to build a new society on a distant planet. Here's how BBC describes the series: "They are a diverse group of individuals who left their old lives behind in extraordinary circumstances; promised a second chance at life they created a society, far away from their home, friends, family... and their pasts. Settled in the town of Forthaven on Carpathia, they are passionate about their jobs, confident of their ideals and optimistic about the future. They work hard to preserve what they've built on this planet they now call home, having embraced all the challenges that come with forging a new beginning.The planet offers the possibility for both corruption and redemption; while they try to avoid the mistakes made on Earth, inevitably our heroes cannot escape the human pitfalls of love, greed, lust, loss, and a longing for those they've left behind. As they continue to work and live together they come to realise this is no ordinary planet... is there a bigger purpose at work? Mystery lurks around them and threatens to risk the fragile peace of Forthaven." (BBC)
Entertainment Weekly's Lynette Rice is reporting that Steven Spielberg has pre-taped a "special introductory message" that will be played to advertisers at FOX's upfront presentation next week," signifying that his project--the prehistoric drama Terra Nova (which revolves around a family from the future who travels back in time)--has secured a thirteen-episode commitment and will be presented to advertisers even though a single frame of film has yet to be shot. (Entertainment Weekly's Hollywood Insider)
Entourage's executive producers Mark Wahlberg and Stephen Levinson are developing a female-oriented comedy for HBO which will be written by Leah Rachel (with an assist by Emily Montague) that will revolve around a group of female friends in Los Angeles. (Hollywood Reporter's The Live Feed)
Deadline's Nellie Andreeva is reporting that Warner Bros. Television is in the final negotiations of a deal with Angus T. Jones that will keep him on CBS' Two and a Half Men for two additional seasons. Still no progress, meanwhile, in the ongoing renegotiation talks between WBTV and series lead Charlie Sheen... (Deadline)
Hitfix's Alan Sepinwall has an interview with Cougar Town co-creator Bill Lawrence about how the series got beyond a thin concept and rickety title... which Lawrence would love to change. "I'd like to (change it), and the studio has been talking about it for three reasons: One, partly as a result of common sense and partly from their research, they find too many instances of testing of people saying they would never watch a show called Cougar Town - 'I don't want to see some show about a 40-year-old woman nailing younger guys' - and then they screen an episode, and people go, 'Oh, I would watch this show,'" said Lawrence. "Second point is simply what you already said, which is you would be hard-pressed to watch the last three episodes of the show and asked anyone for titles - I doubt anyone would say Cougar Town. Third, in a world where ABC and Steve are looking to promote Modern Family and capitalize on it to promote all their new shows next fall, anything you can do to create some kind of dialogue about your existing show is smart and savvy. The reasons not to do it I think solely come down to business reasons." (Hitfix)
Community's Joel McHale and Modern Family's Sofia Vergara will be announcing the primetime Emmy Award nominations on July 8th. (Hollywood Reporter)
Deadline.com's Nellie Andreeva is reporting that FOX has passed on the following projects: Breakout Kings, Breaking In, Tax Men, Strange Brew, Most Likely to Succeed and The Station, while NBC has passed on Matthew Broderick-led comedy Beach Lane. In other pilot news, FX has passed on comedy project Sweat Shop, after filming a pilot. (Deadline)
Lionsgate has acquired international distribution rights to Comedy Central's upcoming series Big Lake, from executive producers Will Ferrell, Adam McKay, and Chris Henchy. Cabler has given the comedy, which stars Chris Gethard, Chris Parnell, and Horatio Sanz, a ten-episode commitment, with an option to order an additional 90 episodes. (Broadcasting & Cable)
Just a few days ahead of its upfront presentation to advertisers, FOX announced that it had ordered four pilots to series, adding two new dramas and two comedies, and has reportedly issued renewal notices to dramas Lie to Me and Human Target.
Shawn Ryan's cop drama Ridealong and bigamist con man drama Lone Star (formerly known as Midland) and comedies Traffic Light and Keep Hope Alive (from My Name is Earl creator Greg Garcia) have all been given greenlights and will be part of the scheduled unveiled officially on Monday by FOX brass at their upfront presentation, according to The Hollywood Reporter's James Hibberd.
Move marks the first official orders for the fall season from FOX. No word as of yet on some of the other buzz-worthy projects awaiting greenlights such as Terra Nova and Breakout Kings.
Meanwhile, the network surprised some by issuing reprieves for Lie to Me and Human Target, the former of which will continue without showrunner Shawn Ryan, departing to oversee his new Jennifer Beals-led cop drama Ridealong. Variety's Michael Schneider reports that both Lie to Me and Human Target will receive episodic orders of at least thirteen installments next season.
Elsewhere, FX has ordered a pilot for a US adaptation of Australian live-action comedy Wilfred, which will be adapted by Family Guy's David Zuckerman and will star Jason Gann, who co-created and starred in the original Aussie version. Zuckerman will executive produce with Rich Frank, Paul Frank, Jeff Kwatinetz, Joe Connor, and Ken Conner
“Wilfred is about a guy, the girl next door, and mixed-breed dog, Wilfred, who is part Labrador retriever and part Russell Crowe on a bender,” said Zuckerman in a statement. “Jason Gann is one of the funniest, most twisted minds I’ve ever had the pleasure of working with, despite being a foreigner and therefore untrustworthy. And I’m thrilled to be part of the FX family -- their support and enthusiasm has been extraordinary.”
Welcome to your Friday morning television briefing.
Entertainment Weekly's Michael Ausiello has the scoop on why Katee Sackhoff (Battlestar Galactica, 24) turned down the role of Debbie Pelt on Season Three of HBO's vampire drama True Blood, a role that was later filled by The Middleman's Brit Morgan when Sackhoff decided instead to join the cast of ABC drama pilot Boston's Finest. "I am a huge fan of True Blood,” Sackhoff told Ausiello. "It’s a phenomenal show and [executive producer] Alan Ball is a f—ing genius. But I wanted more security than one season of something, so I rolled the dice with [Boston's Finest]. This entire business is about rolling the dice and hoping you made the right decision. I almost didn’t take 24 to do my own series on USA Network, and that worked out. I’m sure [Brit] is going to be fantastic [as Debbie]." (Entertainment Weekly's Ausiello Files)
The Wrap's Josef Adalian takes a look at just which cast members from Lost will be appearing on ABC's post-finale special Jimmy Kimmel Live: Aloha to Lost. Quoting the network press release, Adalian writes, "Kimmel will be joined in studio by Naveen Andrews, Nestor Carbonell, Alan Dale, Jeremy Davies, Emilie de Ravin, Michael Emerson, Matthew Fox, Daniel Dae Kim, Terry O’Quinn and Harold Perrineau, with special appearances by Jorge Garcia, Josh Holloway and Evangeline Lilly and an exclusive look at THREE ALTERNATIVE FINAL SCENES from the minds of executive producers Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse." Adalian was quick to notice that Yunjin Kim won't be participating... (The Wrap's TVMoJoe)
Novelist Stephen King has been cast in an upcoming episode of Season Three of FX's drama series Sons of Anarchy, according to Entertainment Weekly's Lynette Rice. King will play "a quiet loner who appears in Gemma's (Katey Sagal) time of need." King, who is an outspoken fan of the series, will appear in the third episode. (Entertainment Weekly's Hollywood Insider)
Variety's Mike Schneider looks at why ABC decided to extend the series finale of Lost, thus positioning its final half-hour outside of primetime. "That might seem like an odd decision to make, given that every ratings point counts as the networks sprint toward the May sweeps -- and 2009-2010 TV season -- finish line," writes Schneider. "But in the case of Lost, the network is able to sell more commercial time with the extra half-hour -- which is why they didn't balk when producers called from the edit bay asking for additional time. Ditto ABC's affiliate stations, which were given additional ad time in exchange for the show pushing into local news time." So there you go. (Variety)
TV Guide Magazine's Will Keck is reporting that adult film star Sasha Grey has been cast in a multiple-episode story arc on HBO's Entourage, where she will play the new girlfriend of Adrian Grenier's Vince Chase, whom he meets at a bar in the fifth episode of Season Eight. (TV Guide Magazine)
Syfy is developing superhero drama series Metadocs, based on the comicbook series, about a "secretive wing of a large urban hospital that treats injured superheroes." Michael Chernuchin (Law & Order) will write and executive produce alongside Bob Cooper, J.J. Jamieson, and Scott Mitchell Rosenberg. Project hails from Landscape Entertainment, FremantleMedia, and Universal Cable Prods. (Variety)
G4 has given a ten-episode order to Attack of the Show spinoff It's Effin' Science, which will feature Angie Greenup, Marc Horowitz, and Chad Zdenek as they attempt to push the scientific envelope. According to The Hollywood Reporter's James Hibberd, segments will include "trying to build a hoverboard as in Back to the Future II, blasting a Port-a-Potty 100 feet into the air and trying to construct night-vision goggles." Series debuts June 15th. (Hollywood Reporter)
Boxer Gavin-Keith Umeh (All My Children) has been cast in at least two episodes of FX's upcoming drama series Lights Out, where he will play Javier Morales, described as "a younger fighter who squares off against Leary (Holy McCallany) in one of his first tune-up fights." (The Wrap)
The CW announced yesterday that it would begin airing repeats of Alex O'Loughlin's vampire drama series Moonlight, which it will air on Thursdays at 9 pm ET/PT starting June 3rd. (Hollywood Reporter's The Live Feed)
Meanwhile, E! Online's Kristin Dos Santos offers an explanation of why the CW would decide, now of all times, to begin running a short-lived series that has already had a second window on cable. "I'm told that the decision was made in part to keep O'Loughlin's fan base chugging along, in the hopes they'll follow him to the new Five-O this fall," writes Dos Santos. "(The CW and CBS are all one family, you know.) Plus, maybe you've heard, people kinda like vampires these days? So the ratings shouldn't be too shabby either, and will keep the TV audience busy." (E! Online's Watch with Kristin)
The CW's current supernatural drama Supernatural, meanwhile, is heading to Fridays, where it will air repeats following the Smallville, beginning May 28th, according to The Futon Critic, who writes, "The move will undoubtedly fuel speculation that Supernatural will permanently take residence there for its sixth season." (Futon Critic)
20th Century Fox TV has signed a two-year overall deal with writer Liz Astrof (Kath & Kim), under which she will develop new projects for the studio and be staffed on an existing or new series. "The studio has obviously had a great year in comedy launching Modern Family, The Cleveland Show and Glee, and we're always looking for great comedic voices," said 20th Century Fox chairman Gary Newman. "Liz has excelled at a number of series, both multi- and single-camera." (Hollywood Reporter)
Fox Television Studios signed a new two-year overall deal with Mikkel Bondesen's Fuse Entertainment, under which the production shingle of the Burn Notice executive producer will develop new projects, primarily for cable. (Deadline.com)
Style Network has ordered a second season of Endemol USA's reality series Jerseylicious, which has been renewed for ten episodes. (Variety)
Raylan Givens is going to be stuck in Harlan a little while longer.
FX today announced that it had commissioned a second season of Timothy Olyphant-led drama series Justified, based on character created by Elmore Leonard.
A second season of 13 episodes is expected to air on the cabler, with Season Two likely launching next year. The first season of Justified, meanwhile, is set to wrap up its run on June 8th.
"We are very excited about the tremendous, widespread acclaim that Justified has received from both audiences and television critics," said John Landgraf, President and General Manager of FX Networks. "Graham Yost, Tim Olyphant, Elmore Leonard and their talented partners have crafted a uniquely ambitious and entertaining series which is everything we aspired to when we developed the show.”
“I’m just thrilled, and I’m looking forward to chronicling the future adventures of Raylan Givens,” said executive producer Graham Yost. "To work with an actor like Tim, who was born to play this role, has been a wonderful experience.”
The full press release from FX can be found below.
FX ORDERS SEASON TWO OF JUSTIFIED
Network Orders 13 Episodes for Second Season from FX Productions and Sony Pictures Television
Six All New Episodes Remain in Season One, Tuesdays at 10 PM ET/PT With Season 1 Finale Airing June 8
Season One (First-Run) Averaging 3.4 Million Total Viewers and 1.7 Million Adults 18-49 With Multi-Run Weekly Average of 7.5 Million Total Viewers and 3.9 Million Adults 18-49
Basic Cable’s #1 New Series In Delivery of Men 18-49
LOS ANGELES, May 3, 2010 – Justice has been served, as FX has ordered another season of its newest critically acclaimed hit drama series Justified, picking up a 13-episode second season, today announced John Landgraf, President and General Manager of FX Networks. Six all new episodes remain in season one, airing Tuesdays at 10 PM ET/PT, with the first season finale airing on June 8th.
“We are very excited about the tremendous, widespread acclaim that Justified has received from both audiences and television critics,” said Landgraf. “Graham Yost, Tim Olyphant, Elmore Leonard and their talented partners have crafted a uniquely ambitious and entertaining series which is everything we aspired to when we developed the show.”
Developed for television by Graham Yost and starring Timothy Olyphant, Justified (TV-MA) is based on the popular Elmore Leonard character “Deputy U.S. Marshal Raylan Givens” from his short story Fire in the Hole and some of his other novels.
“I’m just thrilled, and I’m looking forward to chronicling the future adventures of Raylan Givens,” said Yost. “To work with an actor like Tim, who was born to play this role, has been a wonderful experience.”
Through seven weeks, first-run episodes of Justified are averaging 3.4 million viewers and 1.7 million Adults 18-49. The weekly multi-run average viewership for the series is 7.5 million total viewers and 3.9 million Adults 18-49 (six episodes). Justified is this year’s number-one rated new series on basic cable in delivery of Men 18-49 (1.1 million). Justified was the most-watched series premiere in FX history, with 4.9 million total viewers, surpassing The Shield’s 4.8 million total viewers (3/12/02).
