Will I look any nastier in Blu-ray?
(Photo from TVGuide.com)

The first season of the Glenn Close series arrives on Jan. 29 in standard DVD and Blu-ray. The series has also been renewed for two more seasons, although I don't expect to watch much.

Details after the jump …

Here's the release:

Damages: The Complete First Season, with all 13 episodes of FX's engrossing legal thriller, debuts on DVD January 29 from Sony Pictures Home Entertainment. Academy Award nominee Glenn Close (101 Dalmatians, Dangerous Liaisons) stars in the compelling drama, along with Ted Danson (TV's "Becker"), Rose Byrne (Marie Antoinette) and Tate Donovan (Good Night & Good Luck). Having just been picked up by FX for two more seasons, Damages now arrives on a three-disc DVD and Blu-ray High-Def disc, both with exclusive bonus content, including behind the scenes featurettes. Damages: The Complete First Season DVD will be available for $49.95 SRP, while the Blu-ray High-Def release will sell for $79.95 SRP

DVD and Blu-ray Disc Special Features Include:
Digitally Remastered Audio and Video
Widescreen Presentations
Featurette: Willful Acts
Featurette: Behind-the-Scenes
Featurette: Understanding Class Action
Featurette: Trust No One
Deleted Scenes and Bloopers
Audio Commentaries on select episodes
Audio: English 5.1 (Dolby Digital)
Subtitles: French
Bonus Previews
Closed Captioned

My review of "High School Musical 2" is here. My review of "Superbad" is here.

After the jump, Barry Corbin, and the perils of magazine deadlines … and a new part 2, with "Damages," "Mad Men," "Rescue Me" (so beware of spoilers if you haven't caught up)…

Barry Corbin finally appear as Brenda's father on "The Closer," and what fun it was. He is such a solid actor, able to play the comedy and drama in a character, sometimes within the same scene. He can, as he did on "The Closer," intimidate another character (in this case, Fritz), then make it a joke — and still make you remember the intimidation even as he is smiling. All that, and him playing off both Kyra Sedgwick and Frances Sternhagen. TV heaven, dropped in a sturdy episode. (The elevator scene!)

Talking to some of the "Closer" fans around my office, though, reminded me of the varieties of viewing habits. They were surprised to see Corbin's bald head, since they remembered him in the main from "Northern Exposure," where he had hair. But I;m sure there are other viewers — like my bride – who think of him the way he looked on "The Closer," because it is close to the way he looks on "One Tree Hill."

I made a magazine run last night, mainly to check on the Allure and OK! pieces about Britney Spears. (This is, after all, part of my pop culture mandate.) And while doing so, I began thinking about an item for tomorrow's HeldenFiles, probably to be called "Fun at the Newsstand."

And what was that fun? Well, there was Lindsay Lohan on the cover of the September issue of Elle, with the quote "I'm glad I went to rehab." But, as the magazine notes in the article, it's from an interview done just before her Memorial Day disaster, and the ensuing trip to rehab (which are at least described in the text with the interview) — and therefore well before her most recent troubles and her current reported stint in a Utah facility.

Then there's the Summer 2007 issue of In Style Weddings. Jennifer Morrison of "House" on the cover. Lovey-dovey pictures inside of Morrison and co-star/fiance Jesse Spencer. Description of wedding plans, discussion of The Dress.

They called off the engagement this week.

Part 2: I've been doing some catchup this weekend, for the past week's "Damages," "Rescue Me" and "Mad Men." I also have a couple of upcoming "Mad Men" I may get so, although our Viewing Of The Day is the forthcoming DVD of "Heroes."

I'm still watching "Damages" because I keep expecting it to get better. And every now and then there's something I like a great deal, like the look on Ted Danson's face when he talks about the cost of shipping a grenade. But I still think it's mainly implausible melodrama, and a clunky one at that. The time shifts from the present day (post killing) to the past (case in progress) and even to the deeper past (Florida) are just distracting; once the killing was established in the first episode, it should have settled for a more linear narrative from the case to the present day. The everybody's-got-secrets subtext is overworked, too, mainly because the secrets so far just aren't that interesting. But Glenn Close is growing on me, her behavioral tics seeming more understandable — at least, if we accept the idea that she is crazy as a bedbug. "Damages" has come one of those big potboiler novels that I'm determined to finish, even if doing so isn't all that enjoyable.

"Mad Men," in contrast, is just plain terrific. It also involves a world full of secrets, in particular those of Don Draper (the superb Jon Hamm), who has changed his name and abandoned his old life — including, we now know, an adoring younger brother. The story of Don and his wife Betty (January Jones) by itself is enough to carry a pretty good show, but the weaving in of other characters and stories remains strong. And unlike "Damages," where I feel as if I'm constantly having to fit someone new into the fabric, "Mad Men" does not overburden us in a given week by trying to tell too many stories.

Then there's "Rescue Me." For a moment this week, it had me — in the scene where Tommy is sitting on the rooftop and talking about what it means to bury your child. coming after we've gotten to the depth of Mike the ex-probie's pain. There was also the sheer amusement of the looks on Lou and Franco when they finally see what the new chief has been rumored to have. But I'm still not feeling that great old "Rescue Me" vibe. The intervention scene never quite worked. The baby-kidnapping — or was it a baby-un-kidnapping? — felt fake. The Gina Gershon scene, pointless. More and more this seems like one of those shows that had a season or two of greatness and now just can't figure out how to quit.

"Saving Grace," "The Closer," "Damages" and tonight's "Rescue Me," after the jump …

I was bummed by this week's "Closer," where the shooter seemed fairly obvious early on, and Brenda's medical condition is being dragged out to annoying length. I could at least forgive the weak mystery if there was something on the characters' personal side to think about, but there wasn't much of that either. Best thing about the episode was the way the other detectives tried to figure out how to deal with Brenda — reminding us that they admire her, but they're also afraid of her.

