Leverage: Season 1

Great to be able to watch after it went off television.

I love Leverage. The actors are fantastic and the chemistry between them is magic. The characters are complicated as they embrace a life where they can be themselves--seemingly bad but actually really good--a little bad for the right reasons. The show is so funny and clever. I love the Robin Hood premise. It makes me sad that the show never took off because it deserved recognition.

When I got my parents addicted this show after watching the first episode, they asked how they didn't know this show had been around since '08. Good question. Now that they know of it, they love it. And so does my brother. Oh, yeah... SO DID I! If anyone were to ask me what the show's about, three words suffice- cons conning cons.The main backstory of this show may upset parents who have lost an only child since the leader of this crackteam lost his only child to a hospital operation that wouldn't have worked. The leader knew a procedure that would work, yet his boss didn't go for it, despite the man's loyal work. So, to cope with his losses (child, wife, job, home, etc.), he becomes an alcoholic, and is offered his first job considering what he was when he had a job- an insurance investigator/stealing stolen artifacts. The job should be easy enough, with a gathered crack team of people that normally work alone (a brutal brawler, social actress, cat burglar, and computer hacker), they work together to steal something to bring it back to the owner, and get paid. Done deal. Oh, wait, things are never that simple. Teams gets back together again, and gets revenge. Idea- work together to bring down people who constantly gyp others who are trying to live decent lives and manipulate big-time cons with good social reputations to 'fess up their mess-up, and give people a reason to keep hoping for a better future. And what cons they go after.Manipulating an already-manipulated court session; giving a disabled vet the $ he needs stolen from him for rehab to work again; finding a kidnapped orphan to bring him back (and what a shocking twist that one had halfway through); helping a church keep a reputation and reveal the Judas in the social area; and revert an already botched bank robbery. Oh, don't worry, there's others, and all of them have wit, sarcasm, little moments that make them all the better, and, at times, very evocatively emotional scenes. Towards the end are some very heavy twists dealing with a few characters that dropped my jaw more than once.But it's the last con that did more than become icing on the cake. It was... how did the Klingons say it? Revenge is best served cold? Well, in Nathan Ford's case, the two part finale was a masterpiece all its own and rivaled the technique of so many heist movies that seem to try too hard. This had everything I love in a good drama. The enemies think they know how to outwit the thieves, only for a trip to get tripped and get tripped theirselves. So, I can see why they would leave the best far last. And I couldn't help but cheer with the cast in the special feature that reveals the show being renewed, or laugh with Beth in her own little spoof about her in-show character, or even laugh at the asininity of the deleted scenes. Now to get the 2nd season and continute the laughs and heartfelt emotion.

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.

This show was so underrated. I remember watching it years ago on TV, and it was still as good as I remember. Lots of action, witty dialogue and likeable characters make this very easy to enjoy. It doesn't take itself too seriously, but it can be serious when it needs to. Four more seasons to come, and I intend to pick them all up. I only wish it had ran for longer.

This is a comedy thriller series about a series of thieves and con-men who help people out. Clearly not aiming for social realism or a political message it is by and large entertaining.The characters are well defined, and their interaction provides a lot of the humour. Of the characters I actually found Timothy Hutton a bit tiresome, as the alcoholic team leader, he was entirely wonderful in  A NERO WOLFE MYSTERY - Series 1 .The series starts off in tremendous style, with the first episode easily being the strongest of the bunch, the series really does start to sag in the middle. The nature of a show like this is that you get the same basic plot every week, so with a box set it is easy to overdose and find it all a bit samey, better to ration out the episodes. I suspect that a writers pool was maybe relied on mid season to produce episodes, with the proviso that they were not allowed to actually develop any of the characters, hence proficient but not dazzling episodes.The series does go up a notch for the conclusion, and I will be ordering the next series for family viewing.I would however pitch this below  Burn Notice - Season 1 [DVD] [2007 ] for family entertainment. Definitely try out Burn Notice first, but if you have run out of Burn Notice series to watch then you might be pleasantly surprised by this. A NERO WOLFE MYSTERY - Series 1Burn Notice - Season 1 [DVD] [2007

Payback time! Why should major villains get away with it? Embittered when the insurance firm he for years served so faithfully refuses to pay for his desperately ill son's medical care, Nate declares war on the fraudsters. For thirteen episodes he and his team of four satisfyingly bring down - amongst others - crooked congressmen, a corrupt judge, a dodgy drug company, ruthless property developers and, particularly, that insurance firm head.Although less glossy and character driven than "Hustle", which in several ways it resembles, "Leverage" entertains agreeably enough. Some viewers may wonder if Timothy Hutton has what is needed as Nate, he lacking the charisma so evident in the four others. It is wise also not to examine the storylines too closely - slickness often substituted for plausibilty.Here is a series getting into its stride, this first season uneven but full of promise. Although not quite won over this time round, I look forward to giving future seasons a try.Modest extras include a commentary and deleted scenes.Highlights almost raise this to four stars - especially episodes featuring the trial, bank robbery, climatic museum showdown.

I have been a fan since this show started. Not only has it got a great story every episode, but the characters are amazing. Eliot is the Hitter played by the enourmously talented Christian kane, but he is not only a hitter, he cooks, knows about fine wines, has an amazing voice (series 3) and plays a different role within each episode (even if he hits alot of bad guys). Then there is Parker played by the amazingly talended Beth Reisgraf, Parker is a broken person, a thief from a tender age, very quirky, but Beth brings out so many attributes to her character its great to see how she develops over the seasons. The Grifter is played by the super talented Gina Belman (an English lass), I didn't know her before Leverage but my god can she play any role/person she needs to from Country bumpkin to duchess. Then there is Hardison, the hacker, Aldis Hodge is the man who has made Geeks great, his witt and knowledge sometimes gets him into trouble but he is also very funny. The final member of the crew is nathan Ford, the Mastermind who is played by the talented Tim Hutton, he's the brains behind every Con, he struggles with alcohol and plays the role brilliantly.If you like a good FAMILY show with no swearing or bad violence then give it a try, i promise, like the rest of the Leverage fan club you'll be addicted."Sometimes the bad guys are the only good guys you have""We provide Leverage"

The first time I saw this was at my parents house. Not being a fan of the majority of things my parents watch I didn't expect this to be any different. I wouldn't have been any further from wrong! Straight away I was hooked and have been ever since.The basic idea is that you have 4 criminals who are the best of the best; a hacker (Hodge), a thief (Riesgraf), a grifter (Bellman), and a hitter (Kane), who are brought together in the pilot to work with ex-insurance company investigator Nathan Ford (Hutton). In each episode the team work together to help ordinary people who have exhausted all legal avenues available. Each episode sees some elaborate con played out in order to scam one criminal or another. The 'targets' include government contractors, judges and CEO's.There is plenty of humour as well as action. A showed to keep you entertained from start to finish, with characters who it is impossible to choose a favourite from.I am so surprised by the lack of people in the UK who are aware of this show. All I can say is give it a go. You might not think you would enjoy it, but chances are, you will.