Last night was the start of Season 2 of Leverage, a show that quite frankly I have built up to epic proportions in my head after the Season 1 finale. For the first 45 minutes of the show I was a bit underwhelmed, I mean it was decent but not the Leverage that I know. Then, bam, the last 15 minutes of the episode brings us complete Leverage.
(Spoilers included)
Nate Ford reluctantly reassembles the team to pit the local Irish mob against a banker who is gaming a government bailout. If they survive, Nate has to deal with four thieves who’ve decided he needs them in his life, whether he likes it or not.
I have seen enough television to expect that Episode 1 may start a little slow to start based on the fact that the team went their separate ways in the finale of last season. We see the team get back together at a play, I believe The Sound of Music, where Sophie is starring. For whatever reason we found out in Season 1 that Sophie, when she is on a con, is the best actress there is. When it is a show though, she is horrible. It seems that this is the first time the gang has actually seen each other since the break up of last season. Nate is clean, but is living above a bar, one can only guess it might actually help keep him away from the alcohol. Parker and Eliot seemed to have keep busy by doing some sort of grand robbery schemes, while Alec talked about some computer hacking that he was doing that might have involved some government computers. Nate though, is seen trying to land another job at an insurance agency, where he realizes that it is just not him anymore. After leaving the building, he rescues a man and daughter from a car which sets up the weekly story line.
The weekly story, while very relevant to the times, seemed a bit weak at the start. We have a bank that is going under due to the economy and bad loans it handed out, and it seems that the mob wants to get in on some of the bail out money that the bank will be receiving. Well it seems that that guy in the car that Nate rescues has a bit of information that may shed light on the full story, so he is at risk to be offed. I mean, the brakes and gas on his car were tampered with, which is what actually led to the crash itself. Nate decides to get the team together to help the fellow and uncovers a bit more than they originally thought, which is where Leverage shines.
Sophie plays her part as the British woman that wants to get in on the scam with Nate playing her underling. Hardison and Parker turn themselves into police trying to help the head banker that was the boss of the fellow that got into the car crash. Little do they know that the mob is really not the brains behind the operation, but rather the head of the bank. Once we find this out, the story gets quite interesting. Leverage shines in showing the viewer what went on behind the scenes and how all the pieces of the puzzle came together. Now, while they were not fooling too many people when Eliot got shot, as we were just shown the scene before with the fake bullet explosives, they got me with the safety deposit box money and how that came together to really put the screws to the head of the bank that was running the scam. Would he really have gone to the hospital though to shoot someone? Too many cameras and the noise would send security into an uproar. They should have had him go with the generic poison needle to induce a heart attack. I felt the writers slipped up a bit. Are we to believe a guy that pulled the wool over the team’s eyes on who was the mastermind of the game, as well as how paranoid he was when Nate showed up with the money, would have done something so careless?
I loved the little comment by Hardison to Parker about how he tried to find her. I think that the fact that he likes her is awesome. I hope the writers do not actually get them together, it would ruin what we have. Maybe during the series finale or something, but not now. The Nate and Sophie relationship also has a cog thrown in to gum up the works: Sophie has a boyfriend. I am glad that while Nate ordered a drink and he does not drink it, that part of the show is done with. What was super funny at the end of the show was when Nate comes home and sees Hardison putting up a bunch of monitors in his living room. Nate makes mention about how he does not know what they are doing and Hardison tells him that they bought the building and it is now Leverage Headquarters again. Very nice. It is scenes like those that keep this show on top. The flash back of Hardison and Parker cleaning out the safety deposit boxes is great deception by the writers, I enjoyed seeing that. The last bit of the show really put a shine on that coin and I felt satisfied. When this show throws humorous and witty in the mix of the con it is top shelf. Let us hope that each episode does not start as slowly though. Long live Leverage.
