The Good Who Turns Bad but Not Ugly (Leverage)

Member Name: TheChocolateLady

Product:	Leverage
Date:	06/06/09 (99 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Interesting concept, good acting team, nice twists, not overly slick, lots of fun

Disadvantages: Not totally original, some things not totally believable

NOTE: This show is NOT running in the UK. However, the first season can be viewed, in its entirety by anyone in the world, completely for free, at the website noted in the "Technical Stuff" section, at the bottom of this review.

Back in 2004 in the UK there premiered a TV series called "Hustle" in which a group of con men (or con persons, to be precise) got together to pull off some cons on people who actually deserved to lose some of their loot. The group consisted of an older man leading a group of four people, who each had a specialty that helped pull the cons together. The show was very clever and continued for five seasons, with the last episode airing this past February. In 2007 when the first episode of the fourth season ran, the Oscar winning actor Timothy Hutton appeared un-credited.

Fast forward to December 2008 in the USA and a new TV series called "Leverage" comes on to the American screens via the TNT network, starring none other than Timothy Hutton. In "Leverage", Hutton plays Nathan Ford, an ex-insurance fraud investigator who quit after the death of his son, because his own company wouldn't pay for the child's cancer treatment. Bitter and mostly drunk, he's approached by a man who had his airplane design stolen by a large, powerful rival. He wants Ford to head a team of three well-known thieves (who Ford caught during his investigations) to steal his design back. Ford only agrees to take on this job because the man's rival is insured by his Ford's old company, and what better way to take revenge on his old bosses than make them pay out, for once. Into the mix, Ford brings in a fourth member to the group, a good friend and con woman.

The parallels here are obvious. Both shows have a team of five people pulling off stings. Both use lots of glitz and technology to pull them off. Both groups have individuals with extra-special skills that make their working as a team essential to their success, despite their mutual distrust and preferences to work alone. Both include some morality in their immoral acts, since they only go after people who have hurt others and who can afford to get stung. Both teams are lead by famous actors ("Hustle" gets Robert Vaughn as their leader). In "Hustle" the original team is extended when Vaughn's character brings in a young man he is mentoring - much like Ford does with bringing in his friend Sophie Devereaux. Finally, both shows have complex scripts with many twists and good doses of humour tossed in.

The differences are actually very few. In "Hustle", the entire group seems to profit from these jobs, whereas in "Leverage" the main idea is for the team to be like a modern band of Robin Hood's merry men (and women), and aside from the first job, all the funds go back to the person they're helping. The "Hustle" team has only one woman, and "Leverage" gets two (but both have one black person as their token ethnic member). While the "Hustle" group is mostly made up of con artists, the "Leverage" group is headed by someone who started out retrieving stolen goods, and now is becoming someone he would have investigated himself. Moreover, he has to work with a weapons-thirsty mercenary, a computer hacking genius, an acrobatic burglar and an actress who can't act unless she's trying to con someone.

Of the actors in Hutton's team, British audiences may only recognize the last person in the group played by Gina Bellman who stared as Jane in the UK series "Coupling" and appeared in the mini-series "Jekyll" as Claire Jackman. American audiences might recognize the fighter Eliot Spencer here, played by Christian Kane who was on TV series "Angel" and "Close to Home". I have to admit that in the first episodes, the chemistry of this group wasn't very cohesive, and they all seemed a bit awkward together. Of course, the plus side to this is that the script called for them to be initially wary of each other, and reluctant to work together. As the episodes move on, however, the group becomes more united and they quickly become a real team.

Growing pains aside, one thing that bothers me a touch about this series is a few of the extraordinary talents the group possesses. For instance, the ability of Sophie Devereaux (Gina Bellman) to speak fluent Chinese seemed a bit over the top, and Alec Hardison (Aldis Hodge) performs some computer acrobatics that seem a touch unlikely to me. On the other hand, the brooding Eliot Spencer (Christian Kane) isn't someone I'd ever want to meet in a dark alley, even if he's unarmed, and Parker (Beth Riesgraf) is perfectly built to be the envy of any Olympic gold medal gymnast as she slithers into small spaces and tumbles out of sight after she grabs the loot. In addition, Hutton is a touch chubby these days, and as he approaches his 50th birthday, with just the right amount of stubble, he pulls off being the slightly broken fellow out for revenge very nicely, while still having that sexy smile and boyish twinkle in his eyes. That almost every job (in the beginning) connects back to his old insurance agency is just a tiny bit more of a coincidence than we would normally allow. However, let's not forget this is television so we need to suspend belief just a bit, if we're going to enjoy the show.

And the bottom line is, this is a very enjoyable show. The basic concept may very well have been mostly stolen from the UK's "Hustle", but the Americans have done it justice. The actors work well as a team, and the acting is very well done. The pace of the shows is carefully compiled to be fast enough to keep it interesting and not too fast so we don't feel out of breath when the episode ends. Insertions of humor keep it from getting to heavy and in the beginning of the series, the scriptwriters also added in some flashbacks of the different team members to help us slowly get to know them and avoid long tirades about each of their pasts. In addition, who doesn't like a good, modernized "Robin Hood" story, where the good guy becomes the bad guy only so he can help other good guys get back at even worse guys than he is. In short, "Leverage" is slick without being smarmy and action-packed without being violent, with a cast you'll enjoy watching while laughing and feeling like justice is being done, at the expense of justice! I'll give it four stars out of five and recommend it.

Thanks for reading!

Davida Chazan © May 2009 (Ciao.com), June 2009 (Dooyoo)

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Technical Stuff:
"Leverage" is a TNT production and the first season has finished airing in the USA, but you can watch complete episodes on-line at places like Amazon.com, watch-tv-shows.tv, www.webtvwire.com and other sites including at the official website for the show, which you can find at http://www.tnt.tv/series/leverage/. This is not presently available on DVD, but is scheduled for release in July.

The good news is that it is now official, and this show will return to American TV for a second season, beginning July 15, 2009. With any luck, we'll all be able to enjoy those episodes as well, through their website.
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Summary: An American version of UK's "Hustle" with a "Robin Hood" twist