When Damages first appeared on the small screen I made a point to watch it, then I forgot to. Years later I find myself sitting down watching the fourth season of the show for review and kicking myself for not having caught it sooner. Luckily the roots of the show are pretty easy to surmise even this late in the game and the fourth season works as a very easy stand alone season with a great fresh story and characters that evolve with you as you watch the show. So what was so great about Damages Season Four?

Season Four finds Ellen Parsons (Rose Byrne; Bridesmaids) off on her own trying to make a name for herself out from the shadow of Patty Hewes her Mentor/Frenemie (Glenn Close; Albert Nobbs). Parsons is obsessed with a civilian corporation called High Star Security that has been involved in many government defense contracts in the Middle East. The companies CEO Howard T. Erikson (John Goodman; Treme) is maneuvering hearings with congress while trying to balance out family and a botched mission that is the main plotline of the season. He is a bit of a clichéd character that represents the Christian fundamentalist patriot type but manages to maintain equilibrium through his trials and tribulations thanks in part to a CIA fixer named Jerry Boorman (Dylan Baker; The Good Wife).

I’m such a sucker for an anti-hero, which in some light Boorman really is. A staunch patriot who thirves in getting his hands bloody under the ideology that everything he does, right or wrong, he does it for love of country. Boorman is Erikson’s characters anchor in that he challenges Erikson’s faith, morals, civil minded mannerisms with a lack of prejudice in the way he handles keeping Erikson’s companies botched mission under wraps. Can you be the CEO of a corporation that survives by doing what no one else will while also allowing that same ideology to be put to the people under the umbarella of your own morallity? Wow, just mind blowing stuff there.

The connection in all this is a close friend of Parsons named Chris Sanchez (Chris Messina; Fairhaven), a former soldier who worked for High Star on said botched mission. Messina is incredibly potent as Sanchez giving life to his character and validity to the overall plotline of the season. I’ve seen him in plenty of films and TV but I think this is the first time I’ve actually been blown away by his acting skills. He really does bring it all together. It’s heartbreaking to see his life in flashbacks, though the show is fantastic alone this aspect really is the carrot on the stick, and to know that while Parsons really does have a kindling of compassion for his situation she really is just in it for herself as far as keeping him close and safe.

Fortunately for me the first three season of this show are on Netflix so I’m going to have to back step and watch them all, but even if you haven’t been with the show since day one this season is fantastic all on its own. The characters are riveting, the writing massively ingenious, and the execution of every episode leaves you wishing that you could watch every episode back to back until you reached the conclusion of the season. Darn having a pesky job or people who need your attention. So worth checking out.