Poor old Glenn Close.

Ever since 1987, the woman has repeatedly fallen victim to that most manipulative of movie marketer’s tools – the typecast.

In real life, Glenn was born in leafy, preppy Connecticut and attended boarding school in Switzerland. But thanks to her murderous turn as deranged bunny-boiler Alex Forrest in Fatal Attraction, she will forever be evil with a capital E.

At least to us, the viewing public, who know her so well.

I wonder if she ever laments her lot. Does she ever get pissed off at always being offered the villain roles?

Maybe late at night, when she is all alone, sipping fine cognac from even finer crystal while sitting in a wing-backed chair upholstered in burgundy velvet in, say, the library of her heritage New York brownstone.

Some nights, does she drink too much? Does the brandy fuel her mutterings into a slow combustion until they flare up into a bushfire of verbal despair: “Why did I take that part? Why???”

The worst bit of it all – and she knows this – is that she was the fourth choice to play Alex. Yes, the directors wanted Debra Winger first, then Barbara Hershey and then Miranda Richardson, before finally settling on Glenn.

Glenn wasn’t to know it then, but that part would act as the first teeny snowflake of an eventual snowball (made of black ice, of course, not white) that would swell and swirl and grow enormous, thanks to roles such as Cruella de Vil in 101 Dalmatians, Stepford Wife Claire, Norma Desmond in Sunset Boulevard, ruthless bitch Alicia in The Paper and even the slightly psychotic Gertrude in Mel Gibson’s Hamlet.

And now she has Patty Hewes to add to her wonderful catalogue of villainesses.

Patty is one of the intriguing central characters in Damages (WIN, Sundays and Wednesdays, 9.30pm).

I had read about this show, which premiered in the US in July, a few weeks before it was due on Australian air. And as soon as my eyes crossed over the words “legal” and “drama”, I almost turned the page quicker than you could say, “Jeez, not another one!”

But I didn’t turn the page, for two reasons – Aussie Rose Byrne and everybody’s favourite psycho Glenn Close.

There they are, two top-shelf film actresses side, by side in a TV show.

That’s right, a TV show.

This is cinema in your lounge-room … and that’s not a sales pitch for an upgrade to your surround sound.

This is quality – preppy Connecticut, New York brownstone quality – and it drips off every exquisite frame.

Watching this show, I started to feel giddy, like I’d walked out of the supermarket with two loaves of bread, having accidentally been charged for only one.

Byrne is doe-eyed and dazzling as Ellen, a fresh-faced law graduate lured to Patty Hewes’ firm after some aggressive courting by the lady herself.

What are Hewes’ intentions? They will become clear enough soon enough – or will they?

There is a case, a big case, involving a mega-rich and possibly corrupt CEO, dodgy dealings, hits and pay-offs – all writhing about in a web of deceit, intrigue, fear and panic.

Parts of this reminded me of the The Firm, where Tom Cruise’s character was swallowed by that creepy legal outfit hellbent on control, as well as Erin Brokovich and even American Psycho, as we are given an uncomfortable insight into the world of “high-stakes litigation”.

No, this is not another Law and Order. Damages will prove a law unto itself as ground-breaking television.

And, at last, WIN/Nine might have a hit on its hands.

— REBECCA MARSHALL

Did you see Damages on Sunday night? If so, what did you think of this new "high-stakes" legal drama? Will you be tuning in again to tonight's episode?