Leverage: Season 3

As the cast gets more and more into character the quirks each character has really add to the story. I think the funniest piece to date is when a couple of inept bad guys spill Eliot's coffee.As usual picture and sound on the disks is perfect. 4 Discs with 16 Episodes (Including Commentary) and Special featuresSpecial Features :Disk 1~Deleted Scene: The Scheherazade Job. Gag Reel and PreviewsDisk 2~Deleted Scenes: The Studio Job and The Gone-Fishin' Job. On Set with Colton & Aboud: The New Writers of LeverageDisk 3~Leverage:What Does a Producer DO? and Inside the Leverage Writers' RoomDisk 4~Deleted Scenes: The Big Bang Job and Behind The ScenesEpisode List (Including Spoilers)~1 "The Jailhouse Job"While Nate is in a supermax prison, he must work with the team to escape in order to unmask the prison's corrupt warden and to save an inmate. Working behind the scenes is a mysterious Italian woman known only as "The Italian" who blackmails the crew into taking down Damien Moreau, a rich, powerful and untouchable crime lord. If the team does not take out Moreau in six months, Nate will be imprisoned in Italy, and the team will be killed.~2 "The Reunion Job"The team goes undercover during a high school reunion they hijacked to get a critical password from a powerful software executive named Larry Duberman.~3 "The Inside Job"While working a theft on behalf of her father figure and mentor Archie Leach, Parker becomes trapped somewhere in a forty-story building with a state-of-the-art security system, and the team must scam their way in to save her before she gets caught and arrested by the security staff.~4 "The Scheherazade Job"Hardison takes up the violin and joins the symphony as part of the team's plan to rob the vault of a corrupt African government official. He learns the hard way what it takes to be a leader after expressing his interest in running his own crew one day to Nate.~5 "The Double-Blind Job"Running a double blind-like scam, the team enters the pharmaceutical business to take down a corrupt CEO and stop his plan to release a fatal prescription pain reliever. Meanwhile, Parker gets jealous when Hardison spends more time with the client and finds it hard to express how she feels for him.~6 "The Studio Job"To con a crooked record label executive, the Leverage crew infiltrates the country music industry—and inadvertently turns Eliot into a genuine star.~7 "The Gone-Fishin' Job"The team works to take down a con-man using his collection agency posing as the IRS to fund a private revolution. But when his militia takes Eliot and Hardison captive, without the others knowing about it, Sophie, Parker and Nate are left on their own to complete the con.~8 "The Boost Job"The team goes up against a used car salesman whose dealership is stocked with stolen vehicles from a local chop shop.~9 "The Three-Card Monte Job"Nate leads the team into battle against his father, the great Jimmy Ford, who is running a scheme involving bank robberies and the Russian and Irish mobs.~10 "The Underground Job"The team takes on a corrupt coal mine owner working with a dirty politician who also happens to be the local attorney general.~11 "The Rashomon Job"While discussing the solo crimes they committed as independent thieves, the team members each reminisce about a particular night five years earlier, when it turns out they each unwittingly tried to steal the same artifact at the same time.~12 "The King George Job"The team heads to London after they discover that an antiquities trafficker who works for Damien Moreau is using refugee children to smuggle artifacts; Sophie confronts the consequences of her past.~13 "The Morning After Job"Leverage must get a former star hockey player turned crooked investor to give up his knowledge of Damien Moreau's financial dealings before he fulfills an immunity agreement by testifying before a grand jury the next day.~14 "The Ho Ho Ho Job"The team is hired by a former mall Santa to investigate the mall's owner. In the process, they discover that he is working with an old adversary to rob the Federal Depository.~15 "The Big Bang Job"When The Italian tells the team that Damien Moreau is on his way to Washington, they must form a plan to prevent Moreau from selling a bomb at an auction, only for the plan to hit a snag when Eliot reveals to the team that he once worked for Moreau.~16 "The San Lorenzo Job"After Moreau escapes to San Lorenzo, the Leverage team follows him and must pose as election consultants for an honest and hard working politician in order to overthrow the current president of the country, who bought the presidency with the help of Moreau, triggering a final showdown between Moreau and the team as Nate vows to make sure that Moreau is taken down once and for all.