"This pick-up speaks volumes to the quality and collaboration on the series, and our unparalleled partnership with FX,” said Jamie Erlicht, President, Programming for Sony Pictures Television. "The viewer response to Justified has been as enthusiastic as ours was when we first heard the pitch."
Olyphant stars in the lead role of Givens, a true-blue hero born and reared in the hill country of eastern Kentucky, who left at age 19 to become a U.S. Marshal. Now, years later, after shooting a gun thug in a Miami hotel and thereby incurring the wrath of his Marshals Service superiors, Raylan has been sent in punishment (and by fate?) to the one place to which he vowed he would never return – Kentucky. But, being back in Kentucky, Raylan will also have to confront a past crowded with enough skeletons to choke a graveyard.
The series co-stars Nick Searcy as Givens longtime friend and boss “Chief Deputy Art Mullen”; Jacob Pitts as “Deputy Marshal Tim Gutterson”; Erica Tazel as “Deputy Marshal Rachel Brooks”; Joelle Carter as “Ava Crowder,” Boyd’s sister-in-law; and Natalie Zea as Raylan’s ex-wife “Winona Hawkins.” Walton Goggins guest stars as “Boyd Crowder,” who worked with Raylan in the coal mines as teenagers and has now chosen a criminal path.
Yost wrote the pilot and serves as Executive Producer/Writer on the series. Leonard is an Executive Producer on the series along with Sarah Timberman, Carl Beverly and Michael Dinner, who directed the pilot episode. Justified is produced by FX Productions and Sony Pictures Television.
Sure, I should be looking at this as a set-run for what will likely be the rest of my life without Lost, but it didn't remove any of the sting or pain of not having a new episode to think about (and write about) today. (That said, I probably slept better last night than I have in weeks, without Lost keeping me awake for fitful sleep of island-related dreams, bizarre theories, and an appearance or three of the Smoke Monster himself.)
It wasn't easy. My Tuesday evenings have a strict schedule that's usually built around watching Lost at 9 pm: dinner is eaten way in advance, dishes washed, tea made, and the phones shut off altogether. I like my Lost silent and I watch it live so that I can discuss the previous act with my wife during the commercial breaks.
Last night threw off that routine, so I took the opportunity to catch up on some screeners, including FX's fantastic Justified ("Blind Side"), which featured the first on-screen appearance of Bo Crowder, the imprisoned father of Walton Goggins' Boyd, who was played by none other than Lost's M.C. Gainey (a.k.a. Mr. Friendly himself, Tom).
Which sort of through my whole universe back out of whack again. I didn't expect to see Gainey turn up here, much less as an incarcerated felon whose anger is the stuff of legend and who might be the key to unlocking Justified's serialized story arc this season.
It was another reminder that Lost is ending and that we should get used to seeing many of the series' familiar faces begin turning up in other series and in other roles. I've been in a little bit of denial that we have less than a handful of episodes of Lost remaining until it goes to that island in the sky.
Its legacy is undeniable but the end of Lost also arrives at a time when serialized dramas are increasingly a dying breed at the networks, with the departure of both Lost and 24 signaling an end of an era at the broadcasters, which have seen increased competition in the genre from cable, both basic and premium.
I'm going to miss Lost. I dare say that there hasn't ever been a series quite like it and there won't ever be one quite the same once it's gone. Last night was a glimpse through the looking glass into a world without Lost, and it was a far less interesting place indeed.
Next week on Lost ("The Candidate"), Jack's suspicions about Locke make his decision more difficult after he is asked to complete a difficult task.
Welcome to your Tuesday morning television briefing.
In a surprise move, cabler TNT has ordered a third season of hyper-realistic cop drama Southland, commissioning ten episodes that will launch in January 2011. "Southland is a challenging, visceral show that engages viewers with its immersive style, provocative storylines and complex characters," said Michael Wright, EVP/head of programming, for TNT, TBS and Turner Classic Movies, in a statement. "These qualities have made Southland a favorite among critics and appointment viewing for an extremely loyal audience." It's a sign of support from the cabler, which picked up the drama series after it was cancelled by NBC before it had even aired a single episode of its second season. TNT aired the six-episode sophomore season run earlier this year. [It's noted in this Variety article that the median viewer age of Southland--47--is younger than any other series on the channel.] (via press release)
Entertainment Weekly's Michael Ausiello is reporting that syndicated fantasy series Legend of the Seeker has been cancelled and will not be returning for a third season. "The outlook had been bleak since last March, when many of Tribune Station Group’s markets dropped the syndicated series, which had been developed from Terry Goodkind’s fantasy novels by Hercules/Xena producers Sam Raimi and Robert Tapert," wrote Ausiello. "ABC Studios, which produces it, kept shopping it around. But, I’m told, they found no takers. So, after two action-packed seasons, Legend is history." Sorry, folks, it's the end of the road for Richard Cypher. (Entertainment Weekly's Ausiello Files)
FX is heading back South once more: the cabler has ordered a pilot for thriller/family drama Outlaw Country, written by Josh Goldin and Rachel Abramowitz and executive prodced by Art Linson and John Linson. Project, which has no casting attachments, will revolve around organized crime in the South. Production on the pilot, produced by FX Prods., will begin this fall. (Variety)
Entertainment Weekly's Michael Ausiello is reporting that Marcia Gay Harden (Damages) has been cast in a multiple-episode story arc on USA's Royal Pains, where she will play Dr. Elizabeth Blair, described as "a surgeon, board member of Hamptons Heritage Hospital, and an adversary-turned-mentor to Jill (Jill Flint)." She's set to first appear in Royal Pains' second season premiere, set to air on June 3rd. (Entertainment Weekly's Ausiello Files)
The Wrap's Josef Adalian is reporting that The Amazing Race executive producers Bertram van Munster, Elise Doganieri, and Jerry Bruckheimer are developing a new action-based reality competition series at ABC, entitled Catch Me, details for which are being kept firmly under wraps. Adalian writes that the potential series--thought to still be in the pilot stage--is described as "a heart-stopping reality competition" that will reward contestants who "have an adventurous streak and a poker face." (The Wrap's TVMoJoe)
Freplicate alert: Merrin Dungey (Alias) has been cast in a recurring role on Season Two of HBO's Hung, which returns this summer. She'll play Liz, described as a potential new love interest for Thomas Jane's Ray Drecker who is one of his clients and a highly successful businesswoman. (Deadline.com)
Adam Kane (The Mentalist) will direct the pilot for Syfy's upcoming supernatural series Haven, based on the Stephen King novella "The Colorado Kid." (Hollywood Reporter)
SPOILERS!Entertainment Weekly's Michael Ausiello talks to House executive producer Katie Jacobs about what's coming up next on the medical drama, ahead of the sixth season finale next month, and what to expect next season. "Considering the fact that he’s not on Vicodin, things have been going as well as they could possibly go," said Jacobs about House's emotional journey this season. "He’s living with Wilson, and I think that’s helpful. And he’s really making an effort to hold it together. It sort of seems like in every episode there’s a new revelation about how well he really is doing. How is he faring just taking ibuprofen for the pain? Is that working? In episode 17 he was stuck in that room for two hours with David Strathairn and we found out he is in pain. And from now until the end of the season, there’s going to be something that challenges House’s [sobriety] in almost every episode." (Entertainment Weekly's Ausiello Files)
Dane DeHaan (Law & Order: Special Victims Unit) has joined the cast of Season Three of HBO's In Treatment, where he will play a teenage patient for Gabriel Byrne's Paul. He'll be joined by Irrfan Khan, while Debra Winger has not yet decided whether or not to accept a role. (Dianne Wiest will not be returning.) The series will now be overseen by new showrunners Anya Epstein and Dan Futterman, who replace Warren Leight. (Variety)
Vulture has a quick review of the pilot script for TNT's Untitled Alien Invasion Project, from executive producers Steven Spielberg and Robert Rodat. (New York Magazine's Vulture)
The Wrap's Josh Dickey offer his theory about what the real problem is with American Idol: Glee. (The Wrap)
FOX has ordered a pilot for reality series Panic Attack, in which a group of five participants will face off against the shared fear--whether that be heights, snakes, or spiders--with the help of a pair of therapists, Nik and Eva Speakman. Project hails from A. Smith & Co. (Hollywood Reporter)
Meanwhile, The Los Angeles Times' Scott Collins and Denise Martin have an article about the songwriters featured on FOX's Glee. "They really worked hard to make it their own," Steve Perry said of the series' use of "Don't Stop Believin'." "It's actually brought people's attention to go check out the original… It's something I never thought I'd see in my lifetime." (The Los Angeles Times)
Jamie Kennedy (The Ghost Whisperer) is set to guest star on Season Four of Syfy's Eureka, where he will play Dr. Ramsey in an upcoming episode that will be directed by Colin Ferguson. Here's how Syfy describes the episode ("The Story of O2"): "Sheriff Jack Carter (Ferguson) leaves Eureka to visit his daughter Zoe (Jordan Hinson) at Harvard while the town celebrates Space Week. A new self-propagating oxygen technology developed by Dr. Ramsey in order to potentially colonize on Mars mysteriously begins to build up in the atmosphere above Eureka threatening to incinerate the entire town. The episode is scheduled to premiere Friday, July 30, 2010." (via press release)
Looks like The Transporter is headed to the small screen, with an international production--in English--set to start shooting in Europe and Canada early next year. (Hollywood Reporter)
Welcome to your Friday morning television briefing.
Looks like ABC is trying to make its Lost fans even happier. The Wrap's Josef Adalian is reporting that ABC has scheduled a repeat airing of its two-hour pilot for Lost, which will air Saturday, May 22nd (from 8-10 pm ET/PT), the night before the series finale of Lost, bumping the number of hours the network is devoting to lost to ten that week. The network will be airing the enhanced (read: pop-up) version of the pilot. (The Wrap's TVMoJoe)
In other Lost-related news, tickets go on sale today at 10 am PT for Lost Live: The Final Celebration, being held May 13th at UCLA's Royce Hall. The event will feature Michael Giacchino conducting a full orchestral performance of original music from Lost, an advance screening of the penultimate episode of Lost and appearances from cast members Nestor Carbonell, Michael Emerson, and Jorge Garcia. Tickets can be purchased here or here. (via press release)
RadarOnline.com is reporting that Warner Bros. Television won't reconfigure Two and a Half Men without Charlie Sheen and should he not return to the series, it will mark the end of the highly rated CBS comedy. "There has been absolutely no discussion about reworking Two and a Half Men without Charlie. No one is even considering it,” an unnamed studio source told RadarOnline.com. "At this moment, if Charlie doesn’t come back, that’s the end of the series." (via Fancast)
Five-time Emmy winner Hal Holbrook (Into the Wild) has been cast in four episodes of Season Three of FX's Sons of Anarchy, where he will play Nate Madock, the father of Gemma Morrow Teller (Katey Sagal), currently on the lam after being framed for murder. Holbrook will make his first appearance on the third season premiere of Sons of Anarchy, slated to air in September. (via press release)
Entertainment Weekly is reporting that Megan Mullally will be heading back to Pawnee next season. Mullally will reprise her role as Tammy, the malicious ex-wife of Ron Swanson (Nick Offerman), in an episode that will air during the series' third season, currently shooting to accommodate Amy Poehler's pregnancy. (Entertainment Weekly)
Syfy has cast Bruce Boxleitner (Babylon 5) in original telepic 51 and A.J. Buckley (CSI: NY) in The Doomsday Scrolls. (Hollywood Reporter)
In an exclusive Q&A, we discuss the season finale and the series' potential future, as well as get to the bottom of some of this week's extraordinary plot twists (which I won't spoil here).
Head to the comments section to share your thoughts about the finale, whether you think Damages should return, and reactions to the third season as a whole.
In the end, it always circles back around to that dock, the scene for so many significant--and often fatal--encounters within the labyrinthine world of Damages. As it should be really, considering that their relationship is the central dynamic within the series, we're left once more with a conversation between Patty Hewes (Glenn Close) and Ellen Parsons (Rose Byrne) that signals the closing of one chapter in their lives as they square off on the dock of Patty's beach house.
But a house, after all, is not a home. Patty must contemplate the fact that she might truly be alone in this world after the events of the third season and particularly its finale ("The Next One Goes in Your Throat"), written by Todd A. Kessler, Glenn Kessler, and Daniel Zelman (whom I speak to exclusively here) and directed by Todd A. Kessler. Her conversation with Ellen is an intriguing one, revealing a rare vulnerability in Patty Hewes as well as the forging of a true connection between the two women.
It's uncertain whether Damages will continue past this season--studio Sony Pictures Television is said to be in talks with DirecTV about coming on to co-finance the series--though I am hoping that a deal can be reached and Ellen and Patty's story can continue. But if for some reason "The Next One Goes in Your Throat" does end up being a series ender for Damages, I'd be satisfied by the fact that we've seen their complex relationship evolve into some very unexpected territory over the last three seasons... and the tantalizing ambiguity with which we leave these ambitious and flawed women might just be the perfect cap to a such compelling and intelligent run.
So what did I think of this week's season finale? Let's discuss.
I thought that the third season of Damages offered a heady mix of a ripped-from-the-headlines case (with the Tobin family's Ponzi scheme) and deeply personal narratives that peeled away the layers of its central characters, revealing the rich, interior lives of Patty Hewes and Ellen Parsons, delving deep into their pasts to explain just who they are today.
It's not an easy feat to pull off. Damages is already a complicated narrative, due to its nonlinear format, offering two timeframes--the "future" and the "present day"--to bounce between and typically slotting in some flashbacks as well. This season saw a returned focus to the dream sequences and visions that have populated the drama from the beginning, providing a gateway into the innermost psyches of our characters on both sides of the case.
