Casting against type - in Damages

Damages is known, or at least known to me, for casting against type - in most roles except for the main one, protagonist legal sharpie Patti Hewes (Glenn Close), and in Season 4 these casting decisions are for me some of the highlights of the show: John Goodman makes a terrific evil corporate pseudo-patriot fake-religio thug - he's the CEO of a company that provides private security forces for the U.S. war zones, and despite his religious, family-values mumbo-jumbo he's willing to beat or kill - or, more accurately, have killed - American citizens to protect his corporate welfare. Damages similarly cast Ted Danson as an evil corporate giant in earlier seasons, and made a soft-spoken bearded plainclothes detective who looked like a philosophy grad student the cold-blooded executioner of Season 1. Alongside Goodman in Season 4 is a CIA agent played by someone not known to me - but he seems more like a down and out country musician than our image of a pro spy. Season 4 is maybe moving a little more slowly that the first season or two - in my view, too many long scenes that dwell on moments, that allow Close too many speech mannerisms, and that don't move the plot along rapidly enough - compare with The Wire, the gold standard, about which daughter J points out there is not a single moment that you can cut or live without. Not true in Damages - but still, it's a taut plot that keeps you thinking and guessing and has a few surprises along the way. Rose Byrnes has really matured in this season, and for the first time you can accept that she actually may rise to be Patti's heir apparent - or rival.