Cheers & Jeers: Royal Pains Does Damages

Cheers to Royal Painsfor keeping the spirit of Damages alive. FX may not have renewed its superb legal thriller, but two of its alums have found summer jobs on USA's breezy medical dramedy. Campbell Scott, so chilling as Joe Tobin—the WASP Michael Corleone—on Season 3 of Damages, has reprised his recurring Royal Pains role as Boris, the cagey billionaire with a mysterious ailment. After his breakthrough roles in the terminal-disease dramas Longtime Companion(1989) and Dying Young (1991), Scott's mostly been cast in dead-serious roles, and he looks like he's having a ball with Boris' unplaceably silly Euro-accent. Meanwhile, Oscar winner Marcia Gay Harden (Pollock)—aka Damages' Season 2 corporate shark Claire Maddox—has joined Hamptons Heritage Hospital's staff as Elizabeth Blair, an imperious surgeon who's giving do-gooder Dr. Jill Casey (Jill Flint) a severe case of agita. Now if Royal Pains would just hire Martin Short and Lily Tomlin, Damages' apparent demise might hurt a little less...

Is Royal Pains the cure for what ails you?

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