It's all the more shocking when it occurs within the context of a legal thriller, but let's be honest, Damages has always been more than that, offering one of a nuanced character study of ambition, success, greed, and what it means to need to win at all costs.
Tom. It's the latter element that Patty has fostered within her two former proteges Tom Shayes and Ellen Parsons and which leads directly to Tom's very undignified death in the season finale. Throughout the third season, we've seen a Tom Shayes that's slowly becoming unhinged as he deals with the loss of his financial status, his reputation, and finally his marriage. That Patty's eagle-eyed frequent co-conspirator would be duped by a feeder fund and have his entire extended family's fortune stolen by Louis Tobin sets off a chain reaction that leads Tom to lie to Patty and Ellen and to engage in a deadly alliance that ends with him stabbed, beaten, and drowned.
The circumstances surrounding Tom's death have been vague all season long. The cause of death was drowning but he hadn't been submerged in water long enough to affect his body. And we knew that he didn't die from the stab wounds to his stomach (and one, we learn, to his leg) and learn that it was Zedeck's enforcer Ben who was wielding the knife in this case. It was only a matter of time before Zedeck tweaked to the fact that Leonard and Albert had carried off the theft of a portion of the hidden Tobin money as Leonard was the only other person, besides for Joe and Zedeck himself, who knew of the connection between the funds and the charity. (I still maintain that it would have been a slightly better twist to have those water bottles explained, not by Tom's messiness, but by a waterboarding attempt.)
Ben attacks Tom at the loft, desperate to find Leonard after he and Zedeck became aware of the deal that Tom made with the former Tobin family counsel, stabbing Tom repeatedly in an effort to get him to talk... before Ben is felled by a bullet from Leonard's gun... and then springs back to life to strangle Lenny before getting bludgeoned by Tom with a wrench. Ouch.
That Tom would manage to escape this ordeal, stagger to a pay phone, and call Deb (telling her to take the kids and go anywhere but home) but not go to a hospital or call 911 required a little suspension of disbelief, as he goes home and is then attacked by Joe Tobin, who drowns him in the toilet.
I thought that the scene between them displayed a nice symmetry between the two men: both struggling to uphold their ideals of family, to regain what they lost and what each of them blames the other for. I found it terribly sad that Tom's nobility and his dreams should end up at the receiving end of a fatal swirlie carried out by a mentally deranged Joe Tobin. For all of his plans and his schemes, it all came down to being felled by an intruder in his house, one who saw Tom as the ultimate symbol of everything that had been taken away from him.
As for why Tom ended up in the dumpster behind Lenny's building, that's an easy answer: knowing that Tom and Lenny had a deal, Joe wanted to cast suspicion on Lenny for Tom's murder as he (A) knew the truth about Lenny's identity and (B) knew that Lenny owned the building and that the police would go looking for him.
Louis. That Joe would blame Tom for what had befallen him is the true travesty, as we learn that everything that has happened this season, all of the lies, the murder, the bloodshed has all been, not because of Louis Tobin's greed, but because of a father's love for a son who drunkenly destroyed the family fortune and had no memory of it. The entire Ponzi scheme, as Marilyn tells Joe, was set up because he had messed up and promised investors returns that weren't there, a situation that quickly escalated into outright fraud as Louis and Leonard sought to cover up Joe's mistake by paying off the investors with other clients' money, which in turn lead to the entire Ponzi scheme scenario.
While Joe believes that Louis didn't love him, the reverse is wholly true. Louis' entire life was based around making Joe happy and making decisions that he thought would better his son's life. While Marilyn wants Danielle to terminate her pregnancy, Louis lies to her and allows Danielle to give birth to Tessa and supports them financially for the rest of his life. When he discovers that Joe has destroyed his business, he takes steps to ensure that Joe will never be held responsible for any wrongdoing and goes so far as to kill himself, not to avoid trial, but to avoid any inkling of Joe's malfeasance from ever coming to life.
It's another sacrifice made for an ungrateful child, one unaware of the decisions being made without his knowledge, and it completely reverses the image we've had this entire season of who Louis Tobin was and why he killed himself, willingly giving up his life in order to save his son's time and time again.
Marilyn. Louis always put his family above all else, managing to find a way to secret a fortune for them and still find a way to take the fall for Joe's mistakes, even in death. Yet it's Marilyn who makes the wrong decision, who is unwilling to bend for her child, who becomes far too enamored of her lifestyle and the lure of the money that her husband has hidden away. She argued that Danielle should abort Joe's child and never told him that Danielle had gotten pregnant. Learning about Tessa's existence on Thanksgiving, she was furious that Louis had gone behind her back and had allowed Danielle to give birth to Tessa and supported them. And when the time came when Tessa became a threat to their financial status, Marilyn stood by and let Joe slaughter his own daughter.
Joe doesn't see Marilyn's decisions as being in his own best interests, at concealing his own wrongdoing for so long. He tells her that she is dead to him and will never see her grandson again. And she doesn't: after watching old home movies of her, Louis, and Joe during simpler, happier times, she throws herself into the East River. (Mystery solved!)
The Bag. Likewise, we learned that Leonard stole Ellen's Chanel handbag from her car in order to place the agreement and evidence in her bag (placing it in the beater car), rather than leave it with Tom and Patty, whom he did not trust entirely. But while Leonard looks to double-cross Tom, fate intervenes when homeless man Barry steals the bag (and it's contents) from the car. Tom, after being stabbed, later sees that Barry has the handbag and touches it with his bloody hand (leaving behind Ben's blood), making him promise that he'll get it back to Ellen.
Circling back around once Ellen learns that the handbag was found in Barry's possession, she's able to get that envelope that Louis had initially intended Patty Hewes to have (it now has Patty's name crossed out and Ellen's written in). Which is rather ironic, as all of this could have been avoided had (A) Joe gone to see Louis when he asked him to and (B) not taken the envelope from beside Louis' body in the first place.
The Car Accident. As I predicted last week, you can never get away with pulling one over on Patty Hewes. Jill's naivete was staggering; she rooked Patty out of half a million dollars, which she then spent on Michael with no intention of leaving him. If she thought that she could get away with it or that Patty would just let it slide, she was out of her mind. I knew that the writers would do something with the chromosome test that Michael gave Patty last week but didn't think that it would have the date of conception on it... a fact that Patty was able to use to her advantage, having Jill arrested for statutory rape right out of the very car that she had given Michael.
Patty, like Louis Tobin, made a decision that she believed was for the best interests of her child. She saw Jill as a failed mother, a criminal, and a lowlife who would drag Michael down with her, who had derailed his eduction and stolen his future. And, sitting across from her in the police station, she tells Jill that she will give birth in prison, that Michael will get full custody, and that she will make sure that he has help raising his child.
And, in an act of hubris, Patty seizes ownership of their apartment and the cherry red Jaguar that Jill bought for Michael. It is, after all, the very car that Patty is driving when she's struck by the hit-and-run driver.
As soon as Ellen encountered Michael at Patty's apartment (after driving there in the beater car that Tom purchased), I knew that the driver had to be Michael. Leaving the keys in the car, Ellen takes a phone call after discovering that the money that Leonard gave them as proof of the Tobin's fraud was in fact, well, fraudulent, and the car is driven off by someone unseen, someone who floors it and crashes it right into Patty Hewes.
But it's not a mystery to Patty who is driving the car, despite her testimony to the police. She sees Michael fleeing the scene and she knows just how much he sought to do her grievous harm, perhaps even kill her. Her decisions may have been with Michael's best interests at heart but they were just that: her decisions. She has, in a single day, destroyed his happiness and thrown his life once more into chaos.
And he is his mother's son, after all. He knows a thing or two about payback. Their collision is the ultimate dust-up, the row to end all rows, a permanent fracture in their already tenuous relationship.
The Horse. Patty is the first to admit that she hasn't been the perfect wife or the perfect mother. But she has been defined not by her maternal instincts but by her drive and ambition, her need to win, to knock down the bullies, and achieve victory and justice, using whatever means necessary. But her defining moment came in 1972 as a pregnant woman about to become a mother. Told by her doctor that her pregnancy was at risk and would have to remain in bed, Patty deliberately sought to terminate her own pregnancy so she could get out of her small town and claim her fortune in New York as a lawyer.
Julia's stillbirth wasn't an accident or a cruel twist of fate at all, but a deliberate escape plan for Patty Hewes. Walking far into the country, she happens upon a horse farm, where she encounters not only the horse (the one seen in her visions) but Julian Decker himself, here not a musician or an architect but a handyman who asks her if she is ready for motherhood, saying it's a huge responsibility. That Julian isn't her true love but rather someone she encounters at a formative moment is critical: her visions in the present day of him are echoes of a heinous act that she would rather forget. His constant reappearances, the ghostly visitations, and his promises to tear down the walls are manifestations of her guilt, her horror, the (literal) blood on her hands.
It's the thing she can't escape: she murdered her own daughter, just as Joe did his. And then she nearly repeated history by having Ellen killed. While Ellen isn't a replacement for Julia, her hysteria over arranging the hit on Ellen lead to Julia's grave at the end of Season One, a place that she hadn't returned since she left her stillborn baby behind. It's a return to the metaphoric crossroads, a reminder of the price she paid for her success, the bodies that lay in her wake.
Arthur Frobisher. Frobisher is one again undone by his vanity. After spilling his secrets to Terry (who went and told Patty), Frobisher is "visited" by Ray Fiske in the nightclub. It's his last chance to confess but he fails to take it. Ellen finally gets to see Wes, who fills her in on everything: that Rick Messer murdered David under orders from Frobisher and that he sought to protect Ellen and killed Messer to do so. Despite the fact that Ellen says that she's let go of all of it, Wes wants to see justice done for Ellen. He confronts Frobisher in his car and, at gunpoint, forces him to confess that he killed David. Wes then turns them both in, sacrificing his freedom in order to obtain justice for Ellen. It's a noble gesture that's wholly surprising, given Wes' propensity for violence. I thought he was going to shoot Frobisher but instead he looks towards the justice of the law, rather than man.
Confession. Confession is also on the minds of Patty and Joe. Patty turns off the intercom while sitting down with Joe at the police station and tells Ellen that they talked about confession. But what does she confess? The truth about Julia's death? Her attempt to kill Ellen? Or something else entirely? It's left deliberately unclear just what they talk about but, whatever it is, it's enough to get Joe to confess to killing Tom. Patty, Tom, and Ellen managed to take down the Tobin family in the end, but at a particularly high price: the life of one of their own.
Patty and Ellen. Ultimately, Patty and Ellen find themselves once more on the dock by Patty's beach house, having buried Tom Shayes. Patty mentions that she wants to be cremated and her ashes scattered there. It's a surprising conversation that's rooted in the intimacy that these two have formed over the last three seasons. After all, it's a conversation that one might typically have with a child. But Patty doesn't have children, not anymore. Julia is dead and her relationship with her son is forever tainted. She has lost Uncle Pete and Tom, her entire family. Ellen is, really, all that she has left now: the promise of the future, an emotional connection but one that's already been tested in unusual ways.
And Ellen wants to know if all of that has been worth it. If Patty's success was worth the blood, sweat, and tears that paved the way to this very moment in time. For Ellen, like Patty before her, is at a crossroads. She wants a family, she wants some semblance of normalcy in her life. She has three options: she can find work at another law firm, she can return and work for Patty, or she can quit the law altogether.
But it's that question of the price of all of this that hangs in the air between them. The long silence that follows is sharp and brutal as Patty can't bring herself to answer the question, denying the audience any sort of rubric for understanding her. There is no right reply but at the same time Patty's answer isn't vital to Ellen, not anymore. She walks away, determined to find her own answer to that question, choosing her own path, not Patty's, as she chooses a direction to leave from that crossroads.
One can only hope that these two find a way back to each other and that Damages continues for us to see just what path each of them chooses.
What did you think of the season finale? Does it work as a series finale, if Damages doesn't return? Would you be heartbroken if this is truly the end for Damages? Hoping that DirecTV coughs up some cash to keep it alive? Confused by anything? Head to the comments section to discuss.
Welcome to your Wednesday morning television briefing.
