‘Leverage,’ Season Two (2009)
TNT’s Leverage has quickly become a favorite television show of mine. It doesn’t require a great deal of thought and that is part of what makes it so much fun. My idea of entertainment means watching something that won’t make me more aware of life’s heartaches but rather make us forget them for a couple of hours. That is what this show accomplishes – while still incorporating some poignant truths. leverage season two
Leverage, Season Two (2009) TNT TV Review
When your headquarters are blown to bits, it has a way of changing the dynamics in a team. As a result the Leverage team disbands. Six months later, the mastermind Nate Ford (Timothy Hutton) is listlessly going on various job interviews that now seem mundane compared to the good works he was doing. The one good thing that comes from Nate’s re-building his life is he finally stops drinking. Now, after walking out on a job interview, he is about to give in to addiction until he spots a car careening out of control with its two occupants inside. Frantically, he rescues the father and daughter only to learn that the accident wasn’t that; the car has tampering. Feeling a pull to help the pair, Nate shows up at aspiring actress Sophie’s latest show. What he gets instead in a reuniting of the entire team.
Eliot (Christian Kane) has been travelling in his downtime; Parker (Beth Riesgraf) pulla a couple of jobs and then put the item back (just for the “fun” of it); and Hardison (Aldis Hodge), he spends much of his time searching for Parker, and it was all just great… or maybe not. Each of is bored since disbanding, all except for Nate. He loves his life and is only interested in continuing to re-build it. The four of them have other ideas though. When Nate awakens in his apartment the next day, he finds Parker hanging over him eating his cereal in a nun habit. Sophie (Gina Bellman) walking around like she just got home in his shirt, and the guys already piecing together a new job. The group knows Nate well enough to know he won’t walk away from helping these people whose accident isn’t what it seems.
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Season two immediately gets off to a much better start than the freshman season’s pilot episode. Already writers draw us in more in the first ten minutes than the first three shows of the former season. Don’t misunderstand, the first season is a LOT of fun, just not the cleverest thing out there. The characters are much stronger and already I could tell that the writers had a better grip on balancing the sometimes dubious task of humor and grim topics. What Leverage isn’t all that good at – simply because that isn’t what the show caters to, is special effects. In the season-opener, there is a horrific car crash that requires the car to flip through the air and I remember saying, “that was fake-looking!” Since that isn’t one of the shows strong points, viewers can give it a pass.
My favorite episodes include “The Top Hat Job,” which is a fabulously fresh twist on the show; “The Two Live Crew Job” ends on an exceptionally tender feeling, and features the gang coming face-to-face with their own, less redeemable shelves. This season has plenty of room for change and improvement and fortunately it lives up to the expectations. Sophie disappears for about half the season in order to “find herself” (the actress is pregnant) and is, unfortunately, a real jerk in the interim. She has valid points as regards Nate, but she’s also being really selfish.
The season ender is fabulous but the fact that everyone is mad at Nate for his gesture of trust, makes me quite annoyed! No one seems to be happy with Nate even when he finally does what they want him to all along! I miss Sophie, but also enjoy the addition of a new character. Another thing that comes about as a result of Sophie’s absence is seeing Parker play the grifter; she has to actually be a “girl,” dress up and flirt. If you “know” Parker, you know how entertaining such a thing is.
It might not be as clever as other shows but this is intriguing – just with a unique flair that is all its own. Don’t underestimate this series.
Content: aside from a few minor swear words – h*ll, sh*t and bas*ard, nothing much is bothersome. There are a few sexual innuendoes and Eliot engages in some hand-to-hand fighting. Discussion revolves around alcoholism. The show is TVPG.
