(S03E03) "Tonight's been educational." - Patty

Educational it was, both for Patty Hewes and viewers alike, as last night's 'Damages' proved that it can tell one helluva narrative without any of those pesky "six months from now" flashes. 'Flight's at 11:08' isn't the first episode to put the back and forth, past/present/future jumps on the back-burner, but it is the earliest it's happened in a season. Normally, those narrative devices don't fade away until the climactic moment later in the season when everything collides. What we got instead was a bit of different angle for 'Damages' as last night's episode was driven by the characters and not the over-arching plot.

(S03E02) "Yeah, sure. That's Tommy. He's a good egg. I helped him, he helped me." - The Homeless Man

The questions kept flying tonight on 'Damages' as details from last week's stunning revelation continued to unfold -- in six months time, Tom Shayes is a dead man and now we have a better idea as to why. The only problem with that? There are still eleven episodes left, and assuming this season plays out like the first two, we're gonna have to wait until the last possible second for answers. Fortunately for us, there's plenty of other plots playing out as well.

(S03E01) "Do you think this could have been done to you on purpose?" - Det. Vic Huntley

Patty Hewes for the people? No way. In tonight's season three premiere of Damages, Patty (Glenn Close) may have been appointed by the government to recover billions of stolen assets from scheming financier Louis Tobin (Len Cariou), but let's be honest here -- this is Patty Hewes.

When her name is on the line, you better believe that's all that matters. She's set on finding all that money, but it's to make her look good and has nothing to do with the welfare of Tobin's thousands of victims. With a stellar record as of late (Frobisher and UNR), losing this battle would be a huge blow to Patty's public image. So, knowing all that, what do you think about Det. Huntley's question now? Could someone have tried to kill Patty on purpose?

Season three of the hit FX show 'Damages' premieres Monday, Jan. 25, at 10 PM ET. The legal thriller has a history of making us think things are going one way, and then spinning the story in a completely different direction.

The season two finale is a good example of that. All season long, we'd been teased about a showdown between Patty Hewes (Glenn Close) and Ellen Parsons (Rose Byrne). But did it turn out the way you thought it would?

If you haven't watched season two yet, read no further. Spoilers after the jump.

When Damages burst on to the TV scene in the summer of 2007, it turned everything upside down. Creators Glenn and Todd A. Kessler and Daniel Zelman took a tired television genre and re-invented it so well that it became hard to pigeonhole Damages in the very category that spawned it. It was so much more than a legal thriller and the drama's tense plotting and unique time shifting storytelling technique made the show worthy of scholarly debate -- blink and you'll miss something important.

Now entering its third season, Damages is prepped to turn the legal world on its head again when FX's superb thriller returns this Monday night, January 25, at 10 p.m. ET. Based on the first two episodes, Glenn Close and the rest of the top-notch cast make the same case that they did the previous two seasons -- this is must see, can't miss television.

This is Spoilers Anonymous, a weekly column here at TV Squad where we supply you with the dirt on some of the more popular shows on the air. We'll never put spoilers up here on the main page in order to help the reformed stay unspoiled. If you have anything to add to the group, feel free to step up and let yourself be heard, either with our tips form or by emailing us at tvsquad at gmail dot com, or call and leave a message at (775) 640-8479. Your anonymity is guaranteed, if you wish to remain as such.

This week we have spoilers for: 24, 30 Rock, Damages, Desperate Housewives, House, Lost, Melrose Place, Private Practice, and Ugly Betty. (SPOILERS FOLLOW!)

Hewes & Associates is getting bigger.

FX announced yesterday that season three of Damages, which returns to FX in January and begins filming today in New York, has added four big names to the cast. Martin Short and Campbell Scott have both signed on as regulars and Lily Tomlin and Keith Carradine are joining as guest stars.

This news has me really excited. Last season, after William Hurt, Marcia Gay Harden, John Doman, and Darrell Hammond all signed on, I said it was arguably one of the finest casts ever assembled for a TV drama. With these new names added to the roster, this season is shaping up to be just as good, if not better. The only thing missing from this news? Confirmation that Ted Danson will return for at least a few eps to reprise his role as Arthur Frobisher - hopefully, he'll be back as well.

Laura Linney has 'The C Word,' TNT renews 'Leverage,' 'American Idol' picks another guest judge and more of today's top TV headlines.