It took just one episode, apparently, before HBO ordered a second season of New Orleans-set drama series Treme, from creators David Simon and Eric Overmyer. "We would have picked up this show last week," HBO president Michael Lombardo told The Hollywood Reporter's James Hibberd. "We've seen the first nine episodes it's as strong as any show we've seen. Much like The Wire, the audience is so passionate and so invested. We're about servicing our subscriber base and I believe that people will become addicted to this show. We have to be a place where this kind of excellence is giving space to continue." According to Lombardo, Season Two of Treme is being targeted for a spring 2011 debut, where it will likely be paired with the first season of fantasy drama Game of Thrones. "They should be ready about the same time," said Lombardo. "[Game] looks beautiful, the compelling scripts are just fantastic, we're doing reshoots but nothing major. The show is there." Production on Treme's second season will begin this fall. (Hollywood Reporter's The Live Feed)
The Wrap's Josef Adalian, meanwhile, talks to Lombardo in a Q&A-style interview about the Treme renewal. "The first season of True Blood we picked up in the first week. Whether it was after the first day, I don't recall," Lombardo told Adalian. "But I must be candid: We knew we were picking this up (before the premiere). We were actually trying to arrange a phone call with David before we got numbers, but because of David Mills' funeral, that was just impossible. We were sure early on in a way that was unique." (The Wrap's TVMoJoe)
Variety's Stuart Levine is reporting that Monday night's season finale of FX's Damages may wind up being the series finale, after all. "Despite a meeting in the next two weeks between Sony Pictures Television and DirecTV to discuss the possibility of the Glenn Close skein changing networks, insiders say it doesn't look as though the drama is a good fit for the satellite provider," writes Levine. "Sony, of course, wants to see Damages continue, but the studio would have to take a substantial license-fee reduction. With what would be the fourth year of the show, and cast and crew expecting salary increases, it would likely be difficult -- though not impossible -- to cut costs." If Sony was able to broker a deal with DirecTV, their Channel 101 would want to take the first window of Damages' fourth season, which could be a problem for FX, which co-produces the legal drama. [Editor: I'm still keeping my fingers crossed that something could be worked out but in the meantime, I'm going to enjoy the finale as much as I possibly can.] (Variety)
Good news for Mad Men fans: Entertainment Weekly's Michael Ausiello is reporting that Jared Harris has been promoted to series regular for Season Four of the period drama, which returns to AMC this summer. "Harris joined the Emmy-winning drama in Season Three as Lane Pryce, Sterling Cooper’s new financial officer (installed by UK parent company Putnam, Powell, and Low)," writes Ausiello. "In the finale, he became a founding partner in SCDP alongside Don Draper, Bert Cooper, and Roger Sterling." (Entertainment Weekly's Ausiello Files)
Elsewhere, Ausiello also has a spoiler-laden interview with 24 executive producer Howard Gordon about this week's shocking twist... which I won't spoil here, but I will say that Gordon is candid about the decision they made and much more. "It was an incredibly emotional day," said Gordon about the final day of shooting on 24. "I’m just so incredibly proud to be a part of it... This has been an incredibly strong season. I can [only] judge it in terms of what my own opinion is of the show and what I hear about it anecdotally from the people who are friends and family, but I feel very proud of this year. Kiefer is very proud of this year. People are happy to be ending with such creative vigor." (Entertainment Weekly's Ausiello Files)
Sophia Bush (One Tree Hill) has been cast in ABC comedy pilot Southern Discomfort, where she will play Haley, described as "a recent Harvard graduate who returns to her Texas hometown to reunite with her old boyfriend." She'll star opposite Don Johnson and Mary Steenburgen in the pilot, which hails from Sony Pictures Television, Tantamount, and ABC Studios. Bush's casting is said to be in second position to her role on the CW's One Tree Hill, which has yet to receive a pickup for another season. (Hollywood Reporter)
Elsewhere, Ben Browder (Stargate SG-1) has joined the cast of the CW's drama pilot presentation Hellcats, where he is set to play football coach Red Irvine. (Deadline.com)
More wrestling is coming to Syfy, following the conclusion of a multi-year deal between cabler Syfy and World Wrestling Entertainment to bring Friday Night Smackdown to the sci-fi channel beginning October 1st. As part of the move, Syfy will shift its traditional Friday night programming block of originals--which includes Caprica, Stargate Universe, and Sanctuary, among others--to Tuesdays. "WWE is the ultimate in imagination-based sports entertainment," said Syfy programming president Dave Howe. "The fantastical thrills of Friday Night SmackDown provide an ideal addition to the Syfy slate, as it targets the younger male and female demographics, which are the fastest-growing categories for WWE." Syfy's current wrestling series, NXT, will wrap up its run in October. (Hollywood Reporter, Variety)
Naren Shankar is said to be leaving CBS' CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, stepping down from his role as executive producer/co-showrunner on the procedural drama in order to focus on his development deal with CBS Television Studios. (Deadline.com)
Kevin Eubanks will depart NBC's Tonight Show on May 28th and will be replaced, beginning June 6th, by American Idol's Rickey Minor, the musical competition series' music director. (Hollywood Reporter's The Live Feed, Variety)
Looks like Glee star Lea Michele injured her knee while filming an upcoming episode that features the music of Lady Gaga. (Specifically, it was the glee club's take on Gaga's "Bad Romance.") "I'm directing that episode and I did more coverage on that song then we've ever done in the history of the show," co-creator Ryan Murphy tells told E! Online's Kristin Dos Santos. "It's a big number. It's like, big and athletic and hard. And those girls and Chris [Colfer] I think did it for six hours straight." As for Colfer, he too was amazed that he wasn't injured shooting the show-stopping number. "I almost died just trying on my getup," Colfer told Dos Santos. "Literally, I probably almost died because I wear 10-inch heels and those take some getting used to. They're like stilts walking around. They're platform, stick stiletto heels. And I had to dance my ass off in them [laughs.]" (E! Online's Watch with Kristin)
In other Glee-related news, FOX has released the Sue Sylvester "Vogue" video from next week's "Power of Madonna" episode of Glee. The video, a shot by shot remake of Madonna's "Vogue," can be seen in its entirety below:
BBC has confirmed that it will not be going ahead with a third season of post-apocalyptic drama series Survivors. "The BBC is committed to making a broad range of varied and ambitious drama, but in order to achieve this we do have to move on from some pieces in order to allow new work to come through," said a BBC spokesperson. "After two series, Survivors will not be returning." (Daily Telegraph)
Deadline.com's Nellie Andreeva is reporting that Wizards of Waverly Place showrunner Peter Murrieta will depart the Disney Channel comedy should it be picked up for a fourth season. (Deadline.com)
Arthur Smith and Kent Weed's reality shingle A. Smith and Co. is developing a reality series based around Aussie magician James Galea and will pitch the project--which mixes comedy, illusion, and sleight of hand--to networks. (Variety)
Looks like Carrie and Co. will be walking in their Manolos over to E! and Style, according to a report by Alex Weprin in Broadcasting & Cable. Comcast Entertainment Group has signed a deal to acquire off-net and ancillary rights to all 94 episodes of HBO's Sex and the City beginning in January 2011. (Broadcasting & Cable)
Warner Bros. Television has hired ICM agent Tom Burke as SVP/head of casting for the studio, where he will oversee all casting both for WBTV and offshoot Warner Horizon. (Variety)
Just a word of advice: don't mess with the person who knows all of your secrets.
This week's phenomenal episode of Damages ("You Were His Little Monkey"), written by Glenn Kessler and directed by Timothy Busfield, began to draw together the extremely diverse story strands of the series' taut third season before next week's finale. (It's worth noting here that Damages' ultimate fate is unclear and next week's installment may serve as either a season finale or a series finale. I'm hoping it's the former rather than the latter.)
I can't quite wrap my head around how the writers will manage to tie everything up, with Tom's murder, Patty's car accident, the Frobisher case, the Ponzi scheme, African charities, Wes Krulik, feature films, and dreams all in the mix somehow. Yet Damages has proven itself quite adept at building tension throughout the season and bringing together a slew of clues to offer one hell of a final act. Which means even if the series doesn't manage to return for a fourth season, it still will have gone out on an extremely high note.
So what did I think of this week's episode? Let's discuss.
My admonition earlier was thrown right at the Tobins, who this week decided to make a monumentally wrong-headed decision and fire Leonard Winstone. While Joe Tobin was shocked to discover that Leonard wasn't who he said he was, it really doesn't matter at the end of the day whether his name is Winstone or Wiggins: he's the man who literally knows where you buried the bodies. He's been aware of the fraud since the start and knows exactly how to procure the money that's being hidden in the charity with the help of Stuart Zedeck. He knows that Tessa Marchetti is the daughter of Joe Tobin and that Marilyn withheld this information from her son in a bid to get him to silence her forever.
So the question is: if knowledge is power and this man knows all of this, is it wise to make an extremely powerful man angry?
Yet that's just what Joe Tobin does, having it out with Leonard one final time and sharing with him just what Louis Tobin called him behind his back: his "little monkey," the creature who does his dirty work while he gets to keep his well-manicured hands clean. Leonard Winstone may have been a fraud but he was their fraud, a man so desperate to belong that he convinced himself that he was a valued member of the Tobin family, that he belonged to something bigger than himself. Marilyn first makes it clear what she really thinks about him, saying that he couldn't possibly understand her thought process because he doesn't have a family. It's a gutting scene but it pales in comparison to the one between Joe and Leonard. Joe's hold on sanity or logic expired some time ago: he's been making sloppy, stupid choices that have only shined a greater spotlight on the Tobin family and now he's cut ties with the one man who had made it his life's mission to protect them.
Just what did he think that Leonard would do? Was he so foolish that he thought that the little monkey would just dance away back in the shadows and keep the family's secrets for them? But that's not in Leonard's nature; he's a survivor and a grifter at heart. Scorned by the Tobins, he makes a deal with Tom Shayes to save his own skin at the expense of the Tobins... but he also makes a fatal error that will have lasting consequences: he steals from Stuart Zedeck.
There's a nice parallel in this episode between two very different thefts, both of which will have some nasty repercussions for the parties involved, and between the actions of intermediaries. Ben's appearance at the charity to withdraw the secreted funds and his line about people making their attorneys do things rather than doing them themselves is clearly meant to echo Leonard Winstone's predicament (and also inadvertently allows the former Tobin family counsel access to the funds themselves). Meanwhile, Leonard and Albert's efforts to use the system that Zedeck set up in order to get Tom back some of his lost financial status--tantamount to theft itself--also nicely parallels the theft committed by Jill when she agrees to take Patty's money... and then turns around and spends it on Michael. Ouch. Something tells me that neither Stuart Zedeck nor Patty Hewes will take too kindly to people stealing from them.
Patty. This week, Patty's dreams about the beautiful horse continued as she fell asleep at the office and later experienced a waking dream on the streets of New York City when she glimpses a police horse. In both cases, the horse seems to calm her initially as she's struck by its beauty and majesty but there's a jarring sense of shock when Julian Decker turns up in both cases. In the dream in her office, Julian appears next to the horse as she watches through the ripped-up hole in her wall and he calls her Patricia. Later, she transposes Julian's face onto the mounted police officer. Julian is clearly on her mind but seems to represent something just out of reach.
A reader suggested a few weeks back that Julian was a figment of Patty's imagination, as the only person he interacted with was Patty... and it's not like any renovation work has actually been done at Patty's apartment since their "meeting." But while I don't think that Patty has created Julian out of whole cloth, I do think that he's a figure from her past, someone who meant something significant to her. Otherwise her reaction upon seeing his face on that policeman--leading her vomit--wouldn't be quite so violent.
It's interesting too that these manifestations should come on the heels of the knowledge that Michael is the father of Jill's baby. While Patty had doubts about the baby's parentage, Michael turns up at her office to tell her that the chromosomal test came back clean and the DNA proved that he was the father. He offers to send her a copy of the report and turns on his heel, but it's Patty's surprisingly vulnerable face--a crack in the wall--that's the true kicker of the scene. Her armor has fallen and here we see a woman who has realized that she has lost her child. The anguish she feels is palpable.
So it only makes sense that she would seek to bring Michael back to her the only way she knows how: by getting rid of Jill and breaking his heart. She agrees to meet Jill and pay her $300,000 to go away and never see Michael again, even though she is carrying his child. (Parallels here too between Jill and Michael and Danielle Marchetti and Joe Tobin.) But Jill's not going anywhere: she demands a cool $500,000 and then turns around and buys Michael a flashy ride and makes a down payment on an apartment. But all of this is on borrowed time: Patty is going to find out that Jill is still in the picture and come after her. And I don't think Jill wants to find out the full force of Patty's rage.
Ellen. I loved the scene between Ellen and Patty where she tells Patty that the reason that she didn't want to come back to work for her was that she wanted to make her own choices. While I thought that Patty might react negatively to that sentiment, she seems to respect Ellen all the more for it... as she does Ellen's decision to protect Tom and give him her loyalty rather than Patty. He did, as Ellen says, need it more than Patty at that point. I'm just thrilled to see these two back in the same room together again, with Ellen clearly willing to put aside the awful argument she had with Patty and focus on the case. Could it be that these two have gotten through their first spat as friends and come out the other side? I was also chuffed to see that Patty hasn't forgotten the promise she made to Ellen to find David's killer, to use her resources to put his murderer behind bars. Ellen might not work for Patty anymore but she clearly intends to honor that commitment to her former protege.
Josh Reston. I loved that it was Josh who is able to give Ellen and Patty a major break in the Tobin case, using his contact at the jail to learn that Leonard Winstone had bailed Albert Wiggins out of jail. It's a nice callback to the favor that Ellen did for Josh and a way to balance things out between them. His quick-thinking sends Ellen on a path of discovery, learning that the real Leonard Winstone died in a car accident just a few weeks after graduating law school and low-life grifter Lester Wiggins stole his identity and reinvented himself as a hot-shot lawyer, becoming the family counsel for the well-heeled Tobin clan. But the past always catches up to you and it's Albert who brings the house of cards tumbling down around his son's head.
Arthur Frobisher. I was wondering just how the Arthur Frobisher storyline would play into the overarching storyline this season and this week--even without Ted Danson's presence--it finally began to pay off three seasons of dangling plot threads as Terry Brooks told Patty that Frobisher had implied that he had someone killed and had hired a man--a cop--who would do anything. While Patty laughs off the implications and denies that Frobisher would be capable of murder, she quickly goes to see A.D.A. Gates and Ellen and leads to reopening of the investigation into David Connor's murder. Plus, they've now thisclose to connecting Frobisher to Rick Messer and Wes Krulik. While Messer is dead, it's Krulik who might finally provide some closure to this story. Ellen attempts to reach Wes but can't get a hold of him. But he's the key to finally putting Frobisher away for murder by proxy and laying David's spirit to rest.
The look of shock when Ellen sees the photograph of Messer and his former partner Wes is one that's hard to shake. Given that they were lovers, I am sure Ellen is wondering just if Wes knew anything about David's murder... while being unaware that he's the one that was (A) ordered to kill her and (B) shot and murdered his partner in order to protect Ellen. I'm just hoping that Ellen finally learns the truth about Detective Messer and David's death. With the end of the series possibly occurring next week, it's about time that some of these plotlines were dealt with.
