Time for a third-episode verdict on TNT's Leverage then. After a good start, the show has continued to maintain its relatively high standards. Episode two tried to go for a slightly harder edge, with an Iraq veteran being cheated out of his rehabilitation money by government contractors and crooked politicians.
Episode three went with something a little more personal and more interesting, with Christian Kane's character returning home to Kentucky to deal with a racehorse owner who kills horses for the insurance money. High mark of the overly complicated episode is the introduction of the show's Professor Moriarty: fellow insurance investigator Mark Sheppard (BSG, The X-Files, Bionic Woman, etc), who's scheduled to appear in at least five episodes. Sheppard is adept at the cons and investigations as Hutton but is on the right (?) side of the law, and makes an interesting addition to a show that was in slight danger of repetition and losing tension in the long run.
Most of my initial criticisms remain: it's not very hard hitting, the cons are easy to spot a mile off and there's a fair bit of duff acting. Add to that Gina Bellman's less than outstanding attempts at accents, a decreasing amount of the character interplay from the pilot and the fact that most of the cons have relied on something being obviously switched at the last moment. It's also not especially memorable, so you never really remember the cleverness of the cons or much of the plot in the same way as you do with Ocean's 11, say.
But it's still very fun to watch. The cast are all pretty charismatic and there's an intriguing randomness and weirdness to its sense of humour (one character has a fear of horses because "they murder clowns" and there's a flashback to Kane being tortured because he wouldn't reveal the location of a monkey, for example).
Worth watching if you want some diverting, not too heavy entertainment of an evening.
Carusometer rating: 2
Predictions: Should last at least season
Related entries
- January 23, 2009: The closest Gina Bellman will probably get to being on Doctor Who
A Doctor Who reference and a half on Leverage - February 27, 2009: Season finale: Leverage
A review of the first season of TNT's Leverage, including its season finale
December 22, 2008 | Reply
Being on a cabler (sorry for the Variety lingo), 'Leverage' may not have to face the mandate to play big as much as the network shows do. So I think it has a good shot - should the episodes keep delivering - of making it into another season. More than I thought 'Saving Grace' would (on the same network), and that's been picked up.
Man, I'd love to see this team go to Miami, team up with Jeffrey Donovan of 'Burn Notice', and pull a con right under Horation Caine's freckled nose!
January 23, 2009 | Reply
Mark Sheppard was great.
What I really enjoyed was that Hardison was illegally downloading episodes of a certain British scifi show aimed at the tween audience and above in an episode that I don't think you've seen yet. It's just a second of dialog, not a spoiler, but you'll get a kick out of it.
What is really surprising me is the locations they are using to shoot around LA, many within walking distance of my old place.
The show is much fun. I'm even prone to forgive Dean Devlin for being involved in the marketing of that new Sharp HDTV that made it seem like there was some TV series coming up I had not heard about.
Scarlett indeed.
January 23, 2009 | Reply
That was last week's, and I was only mentioning the same to Toby on his blog a moment ago. It was the fully monty of Who references this week, as you might have noticed from another entry.
Scarlet was annoying wasn't it, even if the series it was supposedly promoting didn't look all that great, but might have been watchable ;-)