Ah, serendipity! As FX's new legal drama Damages shoots on location in New York City, the hazy cloud cover above the East River suddenly disperses to reveal a brilliantly sun-drenched Gotham landscape. Glenn Close and Tate Donovan take their places in a waterfront parking lot beside a limousine belonging to Close's character, powerhouse lawyer Patty Hewes. In the scene, Patty sternly dictates strategy to her henchman-with-a-conscience Tom Shayes (Donovan) before leaving him with one of her trademark stinging rejoinders and speeding off.

While the crew makes adjustments for Take 2, Donovan reflects on his good fortune. "All my friends are totally jealous of me!" he beams about winning a role on the most hotly anticipated show of the summer — and a chance to go head-to-head with one of the world's preeminent actresses. While shooting the pilot, he recalls, "I sat there thinking, ‘Wow, I'm working with Glenn Close!'"

Pretty intimidating, but Close isn't afraid to poke fun at her own diva image when she and Donovan resume their places. While waiting for the "Action!" call, Donovan murmurs, "OK, we have to do a scene now," to which a deadpan Close cracks, "Yeah… if you can act." Oh, snap! "Uh-huh," a grinning Donovan replies. "Wish me luck."

Everybody's feeling pretty lucky on the Damages set. And why not? Aside from snagging Close to play the show's tantalizingly complicated protagonist, FX may have struck gold with a smart, sophisticated series that manages to be a legal thriller, a murder mystery and a cat-and-mouse psychological study all in one.

A sort of anti-Law & Order, Damages will devote its entire season to one labyrinthine case, spend almost no time in a courtroom and feature a time frame that toggles back and forth over a matter of months. In the pilot's harrowing opening scene, Patty's junior associate Ellen Parsons (Rose Byrne) is seen running bloody and near-catatonic from her boss' apartment building. The series intercuts between the aftermath of that incident and the events that led up to it, starting with when wide-eyed law-school grad Ellen accepted a job at the prestigious Hewes & Associates.

What happens in between is a modern-day clash of the titans, as Patty pushes a class-action suit alleging that billionaire CEO Arthur Frobisher (Ted Danson) used inside information to cash out of his failing firm, bankrupting his employees. But, as cocreator Glenn Kessler insists, it isn't that simple: "The greatest drama is not the white-hat- and black-hat-wearing characters, where you know this person is good and the other person is bad."

For more on Damages, pick up the new issue of  TV Guide, on sale now.