Tom. Poor Tom's life is unraveling before his eyes. Having been forced to resign from the firm in light of his conflict of interest (which was disclosed to Patty by the judge), Tom has a row with Deb on the steps of their brownstone and she kicks him out. With nowhere to turn, he makes a deal with Leonard Winstone, offering him immunity from prosecution in exchange for information about the hidden Tobin fortune. And Leonard is able--thanks to some help from his crooked father (who assumes the identity of Stuart Zedeck)--to offer Tom a bag of cash as a sign of good faith.
Of course, we later learn that Tom himself engineered his entire resignation. Which didn't quite make sense to me while I was watching the episode. Why would Tom make himself unemployed when he's literally got no money and no prospects... in order to risk the chance that Leonard Winstone might talk to him? Especially as this entire affair plays out BEFORE they learn the truth about Winstone's identity and BEFORE Joe Tobin fires Leonard. Given that Leonard was antagonistic towards Patty and Tom, what made Tom think that this was a risk worth taking? Why would Leonard have sold out the Tobins at that point, given that Tom had no leverage over him? It was the odd misstep in an otherwise flawless episode but one that I couldn't put out of my head last night as I went to sleep. Odd.
And then there's the matter of the car, the one that ends up plowing right into Patty's vehicle. Tom is seen late at the office looking on Bing for... something. The search results pull up photographs of the car we saw smashing into Patty, including a shot of the Statue of Liberty bobblehead on the dashboard. But why is Tom researching cheap cars? Why does he in fact purchase it and register it to Leonard Winstone's apartment building? And how does it get from there, with the stolen funds, to the street where the accident occurs? And just who is driving it when it hits Patty? Curious.
While Ellen offers Tom a place to stay, he turns down her offer to instead sleep on the floor of one of the creepy lofts that Leonard owns in an otherwise empty building. Given from what we see from the future-set timeframe--now only Three. Days. Later.--Tom uses it as a makeshift office as well as a meeting place for his rendezvous with Leonard. I'm a little concerned by the presence of homeless man Barry after he sneaks into the loft and wakes Tom up, asking if he can stay there. While I don't think that Barry would hurt Tom--they seem to have something resembling an odd-couple friendship--the fact that he was able to get into the building and the loft so easily doesn't sit well with me.
Three Days Later. And then there are the jumbled flash of images from the future-set timeframe, now just three short days later, scenes that depict each of our protagonists in jeopardy, as Ben pulls a knife, Ellen is confronted by someone, Tom bashes the hell out of someone's face, Patty is involved in a collision, and someone jumps off of the Brooklyn Bridge.
Just what does it all mean? I'm still convinced, as I have been since early on this season, that Tom is tortured--waterboarded--by Zedeck's men in an effort to discover just what he knows about the funds stolen from the charity (after all, Ben will learn that "Stuart Zedeck" showed up to collect some cash and Leonard's the only one who can connect all of the dots) and where the money is. The presence of the empty water bottles on the floor of the flat support this theory as does the presence of water in Tom's lungs without the accompanying waterlogged condition that his corpse should be in had he been drowned. Given that we've seen Ben with a knife, he ends up stabbing Tom, who is able to escape and who calls Deb on the pay phone.
As for the bridge incident, I'm convinced it's either Leonard Winstone (my thought a few weeks back) or Joe Tobin, who learns the truth about Tessa Marchetti and realizes that he's destroyed his entire family rather than saved them. And, like his father before him, he takes his own life rather than be prosecuted and imprisoned for his crimes. In other words: it's the Fall of the House of Tobin.
But I still can't wrap my head around the car accident, however. Unless, Ben manages to find the bag of money, takes Tom's car, and then seeks to silence Patty as well. He orchestrates the accident and jumps out of the passenger side of the car after the impact. But why leave the money behind then? Hmmm...
What do you think of the above theories? Got some of your own? What do you think will happen in next week's season finale? Head to the comments section to share your thoughts.
Next week on the 90-minute season finale of Damages ("The Next One's Gonna to Go in Your Throat"), Ellen and Tom take matters into their own hands in an attempt to win the Tobin case; Patty Hewes is haunted by the price of her success.
Welcome to your Thursday morning television briefing.
Showtime has ordered twelve episodes of ensemble drama Shameless, based on the British Channel 4 drama series created by Paul Abbott, who co-wrote the pilot for the US adaptation with John Wells. Project, which is expected to begin production late this summer, stars William H. Macy, Emmy Rossum, Justin Chatwin, Jeremy White, Cameron Monaghan, Ethan Cutkosky, Emma Kenney, and Allison Janey, who recurs. Wells will serve as showrunner on the series, which hails from Warner Bros. Television and John Wells Productions. No launch date was announced for the series, which Showtime's Robert Greenblatt likened to "Party of Five on acid." (Variety)
HBO, meanwhile, ordered ten episodes of single-camera comedy Enlightened (including the pilot) from writer/executive producer Mike White and star/executive producer Laura Dern. Dern stars as "a self-destructive woman who has a revelatory experience at a treatment center and becomes determined to live an enlightened life, creating unexpected havoc at home and work." The cast also includes Luke Wilson, Diane Ladd, and Sarah Burns; production is slated to begin this summer. (Hollywood Reporter)
Entertainment Weekly's Michael Ausiello is reporting that FX president John Landgraf has confirmed that Sony Pictures Television is in talks with DirecTV to come aboard legal drama Damages in order to ensure a fourth season pickup. "Sony is talking to DirecTV," said Landgraf. "We couldn’t be happier with Damages creatively. The third season is superb. It’s a massive success from a creative standpoint. But, it’s a show that has always struggled from a ratings standpoint. I think that’s because it’s so complicated. It takes an incredible amount of devotion and an incredible attention span to watch it." (Entertainment Weekly's Ausiello Files)
Ausiello also confirms that the feature film version of Veronica Mars isn't dead, after all, talking to the series' creator Rob Thomas about the status of the teen sleuth. "It’s not dead," Thomas told Ausiello. "I continue to want to do it. It’s funny, because the rumors go around and around. Kristen Bell had said to somebody that I had written a script, and that wasn’t correct. I did have a treatment and a pitch, with which I went to Warner Bros. and [Mars producer] Joel Silver and said, ‘Here is the fastball version of the movie, the big studio version of the movie that I think we can make.’ And I think they did one of their brand-awareness surveys and were like, ‘We don’t know if we can make money with that.’ So it’s been back-burnered. But I still want to do it. I’m still happy to do it. We’re still looking into it." [Editor: While Thomas admits there's a close-ended timeframe, I do like his idea to see Bell as a "30-year-old noir detective" in the future as well.] (Entertainment Weekly's Ausiello Files)
It's official: Doctor Who is heading to PC and Mac in a new episodic computer game entitled Doctor Who: The Adventure Games that will be offered for free from the BBC website. Featuring the voices of Matt Smith and Karen Gillan, the four-episode interactive game will be written by Phil Ford (Doctor Who: The Waters of Mars) and James Moran (Torchwood: Children Of Earth). The first episode is expected to be released in June. "There aren’t 13 episodes of Doctor Who this year," said executive producer Piers Wenger. "There are 17 - four of which are interactive. Everything you see and experience within the game is part of the Doctor Who universe: we’ll be taking you to places you’ve only ever dreamed about seeing - including locations impossible to create on television." (Broadcast)
Oprah Winfrey is set to announce an hour-long evening series Oprah's Next Chapter, which will air on the nascent cabler OWN: The Oprah Winfrey Network, according to the Wall Street Journal's Sam Schechner. Series, which could air as many as twice or thrice during the week, will follow Winfrey as she travels the world for a series of interviews. "I'm going to take viewers with me, going to take celebrities I want to interview with me" around the world," said Winfrey. (Wall Street Journal)
Jason Gedrick (Boomtown) has been cast in HBO's horseracing drama pilot Luck, from executive producers David Milch and Michael Mann. Gredick will play "a racetrack gambling degenerate" and will star opposite Dustin Hoffman, Dennis Farina, Nick Nolte, and Gary Stevens. (Variety)
ABC has announced its summer schedule, which includes the launch of two new drama series on Sunday nights--The Gates and Scoundrels--which will air back-to-back beginning at 9 pm ET/PT on June 20th. The Bachelorette returns Monday, May 24th, True Beauty on May 31st, Wipeout on June 1st, and the launch of new reality competition series Downfall on June 29th. Late summer brings The Bachelor: Bachelor Pad, Dating in the Dark, and Shaq Vs. (Variety)
SPOILER! Orla Brady will reprise her role as Elizabeth Bishop in Fringe's two-part season finale ("Over There, Part 1" and "Over There, Part 2,"), which are set to air May 13th and May 20th. (Entertainment Weekly's Ausiello Files)
Francois Arnaud (I Killed My Mother) has been cast in Showtime period drama series The Borgias, where he will play Cesare, the son of Rodrigo Borgia (Jeremy Irons) in the thirteen-episode series. (Hollywood Reporter)
Broadcasting & Cable's Alex Weprin has a rundown on the announcements made at yesterday's FX upfront presentation in New York. "I think it is important to talk about the originals in basic cable as a continuum, from the edgy, adult side of it, which we cornered the market with The Shield and Nip/Tuck, to the other end of the spectrum, which would include The Closer or White Collar," said Bruce Lefkowitz, executive VP of Fox Cable ad sales. "We are never going to be all the way to the right side, we are never going to do The Closer, because that is not what audiences come to FX for, but we have earned the right to move a little bit more to the right."(Broadcasting & Cable)
ITV has announced that Ciarán McMenamin, Alexander Siddig, and Ruth Kearney will join the cast of Primeval, which is being co-produced by ITV, UKTV, and BBC America. Hannah Spearritt, Andrew-Lee Potts, Ben Miller, and Ben Mansfield will reprise their roles on the sci-fi drama, which is set to launch in early 2011. (Digital Spy)
The Hollywood Reporter's James Hibberd offers a suggestion about why the ratings for FX's fantastic drama series Justified continue to slide each week: "My take is that the show was promoted with a serious dramatic tone, which matched its pilot, plus it felt like a serialized show. Subsequent episodes have felt lighter, more comedic, more procedural -- less FX and more USA." (Hollywood Reporter's The Live Feed)
Maura Tierney is set to return to television following her battle against breast cancer. The actress--who was originally part of the cast of NBC's Parenthood before having to drop out to seek medical treatment--will reprise her role as Kelly McPhee on FX's Rescue Me and is slated to film four episodes for the series' seventh season, set to air in 2011. (Variety)
Could Jane Alexander (Tell Me You Love Me) have played the mother of Joseph Fiennes' Mark Benford on ABC's FlashForward? TV Guide Magazine's Will Keck teases that Alexander would have played Granny Benford, according to Fiennes' co-star Sonya Walger, and that Alexander had been featured "in a doctored-up family portrait hung in the Benford home at the start of the season." (TV Guide Magazine)
ABC has announced that Canadian cop drama Rookie Blue (formerly known as Copper)--which stars Missy Peregrym, Gregory Smith, Enuka Okuma and Travis Milne--will launch on Thursday, June 24th day and date with its Candian debut. (Hollywood Reporter)
HBO has acquired the US rights to Adrian Grenier's documentary Teenage Paparazzo, which focuses on 14-year-old paparazzo Austin Visschedyk. (Variety)
Cartoon Network has ordered thirteen additional episodes of animated series Adventure Time. (Hollywood Reporter)
This week's episode of Damages ("All That Crap About Your Family"), written by Daniel Zelman and directed by Matthew Penn, found each of the characters grappling with the truth, whether that be a personal discovery, a bitter confrontation, a shocking confession, or the decision to withhold information from a loved one. The latter offered one of the most shocking moments in this week's installment, a pivotal turning point for a supporting character who seemed to be far more benevolent than they actually are.
Additionally, we learned the truth about what happened that Thanksgiving night and how the smallest of moments can have a ripple effect on everyone around them. Louis Tobin's decision to entrust his fortune's future to Tessa Marchetti hasn't quite panned out the way he thought it would. Trust is, after all, a funny thing.
The same holds true for Ellen and Patty. Their relationship this season has become something akin to friendship but that rapport would seem to be shattered this week as Patty casts everyone and everything away from her, rendering herself alone and paranoid. It seems the walls haven't quite been pulled down around her yet.
So what did I think of this week's episode? Let's discuss.
I'm all too willing to admit that I was wrong about Ellen's parentage. My theory that Ellen was the mysterious Annie's daughter and was somehow connected to the Arlington car crash that involved Arthur Frobisher turned out to be a non-starter. (Alas, that the risk you take with cockeyed theories.) This week's episode picked up where we left off last week, with Ellen heading 100 miles out of Manhattan to come face to face with the woman who had begun to crop up in her dreams. Was it her birth mother? Was she adopted? Was is the bond that exists between them?
Last night's installment once again didn't feature any of the future-set timeframe, leaving the events that we've been glimpsing so far this season all the more tantalizingly out of reach. Instead, the episode focused both on the past--Ellen's, Louis Tobin's, and Frobisher's--and on the the present, where things are beginning to build to a head. While Damages often features a pretty high body count, I didn't quite expect two characters to get killed this week, roughly 30 seconds apart. Especially when one of them was such a crucial witness in the Tobin case.
But that's the high-stakes world that Damages has set up: everyone is expendable and everyone is in jeopardy. Given that we know that Tom is murdered, Patty involved in a near-fatal collision, and Ellen absolutely terrified, it seems as though the noose of danger is about to tighten around all of their throats.
Ellen. Hoping to discover the truth about her past, Ellen traveled to see Anne Connell but was shocked to learn that reality is often more complicated than fantasy. She isn't Annie's birth daughter but is a Parsons by birth who was nearly adopted by Annie when she was about five years old. That she can't rewrite her family history seems to strike a chord with Ellen; she's immediately cut deeply by the fact that her mother nearly gave her up but changed her mind... and that things had apparently gotten so awful with her father that she had been sent away to live with someone else. Which made me wonder: was Carrie sent away too? Or was she kept close by her mother, a victim to their father's erratic mood swings and violent temper?