"Saving Grace's" climactic shooting was something of a surprise, although it wouldn't have been if I had read the press material — noting the arrival of the new boss — more carefully. But even if such shootings have become a shopworn cop-show device, I like "Grace" enough that I will be back for more episodes with genuine curiosity. Does a new boss mean more conflict for Grace, or more sympathy?

Watched a second "Damages" and found it more entertaining than the first. But I looked at it that way by putting aside any notion that this is a serious, credible drama and accepting it as an over-the-top, anything-can-happen melodrama, the kind where characters can change on a dime to keep people guessing and the plot going, but you don't see the different behaviors as part of a fully drawn character. (Have we seen anything up to this point to explain Ted Danson's little backseat dalliance? Does Glenn Close have a back room full of goodies — apartment keys, puppies — to ingratiate herself with?) Basically popcorn television, but I'm more inclined to watch again than I was after that slowwwwww premiere.

I have already seen tonight's "Rescue Me," and it ends with the sort of cliffhanger where I don't believe for a second that there's more than one outcome. The show continues its creative struggle, and it's losing the fight.

Yesterday I went to the wedding of the Black Keys' Pat Carney and Denise Grollmus. You can find a few notes, as well as photos, here.

The evening was devoted to TV viewing in what turned into a tough-women marathon: Monday's new episode of "The Closer," the premiere of the new series "Damages" (starting July 24 on FX) and two episodes of the new series "Saving Grace" (July 23 on TNT, in the post-"Closer" time slot). …

"The Closer," you should know, stars Kyra Sedgwick as L.A. homicide ace Brenda Johnson. It's a show that has been very adept at blending gritty drama with comedy — I have found myself laughing quite a bit at the third season's episodes — but Monday's telecast puts Brenda's comical personal life aside, to get very heavy on the drama, about a missing girl and a sex criminal suspected of having a hand in the case.

I don't want to get into too many details (except, perhaps, to urge you to be sure you're recording the whole thing — it's an extended episode). But not only is Sedgwick good, as usual, but it's a solid showcase for Corey Reynolds (who plays Gabriel). And Robert Gossett, as Taylor, once again gets to play a side of a character who is one of the show's most complicated — ambitious, a tad unscrupulous, but very, very smart about police ways.

That said, this is also a very disturbing episode, dealing not only with the ugliness of a certain kind of crime but layering a singularly creepy kind of racism on top of it. Still, it's a very good show.

I was looking forward to "Damages," which stars Glenn Close as the high-profile boss of a prominent New York City law firm. Close knows her onions, after all, and was so very good in her short run on "The Shield." The cast here is sold, with Tate Donovan making some strong early appearances, and I was looking forward to Ted Danson's moves as the villain in the piece. And "Damages" tries to intrigue, starting with a key character in big trouble, then flashing back six months to show us how she got to the point where the show begins.

But while a twist near the end of the episode might get me back for another week, the "Damages" premiere overall felt flat — not so much overplayed as unplayed, as if everyone was trying to hard to be ambiguous that they ended up indicating no emotion at all. This was especially frustrating in some key scenes — such as a job interview with Close — that should have popped and instead just kind of sat there. The first time we see Danson, he should be bold and powerful, but he's just kind of blah.

This may seem weird, but when I was watching a little bit of "The Devil Wears Prada" during a morning cable-flip, I thought that Close was taking some notes from Meryl Streep: the deceptively low-key but icy way of conveying power. It's an idea that seems even more prominent when you get to the end of the "Damages" premiere, only Close in this situation is not as watchable as Street — or as herself in "The Shield" or "Fatal Attraction," where she played powerful and charming with a stronger current of aggression.

After the disappointment of "Damages," I might have been a little more primed to enjoy "Saving Grace," which stars Holly Hunter as an Oklahoma City police detective who finds herself in intense conversations with an angel.

I know, you're thinking "Touched by an Angel" and "Joan of Arcadia." "Saving Grace" leans closer to the latter, but with a grime and sexual swagger that make it much more adult. Where I loved "Joan" for its first season, I'm not quite as wild about "Grace." Still, I want to see more.

See, Grace is a mess. She screws around, and isn't too picky about the marital status of her partners. She drinks too much. She takes a pill or three. She has a wicked temper, and as tiny as Hunter is, you quickly realize that it would be a mistake to pick a fight with her.

Then, one night, drunk and driving home, she hits a pedestrian. And asks God for help. Which arrives in the form of a tobacco-chewing, pudgy, T-shirt wearing angel named Earl (Leon Rippy). Grace, we find, has been on the fast track to hell — and Earl has been hanging around, waiting for a chance to untrack her.

It won't be easy, for Grace or for Earl. But the show is perfectly comfortable in making it difficult for them, because it is also comfortable with the idea that an angel has come to help Grace — no coyness, strong faith, even when Grace is skeptical.

There are good things, including what becomes of that pedestrian Grace hits. Still, I'm not sure how long the show can sustain its balance of the faith story, Grace's personal issues and police exploits. (In the personal/police combination, you can see how this would fit well with "The Closer.") The second episode was not as good as the first, mainly because the police case was a lot less interesting than Grace's life, but also because of a shocker ending that feels too out of left field.

Even so, you've got a lot of good people at work — Hunter, Rippy, "The Shield's" Kenneth Johnson, Laura San Giacomo among them. And they've been given plenty to work with. I'll be back for the third episode in any case, to see the aftershock from the second show, and I'll be around for the fourth because I like just enough of the first two.