“Is it just me or has Nate gotten a little more sadistic since he quit drinking?” – Parker
“Is it just me or does that make him even more attractive?” – Sophie
Yep, it’s still fun, yep, I laughed out loud, yep, the con was great. But something was missing for me in tonight’s episode of Leverage, “The Order 23 Job.”
Is it just me, or is the writing not as tight as it was last season? I’m missing the quotables, I’m missing the connections between the characters, and there is a deep, empty, gaping hole in my heart where the flashbacks used to be. I want to see Eliot leveling a coffee house in 7 seconds flat and I want to know more about the mysterious pasts of the rest of the team. Oh, and bring back Nate’s ex-wife, Maggie, and Sterling. You left us at such a great spot with those two characters at the end of season one, Leverage — go with it.
I’m really only complaining a little, though. I love that we’ve been getting to know the tender side of Eliot this season, and I love the easy way the team just falls into the cons.
Speaking of the cons, I was roaring with delighted laughter when they gave the hypochondriac scumbag a psychosomatic nosebleed. That was seriously funny, accented only by the joy that Nate and Parker took in “selling fear.” Other great moments in the con:
Probably I need to elaborate on Eliot championing the abused kid. In true Eliot style, he doesn’t let it go and finds a way to make the Marshall a hero after his bad day. Makes you wonder more about Eliot’s past, specifically his childhood.
So do you agree that while still good, Leverage needs to step it up a bit? They set the expectations with their near-perfect season one… is season two measuring up?
Clacked by Debbie McDuffee
on Jul 30, 2009 @ 09:00 EST5EDT
I think the problem is the story itself … this one was kind of weak and they only had a couple of hours to do everything.
Season one episodes seemed to be a little more cinematic … and they definitely had an overarching villain (the insurance company) which is so far missing this season, but I still really like the show even if it is slightly different.
I agree to a certain extent on all, but hard to complain overall–and the thing with Eliot and the abused kid was great–can’t wait to find out more on his background.
Best line of the night for me was when they were walking down the steps out of the court house and Nate said ‘now, let’s go steal us a hospital.’ That had me rolling off the couch!
I really miss the Eliot flashbacks.
I thought Eliot helping out the abused kid fit perfectly in with what they stand for.
Providing “leverage” to those who can’t fight back.
What made it even more relevant was that the kid told Eliot that his dad had the local cops over for beers and what not. I doubt they’d take the word of the kid over the guy who is handing them beers or whatever.
Who knows if it’s related to his past, but it definitely added a nice touch that even during a job, they are still aware of others around them.
I agree that there is a little something lacking, but the show is still very good. And there is good news in regard to at least one of your quibbles. From Mark Sheppard’s twitter:
“packing for Portland! 105 degrees plus! Go Sterling!”
Cool alias’ of the week: Elliot and Hardison were officers Micheals and Crichton, an homage to ER creator Micheal Crichton.
My favorite lines of the night came from Hardison:
“A bully is just a cowboy with low self-esteem.”
and
“Everybody has a TV; dead people have TVs!”
The plot reminded me of two old episodes of ‘Mission: Impossible’ – “Encore” and “Two Thousand”. And I thought it was one of the best overall.
One tiny quibble – the fake graphic for the TV news bulletin had it coming from KXXB… and yet they were in Massachusetts, where it should have been coming from WXXB or some other call letters beginning with “W”.
They could have picked the name of an actual MA town too, instead of just making one up. Being a MA resident, that annoyed me a little.
One of the things (maybe the only thing) I like about Fringe is that they really do choose MA towns, sometimes obscure ones (like the little town I live next to).
i actually stopped watching Leverage after the 4th or 5th ep of this season, it was so bad. the writing has just been terrible. having read some reviews of the later episodes, i might go back and pick it up again, but after how good the first season was, it was really disappointing to see the second season start off so poorly.