sallyann627
This show is gripping and well written, but I am watching Season 4 and groaning with how inaccurate Hollywood's understanding is of government contracting work. I am so tired of the portrayal of these companies as all being evil profiteers and what is especially annoying is the lack of research the writers did. In the script John Goodman's character says 'we're not the military; there is no death pay'. That is bullshit. The Dept of Labor requires Defense Base Act Work Comp benefits for all private contractors working for any US government agency and the benefits are extremely generous, much more than regular US Work Comp. The real criticism about these types of companies should go to the US Government itself who starts meaningless wars and puts out these contracts to hire private firms to do the operations, maintenance and security -all things they do NOT have soldiers doing ever. I believe we should end these wars and send our soldiers home. For those against private firms who can act unethically well blame the government for fostering this environment in the first place. Guess I'm skipping ahead to Season 5.
wembleyfm
I watched the first season in a day. Now, I'm not proud of binge- watching 13 episodes, but so gripping is season one, that I just had to keep watching. A twisting plot, brilliantly acted and with all the ingredients that make a compelling thriller. Glenn Close plays the main character to perfection, in some ways it was reminiscent of her "Fatal Attraction" role; she plays a cold, calculating, manipulative character with so much going on in her life that you wonder how her head doesn't explode. Rose Byrne plays her role to perfection as her life slowly spirals out of control. What makes this series so good is that the plot is so believable. Gripping stuff, I wonder how long season two will take me to watch!
classicalsteve
I'll review Season 1 since that's the only one I've seen. The first episode hooked and reeled me in straight-away, a cinematic fisherman hunting for viewer-ship game. In the first minutes we see the front of a high-rise apartment in New York. The color of the visuals are rather strange, a kind of washy yellow somewhat blurred. The camera then zooms to an elevator and a young woman, 30-ish, emerges, bloodied. She runs from the elevator, into the lobby, and out into the streets of New York. She's eventually found by law enforcement and brought to a precinct where she is held for questioning. Her name is Ellen Parsons (Rose Byrne), and she's a "plaintiff's attorney", a lawyer who represents clients who have civil grievances against other individuals, groups, corporations, even government agencies. She works for Hewes and Associates, a plaintiff law firm run by an effective but amoral attorney, Patricia "Patty" Hewes (Glenn Close), who uses ruthless tactics and endless negotiations to get the law suit outcomes she wants.A subtitle then states "6 Months Earlier". The blurriness disappears and the colors appear back to normal. This is how the series is organized. We flash back and forth between the events of "now", which is shown as yellow-blurred, while all flashbacks are shown in normal color, until by the series end, the two eventually merge. Parsons is being offered a job at a relatively prestigious law firm, but she turns down the offer, eventually working for Hewes and Associates. Hewes and Associates captained by the uncompromising Patty Hewes are involved in a class action law suit against a billionaire magnate, Arthur Frobisher (Ted Danson), brought by his former employees who accuse him of dumping millions of shares of the company stock, thereby making their stock options worthless. Also, we learn Parsons' soon-to-be sister-in-law, the brother of her fiancée, also has information and connections to Frobisher.The series moves between the two periods of time, the "now" and the "then", and more pieces of each part of the puzzle are revealed, although the only way to tell if we're in the past or the present is the visual look. In the present, we soon learn Parsons had been attacked at an apartment flat. At first we are led to believe the apartment is hers, but then we find out she was staying at the apartment belonging to Patty Hewes. We also learn she has not only been attacked but she's accused of murdering someone else. As the series progresses, the flashbacks move closer and closer in time to the "now". The series balances between interesting corporate intrigue, like you might find in "The Insider" to urban violence, similar to "The Firm" and "Michael Clayton". This is quite a compelling series from start to finish. Excellent performances by Rose Byrne as the young upstart attorney, Noah Bean as David Connor, Parsons' fiancée, Zeljko Ivanek as Ray Fiske, Frobisher's personal attorney, and Anastasia Griffith as Katie Connor, the future sister-in-law of Parsons. These are all "A" performances. The "A+" performances go to heavy hitters Glenn Close as Patricia Hewes and Ted Danson as Frobisher. I was particularly impressed with both actors in this series. The cutting stares and elongated silences of Close as Hewes practically draw blood, while Danson has a fascinating take on corporate magnate Frobisher, who flip-flops between moments of fair-minded reasonableness and ruthless detachment. Frobisher in particular is in constant denial about what he's doing, whether in work or pleasure, either cheating on his young wife or hiring hoodlums to carry out "dirty work". Similarly, we learn Hewes also plays a deadly game of lawsuit "cat and mouse", not only against her courtroom adversaries but even her own employees. I can't think of another actress who'd be able to play Hewes as effectively. This is an extremely well-written and well-acted series. The only reason I give it 9 stars instead of 10 is I felt the number of episodes were too many. The story probably could have been told in about 7 45-minute episodes but instead the producers opted for 13. There were a few episodes in the middle, around 5 through 9, where I was getting impatient to get to the final denouement, and it felt like the story was being drawn out unnecessarily. Some of the forward-flash scenes, the blurry ones, were repeated several times with little new information, and I felt just a bit frustrated. Still the ending of the first season was a satisfying ending with the plot twists revealed, making sense more or less. I'll have to try the second season at some point, although I may have to wait to "recover" from this one.
