Damages

In approaching this, the first thing you have to come to terms with is there are NO good guys, none, zero, zip, nada. This is a legal fantasy show set in a moral universe far closer to Tony Soprano's than Perry Mason's. Hewes and Associates isn't a real law firm: it's a professional practitioner of extortion and blackmail. Patty Hewes never goes to court because she'll do absolutely anything to destroy her opponents long before they can get her into one. We're supposed to give her a pass because she's taking on big-time corporate criminals and other easy-to-hate plutocrats. And we do...but there's this lingering bad taste you can't quite shake off and that's the real genius of the thing.

Damages may be the most morally bankrupt show on TV; it's also incredibly well-acted and despite a non-linear storytelling approach that I generally find tiring, superbly written and directed. Just don't go looking for any role models in this pit of vipers.