Ellen, meanwhile, returns to the city to discover that she's been sold out at work and that she's going to have to take the fall for Tom's impatient and unwise contact with Tessa. Her conversation with a drunk Patty is a sad and solemn scene as Patty rails against Ellen while her former protege stands there silently. I thought that it was a testament to her friendship with Tom that she doesn't tell Patty the truth but instead endures Patty's abuse and then walks out.
As for what Patty tells her--that she wanted to impress Gates at her expense, that she's ambitious, a "climber" and "parasite," and that she's ruthless--I found it ironic that those are all things that anyone could say about Patty Hewes herself. Was the teacher aware of just how much the student had learned at her feet? Or was the speech also directed at herself in some way? A symbol of her own self-loathing? Still, it cut like a knife when Patty told Ellen, "I want you out of my life."
I was glad to see David (Noah Bean) turn up in this week's episode as Ellen wandered aimlessly through the city after being placed on an indefinite leave from work. (I can't say I blame Gates for his decision and his anger at Ellen but he's just so bad at playing the game and seeing the bigger picture that I want him to fail.) The scene between Ellen and the ghostly David was a nice callback to the earlier seasons of Damages and their relationship a reminder of a simpler, happier time.
But David also has a message for her, one that Ellen has carried around for some time but hasn't come to terms with: she needs to make a decision regarding Patty. If she wants to work for her again, she should go do that. And if she doesn't, she needs to put Patty behind her and really move on. To put the past behind her and step into tomorrow. But it's hard when she's literally carrying baggage--that Chanel bag--with her everywhere she goes...
Patty. The strain of the last few months has clearly gotten to Patty. The once supremely composed and icy-cold litigator has become a vulnerable mess, the exact type of person that she hates above all else. Pressure from the plaintiffs, the judge, the D.A., the Tobins, etc. have all led her to a place of extreme paranoia, where she believes everyone is out to get her. It's Patty's Atlas-like burden to carry the weight of the world on her shoulders while everyone else is sniping at her and looking to drag her down.
David's words to Ellen are true about her similarities to Patty: they do both hate bullies and her sense of betrayal at the hands of Ellen isn't just about the fact that she (wrongly) believes Ellen's behaviors have jeopardized the case but she's fractured the one relationship built on respect that still exists in her life. She certainly doesn't have that with Tom. She holds him to a level of responsibility that would have made anyone else quit years ago. His decision to come clean to Patty--though he does leave out the fact that he's a Tobin victim--and his confrontation of her (loved the bit where he asked her if she's ever lied to him) points towards his eventual resignation from the firm. And it hits Patty like another blow to the gut, feeding into her paranoia about Ellen. ("The two of you were strategizing behind my back?")
Earlier this season, Patty sought to replace Ellen by hiring Alex Benjamin. Alex seemed to be the perfect candidate for Patty: ambitious, devoted, devoid of a personal life, she was tailor-made to be Patty's right-hand woman. Or at least on paper. Here, she's a step ahead of Patty, making suggestions about bank account routing numbers, charities, etc. But she lacks a certain je ne sais quoi... In other words, she's not Ellen. It was only a matter of time before Patty realized that herself... and this week took matters in her own hands and fired Alex on the spot as she recalled her conversation with Ellen about her new associate. Au revoir, Alex.
Frobisher. While still completely separate from the overarching storyline, I have to say that I'm loving the return of Ted Danson here as Arthur Frobisher, particularly as the feature film version of his life is getting workshopped, filtering the tenseness of Damages' first season into a bizarro funhouse mirror.
Loved that Katie Finneran (Wonderfalls) was cast as the way-too-young actress playing Patty Hewes and that Frobisher was so willing to sell out the memory of his alleged friend Ray Fiske that he spills the fact that Fiske was secretly gay to the (awful) actor playing him with a way-too-prominent Southern drawl. The story has become so "Hollywoodized" that it's almost impossible to connect it to the viciousness of Frobisher and Patty's battle.
But it's Frobisher's constant need for approval that leads him to make a stunning confession to Terry, in which he recounts his darkest moment (his decision to murder David) after recreating the hooker-and-blow scene from the first season, a case of art imitating life. (Or vice versa.) Are we seeing the return of darkness in Arthur Frobisher? Has he ever actually been redeemed or has it been a smoke and mirrors act to convince himself that he's not pure, unadulterated evil?
Boots. I wondered why Leonard Winstone was so keen to throw out Louis Tobin's boots from Danielle Marchetti's house. The claim was to prevent anyone from learning about the affair between Louis and Danielle but that's the furthest thing from the truth. Instead, the monogrammed boots had been worked on by Zedeck and represented a link between the Tobins and Zedeck, something that had to be eliminated and covered up.
We learned this week that Louis and Tessa were both at Danielle's place on Thanksgiving Day and that Zedeck stopped by to return the boots that his cobbler had repaired. While Leonard believed getting rid of the boots was a smart move, the link between Zedeck and the Tobins, and therefore the charity and the Tobins, has yet to be discovered. Hmmm...
Tessa. Likewise, we learned that Louis Tobin, surprised by how quickly the government was moving, confessed his crimes to Danielle and turned to Tessa for help. Believing that he could trust her--given that she was family--he used her as the courier to move the funds down into the Bank of Antigua but didn't give her all of the facts, making her think that she was signing one of her forms for a charitable organization. An organization that was, in fact, acting as a shield for the fraud itself.
Patty wisely assigned Malcolm to protect Tessa and her down to Antigua, where she would smuggle out the third form and deliver it to Patty and Tom, who would then know the identity of the charity that the Tobins were using to conceal their fortune. But it was not to be. Given that the Tobins already had Emmanuel in their pocket, he was only too willing to alert them to the fact that Tessa had shown up in Antigua... and Joe and Marilyn were only too willing to sacrifice Tessa to keep their secret safe.
And that's where things really got tricky. Those of you who guessed that Tessa was actually Joe's daughter, give yourself a pat on the back. It turns out that everyone has been lying to Joe for decades, concealing the fact that he had a daughter with Danielle Marchetti... and once he learned about Tessa's existence, her parentage was still concealed from him. When he gives the order to have Tessa killed, I was shocked because it seemed to point at the fact that Joe was a soulless bastard willing to murder his own child. But it's not Joe who's pulling the strings here: it's Marilyn, who is whispering lies into her son's ears. She never tells him of Tessa's true identity, instead making him believe that he is having his illegitimate sister executed in order to keep his "real" family safe.
Not so. Joe has just ordered the murder of his own daughter, a brutal act that sends a bullet through her face and ends her life down in Antigua. Will he ever learn the truth about Tessa? And is this the act that finally sends Leonard over the edge and into an alliance with Tom?
What did you think of these week's episode? Surprised by the reveal about Tessa? Freaked out that Marilyn would appear to be absolutely evil through and through? Head to the comments section to discuss.
Next week on Damages ("You Were His Little Monkey"), Patty is under pressure to make progress in the Tobin case; Ellen uncovers new evidence about Louis Tobin's death; Tom makes a fateful alliance after his marriage and career falls apart.
Welcome to your Tuesday morning television briefing.
The Chicago Tribune's Maureen Ryan is reporting that Paula Malcomson (Caprica) has been cast in an eight-episode story arc on Season Three of FX's Sons of Anarchy, where she will play a character named Maureen. Sons of Anarchy is expected to return to FX's lineup in September, with production slated to begin in roughly three weeks' time. (Chicago Tribune's The Watcher)
SPOILER!Entertainment Weekly's Michael Ausiello is reporting that Seth Gabel (Dirty Sexy Money) has joined the cast of FOX's Fringe. Gabel will play the lead Fringe Division investigator in the alternate universe and is slated to make his first appearance during the season's two-part finale, airing May 13th and 20th, and could, according to Ausiello, also recur next season. (Entertainment Weekly's Ausiello Files)
The second half of Maureen Ryan's mammoth interview with Chuck co-creator Chris Fedak is now live at The Chicago Tribune. In this section, they talk about the plot twists from last night's episode--originally planned as the season finale--and what else is coming up on the next six episodes. "We looked at the 13 episodes as going from the low point of Chuck and Sarah’s relationship – that his decision to be a spy [potentially would] fundamentally change who she thinks he is, [going] to the point in Episode 13 that Chuck, even though now he is a spy and now a hero and can do amazing things, he’s still the same guy," Fedak told Ryan. "At the core of Chuck, he is still the guy that she originally fell in love with." (Chicago Tribune's The Watcher)
Lucasfilm is developing another Star Wars series but--shocker!--this time it's as an animated comedy. No network is currently attached to the project, nor is there an episodic count yet. Project will be written by Brendan Hay, with Seth Green and Matthew Senriech--of Robot Chicken fame--serving as consultants on the project, which will be directed by Todd Grimes and produced by Jennifer Hill and which will "look at the saga's characters with a playful and irreverent tone." (Variety)
Sharon Lawrence (Curb Your Enthusiasm) has been cast in Josh Schwartz and Matt Miller's CBS comedy pilot Hitched, where she will play the prim and nosy mother of Kristin Kreuk's Rachel, who has recently gotten married. (Hollywood Reporter)
FOX has pulled comedy Sons of Tucson from its schedule, effective immediately, and will burn off remaining episodes of the low-rated series this summer beginning June 6th. Network will fill the Sundays at 9:30 pm ET/PT slot with American Dad. Additionally, FOX confirmed that the series finale of 'Til Death will air on Sunday, June 20th. (Variety)
ABC has given a series order to game show Downfall, from FremantleMedia North America, in which contestants must answer trivia questions while perched on the top of a skyscraper, from which their winnings could be thrown off of if they lose. Project, which has been received an unknown episode commitment, will be executive produced by Scott St. John. (Hollywood Reporter)
Southland producers are still in the dark about the fate of the TNT cop drama series. "The actors are on hold and there's a cutoff date in June by which they have to be notified," producer Christopher Chulack told Variety. "We're hoping for a decision in mid-to-late April." [Editor: fingers crossed.] (Variety)
NBC has ordered second seasons of its three newest reality series offerings, The Marriage Ref, Minute to Win It, and Who Do You Think You Are, all of which will return at some point during the 2010-11 season with Ref getting a 13-episode pickup while the latter two have been renewed for ten episodes apiece. (Variety)
Elsewhere, the Peacock has cut back on its commitment to freshman medical drama Trauma, which will now only produce 18 installments this season rather than the previously announced 20 episodes. Trauma will wrap its season on Monday, April 16th as a result. (Futon Critic)
TVGuide.com's Natalie Abrams talks to V stars Scott Wolf and Laura Vandervoort about what's coming up on the ABC sci-fi series, which returned last week with the first of eight episodes. "We start to see a Chad Dekker who has his better senses telling him that it's time to start paying attention to what might really be going on," Wolf said about his character, Chad Decker. "Once his skepticism and fear take hold, he has to figure out where to go because he can't just run away from the Visitors, but he also can't keep running in the dark. He is really playing both sides, waiting to see who's going to win." (TVGuide.com)
USA has announced their development slate, which includes projects from Steve Carell, Thom Hinkle and John Michael Higgins, Aaron Jorsh, Becky Hartman Edwards, Gay Walch, Mark and Robb Cullen, Gail Gilchriest and Kevin Murphy, Steve Stark, and others. (Variety)
ABC is looking to lend a hand to its Friday night reality series Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution by pulling this week's planned episode of Wife Swap and instead airing a repeat of last week's Revolution in the 8 pm hour, according to The Wrap's Josef Adalian. (The Wrap's TVMoJoe)
TV Guide Magazine's Will Keck talks to Desperate Housewives creator/executive producer Marc Cherry about the identity of the Fairview Strangler, offering up six possible suspects in the ongoing murder plot, which will be resolved on April 18th. (TV Guide Magazine)
More drama on Wisteria Lane. Former Desperate Housewives star Nicollette Sheridan has sued executive producer Marc Cherry, ABC, ABC Studios, and Touchstone Television for $20 million, claiming that she had been physically assaulted by Cherry on the set of Housewives and, when she complained, was fired. "While we have yet to see the actual complaint," said ABC Studios in a statement, "we investigated similar claims made by Ms. Sheridan last year and found them to be without merit." (Hollywood Reporter's THR, Esq.)
ABC has pushed back the launch of its romantic comedy Romantically Challenged--starring Alyssa Milano--by a week, to Monday, April 19th. (Futon Critic)
Gillian Zinser (90210) will star in MTV original telepic The Truth Below, which recounts "teen angst and betrayal on a disastrous ski vacation" that leaves four friends trapped under an avalanche. Project, shooting this week in Calgary, is written by Wendy Diane Miller and directed by Scott Glosserman. (Variety)
TV Guide Magazine's Will Keck is reporting that Hugh Laurie's Gregory House and Olivia Wilde's Thirteen will find themselves at a Renaissance Fair on the April 19th episode of House. "[Thirteen] is always tough and not particularly girly, but in this episode she shows she likes to have fun and play dress-up," Wilde told Keck. "The Renaissance had their hierarchy, and I’m not very high up. I think I’m a wench!" (TV Guide Magazine)
Welcome to your Monday morning television briefing.
