Leverage: Season 2

It is great to watch without commercials

Fun exciting and funny

How you view Season 2 of Leverage will depend largely on how you view Gina Bellman's "Sophie Devereaux" and all of the underlying melodrama, the romantic tension between her character and Timothy Hutton's "Nathan Ford" (it's Leverage's "Sam and Diane" will they / won't they meme). Gina spent most of season two preparing for the birth of her daughter, and the series creators brought in Jeri Ryan to cover for her...not "replace" her. She's seen in countless "on the phone" segments to remind you that she's away, but not "gone." That gives Hutton plenty of opportunities to bounce back and forth between "giving her space" and asking her to "come home."This gave Aldis Hodge the opportunity to shine in "The Ice Man Job," because the team "needed a grifter," and with Sophie absent, Hardison stepped in. Of course, he's not a grifter by nature, so his masquerade leads to his being captured by the Russian mob. The series creators also take full advantage of this, using Christian Kane's "Eliot" character to rib Hardison over this in a later episode. The cast really excels at the "sibling rivalry" discord...they can come together to pull off a "job," but they can also squabble like kids who have had too much sugar. The series creators wisely keep this in check and never go overboard with it. In small doses, it's fun. Overdone and "Leverage" would become "Three's Company" in a heartbeat.Beth Riesgraf as "Parker" shines here, especially in the "Ice Man Job" episode ("No stabbing, Parker!"). She's smart enough to pull off major heists but is conflicted in every way imaginable when it comes to dealing with others on a "normal" basis...case in point the first Season 2 episode, where Hutton wakes up to find her eating cereal in a nun's outfit. She's gorgeous and crazy and brings an ongoing sense of oddball charm to what is already a somewhat oddball cast and concept.Timothy Hutton definitely sinks his teeth into the multiple characters he plays...some ridiculously eccentric (like Dr. Melcher and his "Melcher Method"). Others are more "normal," but the undercurrent of the Ford character is that you have a recovering alcoholic whose life is still a mess in many ways (including the "is this a relationship" relationship with Sophie). He manages to pull together a team of criminals to do one Robin Hood good deed after the other, and there are times when the Ford character...even in moments of success...seems empty inside. He will occasionally order a drink (his condo, the "team clubhouse," sits over a bar) and walk away without taking a sip. Sherlock Holmes had cocaine, Nathan Ford has alcohol. Every genius has his or her demons.This series is head and shoulders above the normal "cable TV drama" in every way. Killer cast, well-written eposides, and actors who seem to have a great deal of fun. Highly recommended.

I think that whenever you love a television show, you should get the DVD as homage to a show that you loved but also because of the DVD extras. First, the weakness of this DVD set is that there doesn’t appear to be any cast member commentary which is a shame because there are occasions when watching the show that I wonder why a cast member made a particular choice or how much fun did a cast member (or couple of cast members) have in a scene. So I hate not having them there to explain their view point. With that said, I love hearing the producers, directors, and writers provide input on scenes and/or the process to get to a scene.The contributors are a chatty group so make sure that you’ve watched the episode so many times that you know what’s going on without hearing. And they appear to have made a conscious decision to not “watch” the show rather to comment. So they aren’t watching the show with you they are talking about what went on behind the scenes. They talk about some of the infamous Hardison scenes and Aldis’s improvational skills which they really love and trust. They talk about Pardison and conscious decisions that were made to be physically stand next to one another to show their growing relationship. That talk about Kane humor and the humorous actions and expressions that he brings to Eliot that I had never really thought about. They discuss sibling relationships (Eliot, Parker, Hardison) the father/son dynamic between Nate and Hardison, and the “equals” relationship between Eliot and Sophie/Nate. These are things that you saw as a fan but it’s good to hear it discussed.I’m only on season two but it is the conspiracy episode where the reporter has ruined a guy’s career so the team sets out to discredit the reporter. In the episode, Parker becomes curious about conspiracies and begins to ask Eliot about different conspiracies. Not sure who it was but someone mentioned that he sent a note to a big wig and asked, “How is Eliot responding to Parker.” The reply came back, “Like a big brother effing with his baby sister.” It’s something that we saw but it was nice to hear that response.As indicated, I’m only on season 2 but I’m so pleased with my decision to purchase this. I purchased seasons 1 - 3 together because the 5 season bundle wasn’t offered. But I’m going to have to get season’s 4 and 5 soon because I am watching a season a weekend. It’s a shame that TNT cancelled this show because it really was a fun show to watch.

While I enjoyed series one of Leverage, it did seem very much a poor relation to Burn Notice when it came to character based, family action comedy series. However with the second series it is really hitting the mark.Admittedly not much actually happens, you get a new grifter, Jeri Ryan - seven of nine from Star Trek - Voyageur, Gina Bellman is pregnant in real life, but not in the script, so some ingenious shooting. Some interesting cameos and recurring characters, but it is pretty much business as usual. The gang set up cons to get back at the bad guys. The cons invariably seem to go wrong part way through, but come right in the end. The whole thing is soufflé light, and not to be taken seriously.The real strength of the series is the interplay between the characters, they are clearly having a huge amount of fun, and it is infectious.Personally I felt that every episode was good to great, with not a dud episode out of the 15. There are a few extras, a gag real and some interviews with the writers and directors. If you want something for family viewing that is entertaining and amusing, then this come highly recommended.

This show is a modern mix of all the great hustle shows of the past. Think of the TV Mission Impossible (though in this case the hustlers work for the common man not the government), The A Team, a little of Man from Uncle. Season one was a great opening showcase for the programme & in season two we start to learn a little bit more about the individual characters. The FX's are bigger & better than ever.

Great boxset to watch. Very entertaining.

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Enjoyed this second series as much as the firstGood for a smile and unbelievable story lines that you can't help but laugh atGood for time out of life