"Leverage" Review: No Sophomore Slump Here

The second season premiere of a show I like always makes me nervous. I’ve seen too many shows go through the dreaded sophomore slump. “The O.C.” and “Desperate Housewives” are the two examples that immediately spring to mind.

But fortunately, it looks like that’s not going to happen to one of last season’s best new shows—“Leverage.”

If you haven’t seen it, “Leverage” follows a gang of thieves who have banded together to bring justice to the little guy: Sophie (Gina Bellman), the grifter who can be almost anyone; Eliot (Christian Kane), the muscle; Alec (Aldis Hodge), the master hacker; and Parker (Beth Riesgraf), the daredevil thief. They’re led by Nate (Timothy Hutton), a former insurance investigator.

When last we left our gang last season, they were going their separate ways. But fate—and Sophie’s debut in “The Sound of Music”—brings them back together and soon the group starts itching to work together again, despite Nate’s objections. But eventually Nate agrees to go along with exposing a bank bailout scheme to help a young girl and her father.

The show really is like a new version of “The A-Team” but with a little more realism and some better stunts. The car flip in the opening moments of the premiere episode is pretty wild…

TNT certainly knows drama, but “Leverage” is all about the fun. The drama is just a bonus…

“Leverage” premieres Wednesday, July 15th at 9 p.m. on TNT…

Photo Credit: Richard Foreman/TNT