Entertainment Weekly's Michael Ausiello is reporting that the fate of FX's serpentine legal thriller Damages, set to wrap its third season in two weeks' time, is in the hands of DirecTV. "Multiple sources confirm to me exclusively that Sony is talking to DirecTV’s 101 Network about partnering on a possible fourth season of Damages," writes Ausiello. "The cost-sharing arrangement would be similar to the one DirecTV and NBC forged with Friday Night Lights, which means future seasons of Damages would air first on DirecTV with a second window on FX." An unnamed source further tells Ausiello that Sony Pictures Television began talks with DirecTV after it became untenable to maintain financing Damages on its own and the studio has engaged in talks with other outlets as well. Both FX and Sony refused to comment for the story. (Entertainment Weekly's Ausiello Files)
The Chicago Tribune's Maureen Ryan has a fantastic interview with Chuck co-creator/executive producer Chris Fedak about the remainder of the third season, the series' chances at a fourth go-around, and Brandon Routh's Daniel Shaw. "I’m very happy with [it]," said Fedak about Chuck's third season. "We’re very excited by the way we’ve structured this season. It starts out with some darks spots in the season, we have gone dark, we’ve tested the premise of the show, especially with "Chuck Versus the Final Exam," which aired last Monday. And [Monday's] episode, "Chuck Versus the Other Guy" -- all these episodes are really kind of testing the premise of the show, testing the idea of what we can do on the show. But from the perspective of the overall season, I think that we’re going to a really neat place and we’re having a lot of fun with it. We’re very excited that we’re able to tell such a dynamic story this season. But in truth, [it is] dynamic and also challenging." [Editor: It's a great and lengthy interview, so be sure to read through to the end. Lots of great moments.] (Chicago Tribune's The Watcher)
In other Chuck-related news, I was so sad to miss this weekend's Chuck panel at WonderCon in San Francisco. But if you--like me--missed out on the festivities, you can ready ChuckTV's in-depth panel report. You'll feel just like you were there, I promise. "Because they already had one season finale (3.13) written before learning that they had another six episodes, they essentially got to have two season finales in one season," writes ChuckTV's Mel. "Chris [Fedak] reiterated that no one is safe." (ChuckTV.net)
Lost showrunners Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse will be sitting down with ABC's Jimmy Kimmel for an exclusive hour-long postshow special, entitled Jimmy Kimmel Live: Aloha to Lost, where they will be joined by many cast members from the ABC Studios-produced drama series, which is set to end its run on May 23rd. Plus, ABC has promised that they will be airing alternate endings to Lost on the special as well. (E! Online's Watch with Kristin, The Wrap's TVMoJoe)
Entertainment Weekly's Michael Ausiello has an exclusive first-look at True Blood's werewolf Alcide, played by One Tree Hill's Joe Manganiello, shown in a shot from Season Three alongside Anna Paquin's Sookie Stackhouse. "There is definitely some [sexual] energy between the two of them," True Blood's executive producer Alan Ball told Ausiello. "It’s not like either one of them is looking for romance, but they’re thrown into several intense situations [and] it’s hard not to bond on a deeper level." (Entertainment Weekly's Ausiello Files)
The Los Angeles Times' Irene Lacher has an interview with Damages' Lily Tomlin, the latest in the paper's Sunday Conversations series. "I don't see any difference, really," said Tomlin about shuttling back and forth between comedy and drama. "It's just a matter of style or degree. And I've listened to Marty [Short, who plays the Tobins' devious lawyer], and he has the same point of view. You're just going to try to represent the human who's written on the page." (Los Angeles Times)
The Hollywood Reporter's James Hibberd takes a look at several "on the bubble" series at the broadcast networks, including ABC's FlashForward and V, NBC's Chuck, Heroes, Parenthood, The Marriage Ref, and Law & Order (Hibberd says that Mercy and Trauma are basically DOA), FOX's Human Target and Sons of Tucson, CW's One Tree Hill and Life Unexpected, and CBS' Cold Case, Numbers, Ghost Whisperer, Medium, Accidentally on Purpose, Gary Unmarried, and Old Christine. (Hollywood Reporter)
Pilot casting update: Tisha Campbell-Martin (Rita Rocks has been cast as a regular on ABC comedy pilot Wright vs. Wrong, where she will star opposite Debra Messing and will play the stylist to Messing's political pundit Evelyn Wright; Duane Martin (All of Us) has come aboard Paul Reiser's NBC comedy pilot Next, where he will play Reiser's best friend, a restaurateur; Jonathan Slavin (Better Off Ted) has been cast in CBS comedy pilot Team Spitz; Tyler James Williams (Everybody Hates Chris) has been cast in NBC comedy pilot Our Show; and Dejan Loyola (The Troop) has landed a role in the CW drama pilot HMS. (Hollywood Reporter)
For Slavin, the casting is formally in second position to "Ted."
The Futon Critic is reporting that TNT will launch Jason Lee-led drama series Memphis Beat (formerly known as Delta Blues) on Tuesday, June 22nd at 10 pm ET/PT, behind the second season premiere of HawthoRNe. Later during the summer, the cabler will launch Season Two of Dark Blue (in August, specifically) and Rizzoli & Isles. (Futon Critic)
BET is said to be close to a deal to resurrect canceled CW comedy series The Game and is expected to announce the pickup at its upfront later this month, according to The Hollywood Reporter's Nellie Andreeva, who writes that the majority of the comedy series' cast will be returning for this new iteration and that Salim Akil will take over showrunner duties from his wife, Brock Akil, now a consulting producer on ABC's Cougar Town. (Hollywood Reporter)
Universal Media Studios has signed a two-year overall deal with former My Name is Earl writer/producer Danielle Sanchez-Witzel, under which she develop new series projects for the studio while joining an existing NBC series. (Hollywood Reporter)
"Ellen, my husband is gone and my unemployed teenage son is about to be a father. I think you might want to ask someone else for family advice." - Patty
I don't know about you but I screamed aloud at my television when the screen faded to black at the end of this week's cliffhanger-laden episodes of Damages ("Tell Me I'm Not Racist"), written by Todd A. Kessler and directed by David Tuttman.
It was a scream derived not from frustration but from an excruciating anticipation for the next installment of this quicksand-like legal thriller. Over three seasons, we've come to know these characters intimately, but this week's episode seemingly pulled the rug out from right underneath us, revealing that we'd been standing over a bottomless pit all along.
In an episode that was seemingly devoid of the future timeframe or flashbacks (or was it?), this week's installment marked a major turning point for Damages as a series, as we may have learned a vital clue about Ellen Parsons, something that has lurked at the very center of the series since the pilot episode and a major reveal that many people have wondered about ever since.
Is it a red herring? A coincidence? A long-buried family mystery? Or will Ellen's attempt to rattle the skeletons in the Parsons' closets result in Patty's protege discovering something about herself?
So what did I think of this week's brilliant episode? Let's discuss.
I've been raving about the third season of Damages since it launched earlier this year. It's been a supremely strong season, filled with the sort of whiplash-inducing plot twists that made the original season such an original and compelling drama series. In that initial season, Damages stood out as a first-rate thriller whose roots in legal drama were marked less by courtroom outings and more by the deadly and ruthless battle between two adversaries, each willing to do whatever it took to win.
This season has fulfilled the promise of the first season, offering us not only a intricate jigsaw puzzle of an overarching case but also deeply personal storylines involving the home lives of our three lead characters--Patty Hewes, Ellen Parsons, and Tom Shayes--and a riveting nonlinear storyline that directly places the characters in jeopardy in a way that recalls that amazing opening sequence from the pilot where a blood-covered Ellen flees Patty's apartment dressed in a nightgown and a coat.
The death of Tom Shayes has raised the stakes in more ways than one and, should this be the end of the line for Damages, the third season has offered a pitch-perfect swan song for the series, combining a ripped-from-the-headlines case, swirling eddies of doom, and revelations about characters that we've thought we'd come to know inside and out.
Not so.
This week, we learned that Ellen Parsons might not be who she thinks she is. Long-buried memories of her childhood have come back to the fore, thanks to a series of Lynchian dreams that have unlocked something inside her. Dreams have been a vital part of Damages since the very beginning of the series, with many of the characters--from Patty and Ellen to Frobisher and Ray Fiske--revealing essential truths about themselves via their subconscious.
That thread has carried over into this season with both Patty and Ellen experiencing the unconscious lure of an invisible thread, yanking them back to uncomfortable truths from their earlier years. The mysterious horse which Patty keeps dreaming of, now that the walls she's built up are crumbling around her, continues to crop up while Ellen herself experiences an uncomfortable and jarring deja vu.
Ellen. Is Ellen Parsons adopted? She's never quite fit in with the rest of her blue collar family and the chasm between them has only widened since her sister Carrie was arrested for intention to sell narcotics. But failing to fit into a family doesn't necessarily equal a lack of blood; it's not the first time we've seen first-hand how lucky Ellen has been to escape her ignoble roots. But there are several intriguing developments in this episode: Ellen dreams/recalls an incident from her childhood, in which she was at someone else's house and then helped an unknown woman stir some tomato sauce on "her stool." (It's significant that Ellen first believes she's visiting Patty and the dream house at first recalls Patty's palatial apartment and there's some correlation between the fact that she has confused these two locales and these two women.)
Next, Ellen uncovers a photograph of the woman from her dream, a picture in which this unknown individual holds the very same flowers Ellen had been carrying in her dream. Why does this image strike a chord with her? And why is it mixed in with other childhood photographs? Photographs which, very interestingly, depict Ellen as a young girl many times over... but never as a baby.
Confronting her mother gets her nowhere. Ellen's mother is startled by the photograph--visibly in fact--but tells Ellen that the woman was her babysitter when she was younger and was named Annie or something. It should be infinitely clear to anyone who has ever watched even a single episode of Damages that Ellen's mother was lying to her face.
Carrie, meanwhile, doesn't provide any further information. Despite Ellen recalling that Carrie used to claim that she had been adopted as a child, Carrie denies it, saying that she was only teasing her... but her reaction to the photograph says anything but that as she expresses concern that Ellen showed their mother this picture. Just what are they all hiding? Could Ellen be adopted? Could her mother have met some untimely fate?
Malcolm meanwhile uncovers Annie's identity and an address, which is itself significant. My first instinct upon watching the episode was that (A) Annie was Ellen's mother, (B) Annie was dead, and (C) Annie had been killed in the car accident in Arlington, Vermont that involved one Arthur Frobisher and which killed a young woman in the early 1980s. The dates certainly match up. If Annie had been killed and Ellen given up--or taken--by another family, she would be young enough not to remember much about her biological mother.
It's also significant because we still haven't learned the truth about that car accident... and Arthur Frobisher has only just come back into the picture now. Coincidence? Perhaps but I can't shake the fact that Frobisher and this woman are connected and that the fateful car accident might also involve Patty Hewes herself. Longtime viewers might recall the scene at the end of Season One where Frobisher asks Patty just what he did that has made her hate him so much. She never answered it aloud but it points to their paths crossing at some point. Did Patty know Annie? If she is/was Ellen's mother, has Patty known this all along? Could it explain just why Patty kept tabs on Ellen and offered her that job? Why she wanted her to break things off with the Parsons? Hmmm...
But there's the matter of the address that Malcolm has tracked down for Ellen, one that is 100 miles outside of Manhattan. If Annie was dead, Malcolm would have told Ellen that upfront. (There's no reason for him to conceal it from her.) And he hardly would have given her an address for a cemetery. So is Annie alive then? And if so, why is she so significant to Ellen that she would feel drawn to this woman and begin an investigation into her identity? Curious...
Tom. Tom, meanwhile, completely sold Ellen out this week and surely ended her career at the district attorney's office... which could be why, in the future, he and Ellen were launching plans to start their own firm. (She's all but finished at the D.A.'s office now that Gates knows that she has been dealing with Patty behind their back and likely stalled their case against the Tobins.)
But Tom's rationale is entirely personal: he's on the hook for supporting his family, his parents, and his in-laws and Deb isn't exactly realizing what sort of dire straits they're really in. Tom's attempt to broach the subject of selling the lake house falls on deaf ears; Deb just doesn't really get how much financial trouble they're truly in. Which will make Tom's inevitable death all the more painful.
I'm a bit thrown by the fact that (A) Tom is so willing to let Ellen take the fall against Patty should word get back to her that Tessa was approached by an attorney, and (B) that he's so entirely focused on getting his money back that he nearly blows their entire case by alerting Tessa to the fact that Danielle was likely murdered by one of the Tobins. It's way too soon to be showing their hand to Tessa, considering they've already caught her in one lie (about spending Thanksgiving with her mother) and Tom is lucky that Ellen was able to save his hide again by prompting Tessa to call Patty for protection against the Tobins... pushing her right into their hands.
Not that it quite worked out that way. Despite Ellen engineering the perfect scenario to get Tessa on their side, Tom's little confrontation scene led Tessa to the D.A.'s office, outed Ellen, and led the Gates to swoop in and arrest Tessa at the end of the episode, leading our lawyers without their star witness. A major problem, considering that they now suspect that Tessa's trip to Antigua on Thanksgiving wasn't an attempt to move money down there but to begin to bring it back. Not good.
Patty. I loved the scene with Patty and Ellen on the couch, which served as a sharp callback to the first season of Damages. Here, Ellen asks Patty for advice about what she should do about her family and what Malcolm has turned up about Carrie, leading Patty to jokingly say that she's the last person who should be giving Ellen advice about her family, given how hers turned out.
Still, the implication is clear: despite what has passed between them--betrayal, murder attempts, mind games--these two women respect each other and have forged something akin to a real friendship between them. I think it even takes Patty by surprise, the companionship, the bond she feels with Ellen, the sort of relaxed easiness of their drinks on the sofa and discussions of renovations. Over three seasons, the mentor and the protege have become almost equals now. So much so that Ellen knows to keep her secrets close to the vest; she doesn't tell her about what's really going on with Tom, despite his fury at Patty's decision not to pursue Tessa earlier.
