TCA press tour: ‘Damages’ meets ‘Deadwood’

New to the second season of FX’s “Damages” (now in production for January) is Timothy Olyphant, who starred as marshal Seth Bullock in HBO’s “Deadwood” and is almost unrecognizable here in short hair and modern clothes. (He’s pictured here with Tate Donovan, left, and Ted Danson.)

Olyphant’s first question is about “Deadwood,” and he says he’s not really surprised that the movies didn’t happen Comparing “Deadwood” and “Damages,” he says, “When these guys talk, I understand what they’re saying.” In “Damages,” Olyphant (who was in St. Louis for that movie “Meet Bill”) plays a guy who bonds with Ellen (Rose Byrne) in her post-traumatic stress support group — but you know there’s more to him than that.

Vague enough? The “Damages” panel is obsessively vague. Three executive producers on the panel and not a real answer among them. Even though Ted Danson is here, and the head of FX previously told us he’ll return as a regular this season, they won’t even confirm that Arthur Frobisher lives. In fact, the most common answer to any question about what’s what and who’s who is “we don’t know.” Luckily, one of the three jumps in to explain that “we” means the audience; the producers actually know where the new season is going. They swear.

Where it’s going, apparently, is to a showdown between Ellen and Patty (Glenn Close) as Ellen seeks revenge. In a clip (FX didn’t screen anything from the new season, just the Season 1 finale), we see Ellen asking to wear a wire.

William Hurt plays Daniel Purcell who seeks Patty’s help for some unspecified legal wrangling. And Marcia Gay Harden has just been cast as a high-powered attorney who goes up against Patty, again over some unspecified issues.