Damages

If you haven't been watching Damages, then my friends you are missing out. This season they are on fire. I can't exactly pinpoint why, but I think it's because the story lines are tight and despite the ever present flash-forwards, everything stays sharp and focused. The actors have a lot to do with it as well.

Glenn Close (Patty Hewes) is a nasty, steel-hearted lawyer who is unstoppable at getting what she wants. She will do anything to win and her actions from last season were, shall we say, unsavory. A shark is more noble than this character. Her face looks almost waxen and hollow, her eyes glassy and empty as if she is searching for something she has grown already weary looking for. Whatever victory she savors, it will not fill the vacuum of her soul. She is damaged.

Rose Byrne (Ellen Parsons) suffered greatly the first season. Her boyfriend was murdered and she spent the season uncovering all hideous manner of snakes and backstabbers trying to find out who and why he was killed. Now, away from Patty's clutches, she works for the DA. Wouldn't you know it? Patty Hewes and she begin to cross paths. Yikes.

These people play for real and there's already a murder of Hewes' longtime legal partner Tom Shayes.

Tightly wound like a Hitchcock thriller, thus proving that the best writing is on TV.