But Patty isn't one to go out without a fight, even if the plaintiffs are looking to have her replaced. So much so that she tells the judge that she's willing to circumvent his authority and the courts to pursue her own leads in the Tobin case and recover the victims' money. She's right: if she locates that fortune and is able to provide the Louis Tobin's victims with restitution, no one will care how she did it or with whose authority. The ends justify the means with Patty; we've seen over three seasons just how much that's true and what lengths she is willing to pursue to achieve her goals.
It's a lesson she's taught to Ellen as well; her protege nearly tampered with a witness (or worse) in order to get her sister Carrie off, but Ellen changed her mind in the end, allowing Carrie to sit in jail and receive the proper punishment for her crimes. One can't help but see that Ellen has taken on board Patty's ruthlessness but with a distinct perspective of her own that colors her decisions. While the courts will punish Carrie, she too exacts her own punishment on her sister, withholding her help after she lied to her.
Leonard. But it's not just Patty and Ellen who deal with their own familial issues. Leonard Winstone's own issues come home to roost at precisely the wrong time. Leonard's con man father Albert Wiggins isn't pleased that his son has stopped sending him checks, wondering pointedly if the mailman is stealing from him or if he's just racist. But the threats don't stop when Leonard--with his favorite prostitute--tells him that he won't ever start paying him; instead, they escalate as Albert shows up at Leonard's office while he's with Marilyn Tobin.
It's not good for a number of reasons. Leonard's belief that he's a member of the Tobin family is being sorely tested once again and it's safe to say that if he's exposed as a fraud, as a small-time grifter and reformed low-life, the Tobins won't stand by him. He claims that the Tobins are clients, family, and not marks but Albert won't listen: he wants a piece of the Tobin fortune himself.
Is it a good enough reason as to why Leonard, in the future-set timeframe, is seen assisting Tom and giving him money? Does he figure that he can weather the imminent destruction of the Tobins if the money is found but not if he's exposed? And, as I surmised last week, is it Leonard who jumps off the bridge? Curious.
I'm also still puzzling out how the Tobin's money, Stuart Zedeck, and the African charity are connected. We learned that Zedeck is on the board of Marilyn's cause celebre and he votes to not allow her to take a trip to Tanzania in order to keep some major distance between the Tobins and the charity. But is that how Zedeck and Louis Tobin kept the fortune hidden? By moving it through the charity and into the Bank of Antigua? Hmmm...
What did you think of this week's spectacular episode? Agree with the above theories? Think Annie could be Ellen's birth mother? Still wondering about the connection between Frobisher and Patty? Head to the comments section to discuss.
Next week on Damages ("All That Crap About Your Family"), Patty strikes an unusual deal after her star witness is arrested; Arthur Frobisher reveals too much of his past.
Not that you would, but if you were even thinking of waiting to watch this week's episode of Damages ("Tell Me I'm Not Racist") later this week, think again.
Seriously.
This is one episode that you will definitely want to watch as live as possible, as there will be any number of outlandish, bizarre, and possibly correct theories swirling around the internet by the time the credits roll at the end of tonight's gripping and suspenseful episode. As they should be, really.
Secrets are revealed, alliances sorely tested, and some rather tantalizing new subplots introduced, as tonight's episode of Damages offers some enticing callbacks to previous seasons and potentially sheds some light on a dangling story thread that many viewers have wondered about for quite some time.
In other words: do not, under any circumstances, miss tonight's episode. You've been warned.
On tonight's episode ("Tell Me I'm Not Racist"), Patty's clients want her removed from the Tobin case; Tom Shayes makes a risky move that jeopardizes Ellen's job with the district attorney.
"Life is complicated... We live in the grey areas." - Arthur Frobisher
On this week's episode of Damages ("Drive It Through Hardcore"), written by Glenn Kessler and directed by Tate Donovan, we received a few tidbits of information about the two overarching mysteries this season as Patty and Tom sought to learn the truth about what really happened on Thanksgiving (and how it involved Tessa Marchetti) and we're given another look at just what happens to Tom Shayes in the future storyline. (I'm still sticking by my theory even with last night's seeming revelation.)
Meanwhile, Ellen had to contend with more family drama and Arthur Frobisher met with Terry's producing partner in an effort to bring his life's story to the silver screen, bringing them face to face with Patty Hewes herself.
So what did I think of this week's episode? Let's discuss.
The season's two timelines are now nearly touching one another as the gap between the present and future continues to slide together, with only two months now between them. Given that things still seem to be cordial between Tom and Patty, I'm curious to see just what leads to the breakdown in their relationship in the next few weeks... and just how some of the grander character explorations--such as Patty's recurring nightmares and Frobisher's seeming redemption--fall into the larger picture.
This week's episode didn't give us too much to go on with regard to the future storyline, save for two scenes that seemed to shed some light on the aforementioned bust-up between Patty and Tom and the final scene which offered a potential twist in Tom's murder, one that I'm still trying to wrap my brain around. Instead, the episode focused on four distinct storylines: the Tobin case, Patty's nightmares and her estrangement with son Michael, Ellen's family drama, and Arthur Frobisher's nascent movie career.
The Tobin Case. This week, we learned that everyone in the Tobin family would appear to be a pathological liar by nature. Tessa Marchetti lied to Patty and Tom when she said that she hadn't spent her Thanksgiving holiday with her mother, instead claiming that she spent it with friends upstate. Why Tessa would lie--and why Danielle would instruct her to--remains to be seen, given that what Tessa would appear to be covering up (at least from Carol Tobin's perspective) is that Leonard Winstone stopped by the apartment and collected Louis Tobin's things--removing all evidence of the affair between them--and then throwing them into the dumpster behind the apartment building he owns.
Those items would appear to be the custom monogrammed cowboy boots and a burner cell phone that Louis used to communicate with Danielle. Yes, Leonard acted quickly to build some distance between Louis and Danielle but why was it so essential that the removal of the evidence be done that night, by Leonard himself, and why would everyone lie about it, given that Patty already uncovered the objects themselves weeks ago? Hmmm... And, given that Danielle made Tessa promise to lie, there must be something bigger than all of this going on, something that reveals just how Louis and Zedeck were able to hide the money in Antigua. Interesting.
Carol Tobin, meanwhile, is cracking under the strain as she attempts to come to grips with the fact that she murdered Danielle Marchetti. Not helping matters is the fact that she's a virtual prisoner of the apartment where Joe has hidden her and that the only person she has any contact with is Leonard Winstone. Finding her in the bath with a knife, he convinces her to see her psychiatrist... but forbids her from discussing Danielle Marchetti.
But Carol's visits to Dr. Samuels open her up to a confrontation at his office by Patty and Tom, who question her about Thanksgiving and she tells them about how she and Leonard drove to see Danielle Marchetti that night and disposed of her father's belongings. While she identifies Tessa as having been there, Patty doesn't reveal that she wasn't Danielle's housekeeper, as Leonard claims, keeping Carol in the dark that Leonard is lying to her about that night. (Clearly, it's an effort to keep Tessa's existence a secret and therefore preserve their means of keeping the fraud and the secret fortune alive.)
Interesting too that Marilyn would be attempting to create some familiarity between herself and her dead husband's illegitimate daughter, as we see Marilyn and Tessa share a coffee and Marilyn reach out and touch Tessa's hand when Tessa tells her that she's been talking to Patty Hewes. Just what is Marilyn after exactly? Why attempt to form some connection between them now? How much does Marilyn know, really? (It's the first scene together for the two since Marilyn turned up as Tessa arrived home the night of Danielle's murder.)
Ellen. Poor Ellen once again got sucked back into the nightmare of family drama as her junkie sister Carrie got arrested with an ounce of meth on her and was booked for intention to distribute. Once again, Carrie attempts to (A) lie, (B) deny, and (C) basically blame Ellen for landing her there and not doing anything to get her out of this situation. I'm beginning to think that jail might be the best place for Carrie as she desperately needs to face up to reality and admit that she has a problem. Instead, Carrie is so quick to attack Ellen that it's no surprise that Ellen wouldn't want to put herself out there and help her sister, a fact that their mother plays up in her typically histrionic way, saying that Carrie "never had a chance." Ugh.
Was Ellen right to tell Carrie to plead guilty and throw herself on the mercy of the court? Probably, especially because her logic is somewhat sound as Carrie doesn't have a record and is a first-time drug offender. She certainly can't represent her as she works for the D.A.'s office and Gates even goes so far as to tell her that she should hope for the nastiest prosecutor ever because there would then be no whiff of favoritism. They can't get involved.
And yet... Ellen's mother once again works her guilt mojo on her, leading Ellen to ask Patty for help. Which is always a big mistake as Patty hates weakness, she hates vulnerability, and she doesn't do anything for free. A favor now means one in exchange down the line and it means that Ellen now owes Patty. Which makes me very nervous, given Ellen has already crossed a line for Patty and Tom regarding the Tobin case and withheld evidence from Gates about Carol's involvement in Danielle's murder. It's only a matter of time before Ellen loses her job at the district attorney's office, given the subterfuge and unethical behavior going on.
Not good.
Patty. I'm glad that Michael finally came clean to Patty about what's really going on in his life, telling his mother that he is expecting a baby, is a painter, and is living with Jill. He claims that he lied to her at that dinner they had because he didn't want her judgment; she then responds by asking if there's any possibility he isn't the baby's father. (Um...) But Michael isn't there for a fight; he wants her to fill out some paperwork on their family's genetic background and poses some questions that take us back through the last two seasons.
Loved the mention that his biological father is in prison and his question about previous babies, once more dredging up the corpse of Julia Hewes from her grave. We've never fully gotten the entire truth about Patty's prior pregnancy, so I can't help but wonder if we'll learn something more about Patty's past before the season is over. After all, the recurring nightmares about horses continues apace. After Michael leaves, Patty throws a bowl against the wall, leaving a nasty gash there. (A chink in her armor, perhaps?)
Patty, being Patty, later takes a hammer to the wall and smashes it up, rather than let architect Julian Decker do it properly. During her latest dream, she looks through the hole she made and sees a horse looking back at her. Just what does the horse symbolize? The idealized version of her life that she left behind in childhood? An emotional truth that's buried beneath the surface like the true beauty of her apartment? Like her home, Patty needs someone to smash down the walls built up over the years and reveal the truth that lies there, the skull beneath the skin.
Frobisher. This week's character exploration dovetailed quite nicely with the latest scenes with Arthur Frobisher, who has become so focused on his redemption that he wants Terry and his producing partner to make Patty Hewes the hero of the piece rather than the Machiavellian villain; he's fully aware of his crimes and wrongdoings in the past and wants a fair and balanced approach to the story. (Fro's son, meanwhile, offers a more nuanced perspective of what happened, rightfully acknowledging that Patty attempted to destroy Frobisher.)
Patty isn't interested in appearing the crusading hero or playing a part in the ongoing redemption of Arthur Frobisher. She turns the tables on Frobisher's little meet-and-greet at the office with the Hollywood types, belittling Frobisher and attempting to humiliate him for his weakness, vanity, and foolishness. "The Arthur Frobisher I know is a despicable bully," said Patty. "He stole from his employees, then he manipulated the system to escape prison with a slap on the wrist... Do what you want; I don't much like movies."
The effect brings back the old Frobisher we know and (sort of) love: he's done with any attempt at balance and fairness in this film. Patty can be the villain and he can be the protagonist who overcomes obstacles, makes grievous mistakes, but redeems himself in the end. Oh, Fro, you've just fallen prey to a revisionist history, exactly what you sought to avoid. Maybe you are just as vain and foolish as Patty said you were. Or maybe you're just as mercenary as you always were.
Two Months Later. The episode is bookended with two scenes from the future-set storyline. In the first, Tom hands in his resignation from Hewes & Shayes, clearly as set-up for launching his own firm with Ellen. If Patty is surprised, she hides it extremely well (she did, after all, almost convince Michael she didn't know about his baby) and Tom doesn't exactly give her a reason for why he quits. Could it be that she learns that he's personally invested in the Tobin case and was himself swindled out of money? Or does she once more ask him to cross a moral line that he's unwilling to cross? Hmmm...
Meanwhile, the final scene puts another spin on Tom's murder. He's seen once more bloody and staggering over to a pay phone, calling someone--Deb?--and telling the recipient that he loves them. This time, we see a shot of the Brooklyn Bridge as something dark plummets from the bridge into the waters below. Tom's body? Does he kill himself? Is he pushed? I'm more than a little confused by this as there doesn't seem to be a hard connection between the pay phone scene and the bridge. (Would he really make a call from a public payphone on a bridge? Why would there by a phone on the bridge?) And if Tom jumps or is pushed from the bridge, why would anyone fish him out of a huge body of water and then dump him in a dumpster nearby where someone would find the body? How could anyone locate a corpse in that much water?
To me, it's a red herring, at least as far as Tom's murder goes. I still maintain that the fluid in Tom's lungs comes from waterboarding, which would again explain the vast quantity of empty water bottles littering the floor of the apartment. Which would mean that it's not Tom's body but something else that's thrown off of the bridge. It's not the bag of cash, because that's found in the trunk of that car registered to Tom.
My initial response is that what goes into the river is Leonard Winstone's body as he jumps off the bridge. Knowing that the truth about his real identity will come out (given that his fingerprints would likely be found at the scene), Leonard kills himself before he can be exposed as a fraud. The season's been rife with suicides--from Louis Tobin's death to the mention of poor Ray Fiske last night and Carol almost slitting her wrists in the bathtub--so it might only be fitting that Leonard leaves his world in the same method that his father figure Louis did: at his own hand.
What do you think? Do you agree with the above theory? Disagree? And what did you think of this week's episode? Discuss.
Next week on Damages ("Tell Me I'm Not Racist"), Patty's clients want her removed from the Tobin case; Tom Shayes makes a risky move that jeopardizes Ellen's job with the district attorney.
It's only fitting that FX's lawman drama Justified should go out with a bang.
