DAMAGES premiers Tuesday, July 24th on FX and I have 4 words for you all. MUST SEE FRAKKIN’ TV! This is not your parent’s procedural or crime drama; DAMAGES is an intense, involved, smart and really dark psychological thriller.

Glenn Close heads up the stellar cast which includes Rose Byrne, Ted Danson, Tate Donovan, Zeljko Ivanek, Casey Siemasko and more. Ruthless barely scratches the surface of how you would describe the high powered litigator Close plays. Patty Hewes can be compared to Meryl Streep’s sinister Miranda Priestly in The Devil Wears Prada but in doing so it almost weakens the character of Patty Hewes. Yeah, she’s that hardcore.

DAMAGES is a legal thriller set in the world of New York City high-stakes litigation. The series, which provides a view into the true nature of power and success, follows the turbulent lives of Patty Hewes, the nation’s most revered and reviled high-stakes litigator, and her bright, ambitious, protégé Ellen Parsons as they become embroiled in a class action lawsuit targeting the allegedly corrupt Arthur Frobisher, one of the country’s wealthiest CEOs. As Patty battles with Frobisher and his attorney Ray Fiske, Ellen Parsons will be front and center witnessing just what it takes to win at all costs, as it quickly becomes clear that lives, as well as fortunes, may be at stake.

That’s the description the network has released for the show. What it doesn’t tell you is that the Frobisher case is only the tip of the iceberg. This will not be a case of the week show. There is a central case with a very dark overarching mystery tied into every character on the show not to mention the high profile Frobisher case.

SPOILERS AHEAD

The show starts with some time-twisting shots (smoke going backwards, time going backwards, etc.) that just get tighter and tighter on an elevator. The door opens revealing Ellen Parsons in a green overcoat and covered head to toe in blood and she goes stumbling into the streets of NYC. Next she’s in an interrogation room, can’t speak and all the police have to go on in identifying her is a business card.

Time jumps 6 months and the show continues or does it begin (?) with Ellen Parsons being offered a high paying litigation job with one company, telling them she’s got an interview with Patty Hewes and then being warned by the head of the offering firm that Ellen will lose her soul to Patty.

Jump a little and Ellen’s supposed interview with Patty Hewes gets bumped to the day of her sister’s wedding but Hewes’ firm could care less. It’s the interview of a lifetime or her sister’s wedding. She chose the family and lost her chance at the biggest and highest powered firm in town.

Guess who shows up at the wedding? Glenn Close’s character herself, Patty Hewes. She had to meet the woman that turned her down face to face. After some witty banter Ellen’s hired on the spot and here’s where the story gets twisted and I WILL NOT SPOIL ANYMORE FOR YOU!

As the first hour of the premiere unfolds you get an idea of how incredible the writing is, the perfect pacing, the superb acting, and how big and involved they’ve set this show up to be. FX is not joking with this show. It’s strong, it’s intense and it’s balls to the wall and people are going to freak out when they see it. It’s quite amazing how twisted this tale is going to get and I cannot wait to fill the rest of my summer with this masterpiece.

I’ll stop now and let you guys watch the premiere on FX and I’ll post my thoughts on Episode 2 soon but in the meantime know this… I sat there with my hand over my mouth in shock for the final minute of the premeire. **Set your DVRs to record an extra couple minutes because I think that the premiere runs 5 minutes over.

DAMAGES premieres Tuesday, July 24th at 10pm on FX.