(S01E01) Never ever, ever go into work on your day off. It could just cost you your job. Especially if in doing so, the man who's name on the building dies and it in any way can be blamed on you. Just a friendly tip from the blogosphere. In these tough economic times, because I just had to start an article about a show set in the Hamptons with that, there's nothing better for people struggling to make ends meet than a show about people whose biggest struggle is ... well nothing, really.

I went into this show kind of expecting to be too annoyed by the fact that it's in the Hamptons to enjoy it, but dammit, I really started liking it. A big part of that is thanks to the dynamic between Mark Fuerstein and Paulo Costanza. Fuerstein, as Hank Lawson, is our lead who did the whole guy dying losing his job thing. And Constanza as his brother Evan, is the kind of guy who can breeze into a German Consulate's party with a bad accent and a fake ID.

Remember all that stuff about Six Degrees coming back? Never mind! ABC has pulled the show yet again. The show returned recently on Friday nights (which was a big surprise in itself), but almost no one watched. The show got terrible ratings. The move takes effect immediately. Something tells me this isn't a good sign for a second season.

So we have The Black Donnellys being pulled in favor of a reality show (The Real Wedding Crashers), and you're probably wondering what will replace Six Degrees in the time slot? That's right, a reality show! But this one is even more hard to take: they're replacing it with reruns of Wife Swap. Gah!

In other shows-going-on-hiatus news, David E. Kelley's The Wedding Bells has stopped production, though the remaining episodes will probably air. But don't hold your breath for a renewal.

A love triangle, a hidden pregnancy, Josh Charles, and a quickened plot is what awaits viewers who tune in to Six Degrees when it returns tonight on ABC at 9 pm. The series was pulled from the scheduled way back in November when it wasn't holding on to the Grey's Anatomy audience on Thursday nights. Created by J.J. Abrams, the drama is about six New Yorkers and how their lives intersect. The ensemble cast includes Bridget Moynahan, Campbell Scott, and Erika Christenson.

Only, in my opinion, it was slow. And boring. And apparently ABC thought so too, because it gave the executive producers a few mandates for the next seven episodes.

Mentioned briefly at the end of this story about the pregnancy of Bridget Moynahan, ex-girlfriend of New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady, is the fact that the writers of Six Degrees have no intention of writing her pregnancy into the series.

Whaaaa?

Yup, according to a Moynahan's spokesman, she is currently in New York City finishing up filming of Six Degrees. I really have no idea what this means, since the show hasn't been on in a while and it looked like it was a goner. I would say it's one of two things: everyone has contracts and the networks have made deals and they have to finish filming, or the show will come back to run the remaining episodes, either on TV or online, even though it's been canceled.

If a show that's been forgotten can come back from the dead, maybe they're filming new episodes of Eyes right now too?

Interesting piece in Slate today, on all of the TV shows on ABC that writer Troy Patterson calls a "nauseating lineup of yuppie dramas."

Which shows is he talking about? You can probably guess: Men In Trees, Brothers & Sisters, What About Brian, and Six Degrees. I think that Patterson's whole viewpoint can be summed up with this paragraph:

These shows share a view of the human mind modeled on Dr. Phil's and an aesthetic sense shamelessly cribbed from a Pottery Barn catalog. When you watch them, you're mostly watching people feel bad over beverages. Despite it's pseudo-literary ambitions, the genre's got a certain soap-operatic streak, and the soap's an orange-lavender bath wash.

Ouch.

I tried, I really tried.

I wanted to review Six Degrees, the new ABC Thursday night drama, but I couldn't even get through the second episode. The show is just too damn boring. I don't agree with the entire set-up of the show, as I mentioned in last week's review, and I still think there is exactly one story I'm even remotely interested in, and that's the plot involving Campbell Scott's messed up photographer character.

I'm not sure how much input executive producer J.J. Abrams has in the writing of the show, but there's nothing here that even remotely comes close to Alias, Felicity, or Lost.

I find myself drifting back to ER, even though I swore I wouldn't watch that show either after so many years of watching it. Those of you who are watching Six Degrees, is there something I'm missing?

(S01E01) This, by far, is the most disappointing new show of the season.

And it pains me to say that, because I like J.J. Abrams and I like stories with lots of characters set in New York City, but this show starts with a concept that turns out to be pretty damn bogus to start with and then does nothing with it.

Here's what's wrong with it.