[DMG] Hey! Mr. Pibb!

TV Programme: Damages
Season: 2
Episode: 4
Date I watched this episode: 29/01/2009
Time since I last watched this programme: 7 days.

The 4th episode of Damages is not a particularly exciting prospect. I am at the stage where I was cautiously hopeful that the story would finally move in a different direction this week, but I was sadly mistaken.

Once again, a fairly predictable episode focussing on procedural stories, like Michael finding out Danny is his father, or the search for Josh. Not much action or drama. Danny Purcell is mucking about as usual. Ellen and Tom went on a road trip, which could have been quite fun, but the chemistry between the characters seemed basically zero. Still a lot of the unanswered questions weren't even touched upon (we did get a short, seemingly pointless shot of room 1910, but it almost seemed like a time filler); the FBI were not in it at all.

Even the Maddox vs Hewes court scene didn't work for me. Although Danny's reaction was unexpected, the scene in general felt a bit like a stock scene. Think back to season 1 and there were some great courtroom moments like Katie Connor's testimony (I notice that Katie is nowhere to be seen, again). Maddox is kinda hot though so it made up for it slightly.

The opening dream sequence was a rather pointless venture. Damages likes dreams; remember the one in season 1 which Patty had and recounted to Michael? There is a similar dream in this episode, supposedly showing Phil's "paralyzing fear of death" - again, irrelevant. We get that Danny is upset over his wife, and thinks he could have saved her. But this dream doesn't add anything to that, and almost seems like a bit of an excuse for an opening scene.

I think the final scene was okay compared to previous weeks. The shock that Danny was complicit in his wife's death was unexpected and well-done. (There is a WTF moment!) The in-episode story played out very procedurally though, it didn't keep you guessing which meant you had almost fallen asleep by the time you'd got to the twist.

In general this episode had a lot of long scenes which played out slowly and tried to rely on quirks (like Patty's dog barking around her heels) to carry them. This is not the style of Damages. It seems to be trying to be like a Jane Austen novel, rather than a thriller TV series.

I have to mention the title, as always. I didn't realise this but "Mr. Pibb" is a drink distributed in the USA. Tom speaks the eponymous line to Ellen. So I got that wrong. Next week's is "I agree, it wasn't funny". I'm guessing Patty for this one. Perhaps Danny is the receipient.

I think that as we are now about a third of the way through the season, it should be well on its way. It isn't, and unless it starts to deliver soon, it will have to rush through the core story in its remaining episodes.