This Saturday, FX is running the entire first season (up to now) of its legal thriller Damages as an all-day marathon, which means theoretically there will be viewers who will get to experience this show the way it might work best: as a rock ’em, sock ’em miniseries, compounding all of the story’s elaborate and sometimes preposterous shocks and twists into a roller-coaster ride that doesn’t require waiting a week between chapters.The ratings have been, even by cable standards, a disappointment, and as I write this, FX had yet to confirm a second-season renewal (although as I’ve said before, any network that would keep Dirt and The Riches going and fail to renew this gritty gem has some explaining to do). I’ve wondered if the show’s elaborately serialized structure, with an entire season built around a single case and its murderous fallout, may have kept viewers away (shades of ABC’s short-lived Murder One).The brutality and darkness of Damages...
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After three decades as a steadily employed but no-name actor, Stanley Kamel has found his dream role on USA's Monk as the title character's dedicated shrink, Dr. Charles Kroger. Mind you, Kamel has played a therapist before — prior to Monk he was best known for his villainous turn as an ethically challenged psychiatrist on ABC's Murder One — but as Kroger, he gets to show that despite his wild blue eyes and intense persona, he can still play a good guy, and a pretty funny one at that. Kamel talked (at length) to TVGuide.com about his long career and the second half of Monk's fifth season, which kicks off tonight at 9 pm/ET.
TVGuide.com: I love interviewing character actors. You guys always say the best stuff. Like
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Per Variety, CBS has outbid at least two rival networks to land the next project from Six Feet Under writer-producer Kate Robin, an ensemble drama that (paging Daniel Benzali... ) will follow a single, high-profile court case over the course of one season. Now before you cry Murder One, Robin tells the trade, "The heart of the show is the personal lives of these very disparate characters" -- including lawyers on both sides, some of the jury, and the judge -- "who've been brought together by the case."
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