Leverage Rocks the World!

Leverage is my #1 favorite American program still on the air! If that sounds like scant praise understand that it’s got to be pretty darn good in for an American program to catch my attention at all. The only American program to top it is Firefly which if one of the best programs in the history of television American or otherwise. So now that you get how great it is let me introduce you to leverage!

Leverage a modern day Robin Hood. A 20^th century A-team. (although that last one might better apply to Burn Notice) as Nate puts it:

         “The rich and powerful take what they want…

                  We steal it back for you.”

Leverage starts with a team of criminals who are thrown together for a single job. Nate, an ex-insurance investigator is hired to keep track of them. The job goes south when they learn that their client has lied to them and worst of all he refuses to pay them. Needless to say they get back at him in dramatic fashion. When they finish they meet in the park to split the profits of their game. As they hold their fat check each realizes that not only have they never before made so much money on a con but they’ve never had this much fun. With that the leverage team is formed.

Nate

Sophie

Eliot

Hardison

Parker

The best thing about Leverage is the team. It functions as a dysfunctional family unit more then a criminal group. Nate and Sophie play the mum and dad. The rest have a hard time operating without them. Parker the thief with asperser like social skills is the baby. Everyone on the team coddles her and protects her from slip-ups. Eliot is the older brother taking care of his team the only way he knows how, with his fists. Harrison is the brainy middle child eager for any attention he can get from the rest of the team. Everyone in the audience can sympathize or at lest empathize with the characters and their universal struggle to fit into the world.

This show is clean old-fashioned family fun the likes of which we haven’t seen on television for a long time. It's not an Emmy winner but it's always light and entertaining. Like I said good fun.


Note: Since I rarely watch TV show without some connection to Doctor Who, no matter how obscure, here's one for Leverage. Gina Bellman who plays Sophie on leverage also played Jane Christie on Moffat's Coupling. Moffat is the head writer for Doctor Who. 

Minerva