As a long-time fan of this tongue-in-cheek 'con' comedy/drama, it's great to see  Leverage: Third Season  released on DVD (and Season 4, well into production!). While the season lacks the dramatic 'game-ending' climaxes of  Leverage: The First Season  (the group splitting up), or  Leverage: The Complete Second Season  (a wounded Nate sacrificing himself to the police to help his crew escape), the season offers more depth and background to each of the crew, a very involving two-part story arc climax, AND a LONG-awaited treat, for those of us who've waited three seasons to see Nate and Sophie actually consummate SOME kind of romantic 'connection'...and Gina Bellman's reaction shot, at the season finale, is priceless, and nearly worth the price of the set, by itself!Season Three starts with a bang, as the gang plots to rescue Nate from prison...and he still manages to get them a client behind bars (played by Aldis Hodge's real-life older brother). With a corrupt warden as the target, the tone is lighter than much of Season Two's episodes, and each cast member shines in comic moments. The tongue-in-cheek approach of the episode would be prevalent, throughout much of the season, which could be a mixed blessing (darker moments often provide more tension, and a greater sense of danger), but the "Leverage" plots are consistently entertaining, and the cast is always a pleasure, whatever the tone of the story.Episode Three is a real treat, as Parker (Beth Riesgraf) is reunited with her criminal mentor (portrayed by legendary TV star, Richard Chamberlain) who needs her assistance (and, of course, Nate's crew) to get out of a jam. With Chamberlain's character named 'Archie Leach' (Cary Grant's real name), you know the writers were having fun...Episode Four is even funnier, involving a symphony concert, and Hardison (Aldis Hodge) faking a performance as a virtuoso violinist!Episode Six is a fan favorite, as the crew 'breaks into' country music to take on a murderous, corrupt promoter (John Schneider, in a REAL stretch from his usual 'nice guy' roles!) The episode gives Eliot (Christian Kane, who actually has his own band and is a pretty fair singer) a chance to shine (and yes, he STILL busts some heads!)Episode Nine features wonderful Tom Skerritt as Nate's career-criminal father, in a dark, 70's-style plot involving Russian mobsters and duped local business people; Episode Eleven is a send-up of the Japanese classic,  Rashomon , as a robbery, five years earlier, is recounted differently as seen through the eyes of each member of the crew (who all believe THEY committed it, by themselves). Episode Fourteen is the 'Christmas' episode, with Santa as a client(!), loot, tunnels,  A Christmas Story -type Santa 'station' in a department store, comedian Dave Foley as a near-evil 'Scrooge' who sees the error of his ways, Eliot as a two-fisted jolly old elf (who fights a team of Santa 'henchmen'), and the return of Wil Wheaton, as Hardison's smugly evil computer hacker counterpart.A commitment/threat placed on Nate at the start of the season by a mysterious, beautiful Italian woman (Elisabetta Canalis) to bring down international crime kingpin, Damien Moreau (Goran Visnjic) is the common thread, throughout the season; Episodes Fifteen and Sixteen involve elaborate scams to bring him down, both in America, and Moreau's Mediterranean island sanctuary. Episode Fifteen is, perhaps, the most exciting, 'theatrical' "Leverage" episode ever filmed (and way, way out of the series' home 'turf' of intellect over excessive violence), with Hardison dropped, handcuffed to a chair, into a deep pool, and Eliot, at gunpoint, powerless to save him; Hardison and Parker leaping off a bridge onto a moving train to deal with a bomb; and, most impressively, Eliot, forced to return to his early 'killer' roots, in an explosive, "Matrix"/John Woo-style 'bullet ballet' against an army of Moreau's assassins...Episode Sixteen takes things back a few notches (but is, truthfully, a more "Leverage"-style plotline, which I prefer), with the gang following Moreau to his island fortress, Timothy Hutton, as Nate, at his gonzo best ("Let's go steal a country!"), Bellman as an Eva Peron-style martyr, inspiring a clueless but likable novice island politician in his run for President, and international elections amazingly easy to rig (and watch!), when you have Hardison with a computer! While I loved the season's 'payoff', between Nate and Sophie, I still stand by my comment that the season doesn't end with quite the emotional impact of Seasons One and Two (where the future of the team and it's members is in real jeopardy...although what Sophie's next decision will be is anybody's guess!)From Nate in prison, to Sophie's fade-out double-take,  Leverage: Third Season , while, perhaps, not every fan's 'cup of tea', is still irresistable and very entertaining!

I can't remember a show that made me laugh so consistently. A very enjoyable show.

Had to buy a replacement as the prior one was damaged but the series itself is worth 5 of 5 stars

I have laughed out loud at this series, I found it by accident in my TV programme, never heard of it, neither did any of my friends, but absolutely fell for it, totally ! It has everything for good entertainment, good basic "Robin Hood", theme of expert- help to good people abused by the "system"somewhere , and a great plot of action,teamwork and building relationship with oneself and the team. The 5 characters in the Team are all very well acted and "real",I just love the way they "develop" and " learn" qualities from eachother, so much more profound than the cardboard-cut characters of for example NCIS. Gina Bellman as Sophie gives the performance of her lifetime, and along Nate ( the incredible talented far-underrated Timothy Hutton !!!) create an astonishing show, After watching it, I fall asleep with a smile on my face thinking of Nate,Sophie, Parker , Hardison and Elliot !

Bought as a gift for Christmas, but I have seen this myself. I like that it stays light-hearted and fun. The third season of any show is usually where some big over-arching plot tries to come in and bogs down the episodes too much into becoming one long movie with breaks, but this manages to keep the format of having a complete episode every time.

If you loved the S1 & S2 you have to get S3 to keep. There's no second guessing the twists in the plots & each episode is a stand alone movie. However, it's good see how the characters are all developing into a team the whole of which is greater than the sum of the parts & there is an underlying current throughout the whole of this season culminating in a spectacular gun fight in "The Big Bang Job". Get it & Enjoy.

Leverage seems like a modern version of the A Team with 4 criminals - a thief, a hacker, a con woman and a heavy they call a hitter - all supervised by an ex insurance fraud investigator and they help people who are in need. I am eagerly awaiting season 4 to be available on DVD region 2

Received with thanks