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Damages
Season Two
SERIES: FX, Wednesday 10:00p (60 minutes)


9.5

based on 18 reviews
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how did we calculate this?

based on 9 votes
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Get more information on this show at TV.com.

Official Show Site

Starring Glenn Close, Rose Byrne, William Hurt, Timothy Olyphant, Tate Donovan, Ted Danson, and Marcia Gay Harden

Ellen seeks revenge by working undercover for the FBI in the second season as someone (William Hurt) from Patty's past returns.

GENRE(S):	Drama
CREATED BY:	Todd A. Kessler Glenn Kessler
FIRST AIR DATE:	January 7, 2009

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

100

San Francisco Chronicle Tim Goodman

It's a serialized mystery that pays off your devotion.

100

Slant Magazine Brian Holcomb

The seeds planted in the earliest episodes of the season promise a narrative as rich and complex as season one.

100

Newsday Verne Gay

This is TV's best and brightest at the moment, and a wonderful tribute to New York's resurgent TV production industry.

Entertainment Weekly Ken Tucker

One of the addictive things about Damages is its ability to work what initially seems to be a peripheral character like Olyphant's into the series' core plot in a startling way. All credit is due to the show's creators--brothers Glenn and Todd A. Kessler and Daniel Zelman--who wrote the first two episodes with smoothly intricate plotting and bursts of melodrama that rarely spill over the top.

Hollywood Reporter Ray Richmond

Forget everything I ever wrote about "Mad Men." This is the best drama series on television.

Chicago Tribune Maureen Ryan

Seeing all these top-flight actors respond to the tautness and the challenges of this material--and they do get their share of emotionally charged scenes--well, it’s like Christmas.

Los Angeles Times Mary McNamara

The first episode may be a bit rocky in the beginning, what with the reintroduction of characters and story lines, but the second season of Damages promises to be even better than the first.

Boston Globe Matthew Gilbert

When you watch the show, which returns for season two tonight at 10, you'll find a legal thriller that's trashier and more fun than you might have expected.

LA Weekly Robert Abele

This is the kind of show in which seeing new cast member Timothy Olyphant stare at Byrne from across a grief-support-group circle feels like both an act of violence and empathy, and this is before you even know who the hell he is. Since this is the secret-filled Damages, chances are we may never fully know. Would you want this knife’s-edge thriller any other way?

Orlando Sentinel Hal Boedeker

The series retains its challenging, jumping-through-time storytelling.

Salon Heather Havrilesky

It only takes two episodes to demonstrate that this season is going to be another wild ride, maybe even one that's a little more nuanced and unpredictable than the first.

USA Today Robert Bianco

It's a smart, speedy melodrama, supported by a terrific cast and driven by a rip-roaring star. Damages is more than Close, but she's so compelling, it would be worth watching for her alone.

New York Post Linda Stasi

All in all, a great good time with not one single character to like. Now, that's entertainment!

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette Rob Owen

The show's trademark time shifts continue, although it's initially unclear if they're connected to the season one story that carries over or to the season two plot.

Variety Stuart Levine

Damages works best when it doesn't show its cards early on, so it's hard to make definitive judgments after only a handful of episodes. Predicaments and positions can often change, and seeing a character move from one end of the ethical spectrum to the other can be reinvigorating. Here's hoping there'll be a few such shifts along the way.

Chicago Sun-Times Teresa Budasi

Nothing is as it seems--too much of the time. Intrigue is good; circular storytelling to the point of viewer exhaustion is bad.

Newark Star-Ledger Alan Sepinwall

Toward the end of the second episode, two characters who have no business acting chummy with each other get in the back of a car together and do exactly that. And rather than make me eager to pop in my screener of the third episode (which I did, eventually), it just killed all the buzz I had built up to that point.

The New York Times Alessandra Stanley

The second season has style and suspense, but it’s harder to keep viewers guessing when the characters are so familiar, and the time-scrambling format is no longer as novel.

The average user rating for this tv show is 9.5 (out of 10) based on 9 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Sandy G gave it a9:
Mote interesting plot than Season 1. Patti is a complex woman.

William N gave it a10:
Damages is not a program where you can surf the web while watching. The plot twists and time shifting requires full attention. But even if you lose track, it is worth the effort to see Glenn Close and William Hurt. Two people who do not get enough good work anymore. When the two of them have their stare down over whether he is lying to her or not - the emmys could be handed out right there. These are two of the best actors of their generation and the opportunity to see them every week in an incredibly compelling drama is one no one should miss.

James B gave it a10:
The best just got better. The second season of Damages start with clues that are more promising than the first season. It requires your total devotion, but it pays off big time!

Jennet P gave it a10:
My 10 is provisional, as only the first episode has aired But, so far, the show looks as though it is retaining all of the first season's virtues (sophisticated storytelling & full-throttle acting, for starters) while correcting its few vices. I was among those who felt that sub-plots might pick up the pace a bit and help avoid the repetition that sometimes troubled the show. If I've added right, this season is starting with three storylines, counting Ellen's revenge. I'm also hoping that the writers will do something with Patty's stillbirth from last season's finale, as I'm still incredulous about what a flimsy revelation it turned out to be. After a whole season's flash-forwards, wondering and puzzling about where Patty would flee at such a crucial moment and, later, who could be under that tombstone? A dead baby? A dead baby is a snack to Patty. I had visions of the writers pointing to one another saying,"Dude, YOU were supposed to handle that reveal!" "No, dude, YOU were!" The Oh-no-I-just-killed-another-daughter gambit might have worked on a lesser show, but, not on this one. I thought Patty was having a stroke. There's still time to make it work, however

matt a gave it a9:
The opening episode kept up the intensity and across-the-board solid acting from last season. Along with Mad Men, this is the best show on TV right now (Nip/Tuck is close as well).

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Damages Season Two SERIES: FX, Wednesday 10:00p (60 minutes)

Damages
Season Two
SERIES: FX, Wednesday 10:00p (60 minutes)