"Leverage" Review: Worth All the Excitement

TNT is extremely excited about its new drama, “Leverage”…

How excited?

Well, they’ve been promoting it for months on both TNT and TBS (“You’ve got me beggin’ you for mercy…”). During one week in October they mailed a different postcard to the media each day introducing one of the show’s characters. Then, they sent out the first two episodes to the media. And finally last month, they sent out a special reminder with the next two episodes.

So, do they have a reason for all this excitement?

I’m pleased to say that yes they do as “Leverage” is one of the best new shows I’ve seen all season…

If I had to describe the show in one sentence, I would say it’s a modern day Robin Hood story turned on its ear. The main characters are robbing from the rich to help the poor and less fortunate, but they never stop robbing from the rich to help themselves…

Timothy Hutton is Nate Ford, a former insurance investigator. Nate is as honest as they come as he recovered millions of dollars in stolen items for his employer. But when Nate needed his company to help him by paying for his son’s medical costs, they didn’t come through leading to his son’s death and leading Nate to leave his job.

In the pilot, Nate is approached by an aeronautics executive who needs to recover stolen airplane designs from his rival. He wants Nate to lead a team of thieves to get the designs back and he entices him with a bonus—the theft will screw Nate’s former company out of millions. Not being able to resist, Nate agrees to lead the team of people who aren’t used to being a team:

Christian (Eliot Spencer) is the “retrieval specialist” who hates guns, but doesn’t really need them…

Parker (Beth Riesgraf) loves money and knows no fear. And, oh yeah. She’s just a tad on the crazy side…

Hardison (Aldis Hodge) is the computer whiz…

The trio are not really excited about working together, but when they get double-crossed, they decide to come together as a unit to get even. Nate then adds Sophie (Gina Bellman), a master grifter, to the team to help out with his revenge plot.

And what a plot it is…

And that’s the fun of the show. Watching this fab five do their thing reminds me a little of “The A-Team” as they pull cons, sneak into tight places and pull off amazing feats of thievery.

And each of the team member’s quirks—Parker’s unpredictability, Hardison’s wise-cracks, Christian’s toughness (not to mention his hotness) and Sophie’s lack of legitimate acting abilities—make it all entertaining.

“Leverage” is from Executive Producer Dean Devlin (“Independence Day”) who makes his directorial debut with the pilot. Devlin shows he’s adept at TV directing by bringing the episode a cool McG quality with his swooshing camera angles.

In fact, very little about “Leverage” doesn’t have a cool quality. And who doesn’t need a little more cool on their must-see-TV list?

“Leverage” premieres commercial free Sunday, December 7th at 10 p.m. on TNT. The show then moves to its regular timeslot Tuesdays at 10 p.m. beginning December 9th…

Photos Credit: TNT