Damages: What's to Come in Season Two?
Last night the Olay Emmy Screening series continued with a Damages panel, moderated by my friend Kate Aurthur (if you have a chance, check her out at the L.A. Times’ Showtracker blog).
Since many of you have been asking what’s ahead for season two (launching in January on FX), I caught up with Damages creators Daniel Zelman and Todd Kessler to find out when production begins, where to look for new characters and the future of Ellen vs. Patty…
Daniel Zelman, executive producer
In the first season there were a lot of deaths, so I have to imagine there are new characters coming in?
There will definitely be two or three new characters. Patty will be taking on a new case at some point, and there will be an attorney she’s up against at some point. Not all of the new characters will necessarily be in the first episode, but they will be introduced in the first few episodes.
Are we getting some characters on the FBI side of things now that we’re kind of digging into Patty’s investigation?
The FBI characters we saw last year will be back. Eventually, we may see more of their world, not immediately, but eventually.
Is there any chance of seeing Ray Fiske again or of seeing David Connor again?
Definitely. Nothing on our show is impossible. I wouldn’t rule out any of them.
What do you think the fans will be excited about in season two?
The thing to be excited about is the dynamic between Patty and Ellen. It’s so completely different; it’s been turned upside down. Ellen’s working for the feds and is an informant. When the season begins she’s trying to take Patty down and that creates a totally different theme from last season.
So, is Patty going to find out this season that Ellen’s…
We’ll see. That’s going to be a season-long theme. There are two questions at the beginning of the second season: Is Ellen going to be successful in taking Patty down? And, Is Patty going to find out she’s trying to?
Todd Kessler, executive producer
What can you tell us about season two?
We start production in three weeks. Patty will have a new case this season, which will potentially feel like two cases. There’ll be different entry points for an audience, so it’s not going to be like if you don’t watch it from the first episode, you shouldn’t watch it until you get the DVD. It’ll be more easily accessible.
Any guest stars you would just love to have on the show?
That’s a good question. Yeah, there are a lot of great actors in New York, and we’re talking to many of them to come on the show. Probably in the next 10 days there will be an announcement about who’s joining us for the season.
What are some of the elements that come into bringing Patty down?
It plays off the questions of does Patty know Ellen’s an informant? Does Ellen think that Patty is suspicious of her? There’s a lot of inherent drama in that because part of the world of being an informant is always being paranoid. Did I screw up? They looked at me, or they asked me what I did last night. What do they know?
Will anyone else know she’s an informant?
That’s something that we can’t quite talk about yet.
—Additional reporting by Natalie Abrams
Mad Genius Matt Weiner Talks About the Men, Their Ladies and Season Two
Last night, I hit the TheEnvelope.com’s Olay-sponsored Emmy Screening Series in Hollywood to stalk see Mad Men stars Jon Hamm, January Jones, Elisabeth Moss, Christina Hendricks, Robert Morse and Vincent Kartheiser, along with the brain behind the show, creator Matt Weiner.
So what did the cast spill, and what’s gonna go down in the new season starting July 27 on AMC? Click in to find out!
Betty on Top? January Jones says there may be a glimmer of hope for her frustrated housewife alter ego: “I think that you see her slowly become a little stronger…and coming to [terms with] the fact within herself that she has no one. I think that’s why the scene with the little boy Glen at the end [of season one] was so sad…She has a best friend, a husband, children and a therapist, [all of] whom she’s supposed to be able to trust, but she can’t.” Aww, poor Betty. Let momma give you a hug!
Peggy and the Pregnancy…and the Pounds: According to Elisabeth Moss, when Matt Weiner told her about Peggy Olson’s season-one storyline, he started off with an involved psychological explanation, about “how she tries to emasculate herself and fit in somehow, the only way she knows how.” So it was not until the very end of the pitch that he revealed the bit about the character’s secret pregnancy and accompanying weight gain. In response to that little revelation, Moss said her jaw just dropped. Weiner, however, remembers it differently: “You’re a great actress, but you were like, ’Come on, how fat are we talking!?’ “
Rust Lust: Flame-haired beauty Christina Hendricks said she herself has wondered how her character Joan can be such a be-yotch. ”Sometimes when I get the scripts I immediately call Matt and go, ’Why am I so horrible? Why am I such a monster?’ And then we talk it through, [and] she thinks she is doing good. She wants to help the system run smoothly.”
From Suffrage Straight to Suffering: Even though Sterling Cooper voted for Richard Nixon in the 1960 presidential election, don’t assume that means anything about Weiner’s personal politics. He told the crowd, “I come from a hard-core Nixon-hating family…When Nixon died, my mom said, ’It’s just too little too late!’ “
Funny Footnote to Fake History: For when you launch that Mad Men Wiki, please note that according to Weiner, the characters’ ages circa season one are as follows: Don is “mid-30s,” Betty is 28, Peggy is 20, Joan is “older than Peggy” and Vincent Kartheiser’s diabolical yet darling Pete is 26. (P.S. This footnote really was just an excuse to plop in a photo of Vincent, formerly Angel’s spawn on Angel, whom one of my colleagues has a mad crush on. Shhhh…)
What’s To Come: So…about that second season starting up next month? When I grabbed a little face time with Matt Weiner and asked just that, he said, “All I can tell you is it’s going to be later in their lives, and it’s the next stage in where they are, but people don’t change…And I will not ignore the consequences from last year—they are part of it. I did not pretend like they didn’t happen.”
What questions do you want to see answered when the show returns? Post in the comments!