‘Damages,’ 10 p.m. FX

“Damages,” the FX network’s new series starring Glenn Close that premieres tonight, is no “L.A. Law.” That NBC series ran from 1986 to ’94 and proved that the personal and office lives of lawyers are far more interesting than their courtroom maneuvers.

In the new series, Patty Hewes (Close) collects big damage awards for her clients in court but she inflicts more severe and lasting damage on her colleagues and loved ones. Ellen Parsons (Rose Byrne) is the young associate Hewes hires fresh out of law school, who has the audacity to expect she can have a life outside of work with her medical student boyfriend, David Connor (Noah Bean), and his sister Katie Connor (Anastasia Griffith), a budding restaurateur.

Thrown into this stew are the men who spin in Hewes’ orbit – her “Number One,” Tom Shayes (Tate Donovan), her husband, Phil Grey (Michael Nouri), her nemesis, Arthur Frobisher (Ted Danson), and his attorney, Ray Fiske (Zeljko Ivanek).

The first episode, the only one offered for preview, begins with a young woman who turns out to be Ellen Parsons running into a busy urban street covered in blood, wearing nothing but a trench coat. The next scene goes back in time six months, when Parsons first goes to work for Hewes and is handed boxes of discovery in a class-action lawsuit filed by billionaire Frobisher’s ex-workers who believe he stole their savings and pensions. Danson steals the few scenes he’s in as the mogul who avoided federal prison only to find himself besieged by his former employees.

Created by Todd A. Kessler, Glenn Kessler and Daniel Zelman, “Damages” simply does not have the eclectic mix of characters or skewed view of and respect for the American legal system that Stephen Bochco, “L.A. Law’s” creator, had. The Kessler brothers’ writing credits include “The Sopranos” and Michael Mann’s acclaimed “Robbery Homicide Division.” Zelman, a former actor and husband to Debra Messing of “Will and Grace” fame, has penned seven screenplays.

Surely this trio is capable of better material than this drivel. They also should know that viewers come back season after season to see characters, not plot, evolve. People aren’t going to tune in week after week to learn how Parsons got so bloody or why there’s a dead body in her shower. We want to know how Hewes’ heart got so hard and who can melt it.

Close proved in her one season stint on “The Shield” two years ago that she could conquer the small screen. Yet as fine an actress as she is, she can’t overcome material this bad. As written, Hewes is a one-dimensional character, intent only on destroying those around her.

The actress’ skills and experience add one more layer, but until the writers figure out who the woman is and give Close the words to portray her, she will never be more than a cardboard cutout.

The writers need to either push Hewes over the top so Close can channel characters she has portrayed before, such as Norma Desmond in “Sunset Boulevard” or Cruella de Vil from “102 Dalmatians,” or give her some depth. A woman who’s a bigger cutthroat lawyer than her male colleagues just isn’t novel anymore.

With the deadly dreary “Dirt,” which premiered in January and unfortunately has been renewed, and now “Damages,” the FX Network seems to have lost its razor-sharp edge that still is evident in “The Shield,” “Nip/Tuck” and “Rescue Me.”