Before we get to the reasons why Tuesday night’s finale of Damages should be a model for how a serialized show on the ropes should end a season — in high style, resolving many major plot points while cunningly setting up a second season (if there is a second season) — here are a few observations on some other positive TV news.The full-season pickup for Pushing Daisies. Best news of the week. Ever since the pilot began to circulate last spring, the reaction has been a mix of delight and unease: first, amazement that something this fabulous was coming to TV; second, skepticism that the TV audience would embrace it; and lastly, whether it could sustain the same quality after the knockout first hour. The answer so far has been affirmative, especially (and to me, most critically) in the quality arena. Each episode has been a gas, a treat, a knockout. With great buzz and solid if not spectacular numbers, ABC did the right thing in giving Daisies even more room to grow.The o...
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FX's Damages, which premiered on Tuesday, is simply too good a show not to have a "watercooler" blog, so I am stepping up to the plate and authoring one. In exchange, you will give me some leeway if each week's recap doesn't get posted until, say, 8 am the morning after. (Recapping 10 o'clockers is tough for a tired father of 4-year-old twins!)As I said in the title, what a pilot episode, right?This is not a courtroom drama.This is not a legal drama.This is not a procedural.What this is — and Michael Nouri (who plays Glenn Close's hubby) first spun it this way when I saw him at a function last month — is a psychological thriller. And a darn good one.I've already screened Episode 2, so I must be careful here not to cover too much ground. But I love the setup, how up-and-coming legal eagle Ellen is seen fleeing the grisly scene of god-knows-what, and then we proceed to flash forward and back and forward and back, piecing together — throughout the entire first season, mi...
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