Damages Season 3
I just watched S3 Episode 3 -- and I continue to think that this season is every bit as good as Season 1. But there's a different feel to it, too -- S1 was more of a straight-up thriller, with the focus on suspense and solving a mystery. There's a mystery (maybe several) to be solved this season, as well, but it doesn't strike me as a "thriller" this time around. I'm not sure *what* I would call it, actually -- it's something more nuanced, less genre. The mood, at least for me, is a creeping sense of dread...a kind of "This Cannot End Well" burgeoning anxiety that comes to me from *all* directions (and not just the obvious).
Tom is the obvious character with the anvil hovering over his head. I found myself wanting to cry out, "Tom! Don't go to that house by yourself! Tom! Look over your shoulder!" etc., and though nothing actually happened to him -- and probably won't for a while, given that we're still early on in the season -- I find myself sad for him in a way that I never did with David during the first season. Part of that is no doubt that I've come to know Tom better over several seasons and thus have more of a stake in what happens to his character. Part of it is also that he comes across as more likable than David ever was (to me) -- although Tom is a weak person with many flaws. But I do think that part of it is also that what seems to be happening to him is much more trainwreck-ey than what happened to David -- Tom is somewhat of a pathetic person to begin with, and now his entire life is a disaster (partly of his own making, which only makes it even worse) and because you know that deep down he doesn't really have the strength of character to save himself, watching him flail in a futile effort to make things better is like watching him drown very veeeeery slowly. It's horrible, but it's also really compelling.
Joe Tobin is another weak character, and with this episode he's become quite contemptible. But he's not really a villain, either -- I don't think he has the gumption to ever aspire to villainy -- and I get the same sense of impending doom about him as I do about Tom.
Maybe the key to the difference in tone this season is that so much of the focus has been on these comparatively weak characters. There are no real villains anymore. Oh, Louis Tobin probably counts as one, but he's quite peripheral (so far) - a white-haired, amiable grandfatherly-type who is ruining people's lives from afar. Leo the Lawyer is oily and smarmy and is obviously involved in all sorts of Bad Things, but he's also very ambiguous. And Patty! Our scary antihero, the fighter-for-good-who-was-also-actually-kind-of-evil in S1, is...so far...the moral center of this season!
And then there's Ellen. Patty's crack about Ellen putting family first was snide, and then Ellen *tries* to put family first, but that's a disaster, too. I get the same sense of This Cannot End Well from Ellen calling Patty at the end of the episode, and the way the episode ended with the old video footage of Ellen's sister (as a child) waving goodbye to the camera...symbolic and sad and horrible. I worry about Ellen. I worry about Patty! I think that terrible, tragic things are going to happen to nearly everyone this season.
The whole episode left me very unsettled. We're not just watching a whodunnit this season. There are layers of complexity and subtlety now, and if it keeps going in this vein, I think this season is going to be one to rewatch several times.
Tom is the obvious character with the anvil hovering over his head. I found myself wanting to cry out, "Tom! Don't go to that house by yourself! Tom! Look over your shoulder!" etc., and though nothing actually happened to him -- and probably won't for a while, given that we're still early on in the season -- I find myself sad for him in a way that I never did with David during the first season. Part of that is no doubt that I've come to know Tom better over several seasons and thus have more of a stake in what happens to his character. Part of it is also that he comes across as more likable than David ever was (to me) -- although Tom is a weak person with many flaws. But I do think that part of it is also that what seems to be happening to him is much more trainwreck-ey than what happened to David -- Tom is somewhat of a pathetic person to begin with, and now his entire life is a disaster (partly of his own making, which only makes it even worse) and because you know that deep down he doesn't really have the strength of character to save himself, watching him flail in a futile effort to make things better is like watching him drown very veeeeery slowly. It's horrible, but it's also really compelling.
Joe Tobin is another weak character, and with this episode he's become quite contemptible. But he's not really a villain, either -- I don't think he has the gumption to ever aspire to villainy -- and I get the same sense of impending doom about him as I do about Tom.
Maybe the key to the difference in tone this season is that so much of the focus has been on these comparatively weak characters. There are no real villains anymore. Oh, Louis Tobin probably counts as one, but he's quite peripheral (so far) - a white-haired, amiable grandfatherly-type who is ruining people's lives from afar. Leo the Lawyer is oily and smarmy and is obviously involved in all sorts of Bad Things, but he's also very ambiguous. And Patty! Our scary antihero, the fighter-for-good-who-was-also-actually-kind-of-evil in S1, is...so far...the moral center of this season!
And then there's Ellen. Patty's crack about Ellen putting family first was snide, and then Ellen *tries* to put family first, but that's a disaster, too. I get the same sense of This Cannot End Well from Ellen calling Patty at the end of the episode, and the way the episode ended with the old video footage of Ellen's sister (as a child) waving goodbye to the camera...symbolic and sad and horrible. I worry about Ellen. I worry about Patty! I think that terrible, tragic things are going to happen to nearly everyone this season.
The whole episode left me very unsettled. We're not just watching a whodunnit this season. There are layers of complexity and subtlety now, and if it keeps going in this vein, I think this season is going to be one to rewatch several times.