Entries by Dan Brottman

The Well-Worn Couch presents:
“Leverage”

“The Bank Shot Job”


Reviewed by Dan Brottman
Airdate: December 30, 2008
Timothy Hutton, Christian Kane, Gina Bellman, Beth Riesgraf, Aldis Hodge
Created by: John Rogers, Chris Downey
Written by: Amy Berg
Director: Dean Devlin



Synopsis: (Warning: Spoilers may cause irritableness, rashes, bunions and dry mouth.)

The mark for the job is Judge Roy (played by Michael O’Neill, who I have a difficult time separating from his role as Secret Service Agent Ron Butterfield on The West Wing), a corrupt judge in a tiny Southwest town. The audience comes into the action as the crew is wrapping up their con of Judge Roy. Nate accompanies the Judge to a bank where Sophie has been planted as an employee. Before they can get out, however, a pair of bank robbers appears. Nate could have gotten out, but stayed because of Sofie.

In order to protect their con and themselves, they decide that they need control of the situation, and have Hardison and Parker pose as FBI agents to deal with the local authorities. After Hardison identifies the robbers they find out the robbers are a father and son, Derrick and Michael Clark. The son got in trouble with local drug dealers, who have kidnapped his mother and are demanding a ransom. Eliot goes to inspect their home, and finds it has been broken into.

Parker steals the Judge’s money from out of the bank (which is still in the process of being robbed). When the Judge notices the briefcase containing his money is gone, he struggles with Michael (played by the kid who plays Dexter as a teenager on “Dexter”), and winds up shooting Nate in the shoulder. After hearing Sophie call Nate by his real name, instead of his alias, Carl, Judge Roy holds everyone in the bank hostage until his money is returned.

Eliot gets Mrs. Clark back from the math dealers, and starts to head back to the others. With some computer wizardry from Hardison, a pizza delivery and some costume changes, they manage to fool the authorities into thinking the Judge has been the robber all along. Everyone in the town hates the Judge, so no one sets the record straight. The Judge is arrested, the meth dealers are arrested, and matters are arranged so that it appears the Clark’s were never involved.

Thoughts:

This episode changes up the routine in that we never actually meet the client the Leverage team is working for. They are mentioned, but never appear on screen. Apparently, Judge Roy cut lose the murderer of a young girl, Beth Delgado, whose parents hired the Leverage team.

This episode marks the first time Parker and Hardison adopt the personas of FBI agents Elmore and Leonard (ha. ha.), who we will see several more times. One of the oddities that arises from the order the episodes aired in versus the DVD order is the presence of two recurring characters presented only for moments here – FBI Special Agents Taggert and McSweeten. In “The Wedding Job” we see a lot more of these characters and Hardison and Parker’s FBI alter-egos interacting with them. So, in the DVD chronology, those characters have already met. As we’ll see later on, Special Agent McSweeten is sweet on (yeah… sorry) Parker/Agent Elmore, but only interacts with Hardison here, so it isn’t as big of a deal that they should already know each other.

Anyway, in terms of other long-term developments besides the FBI personas, we see more of Sophie and Nate’s feelings for each other coming through in this episode. They both jeopardize the job because of each other. Sophie completely breaks character when Nate gets shot (which is tips off Judge Roy). Despite knowing how competent Sophie is, Nate stays in the bank when he notices the robbers, when he could have gotten out and done what they came to do.

One problem this show has in terms of reviewing (though not in terms of viewing) is that the “heist-of-the-week” format doesn’t leave us with much in the way of long term developments. Unfortunately, I’ve become spoiled by all the great television of the past decade and have come to expect that sort of thing. Still, there’s something to be said for accessibility for new viewers and for just sitting back and enjoying a good heist.


Favorite exchange (along with Hardison’s invented list of crazy demands):

Alec Hardison: You know, I had to re-task two satellites just to get a lousy internet connection. Took more than an hour to torrent the last episode of Doctor Who.

Parker: Hey! Illegal downloading's wrong.

The Well-Worn Couch presents:
“Leverage”
“The Miracle Job”
Reviewed by Dan Brottman

Airdate: December 23, 2008

Timothy Hutton, Christian Kane, Gina Bellman, Beth Riesgraf, Aldis Hodge

Created by: John Rogers, Chris Downey

Written by: Christine Boylan

Director: Arvin Brown



Synopsis (mild spoilers, use as only as directed by a physician):

The episode opens to Father Paul (D.B. Sweeney, Eight Men Out, Memphis Belle) getting the crap kicked out of him by street thugs. This causes him to lose his peripheral vision, so he must give up preaching the word of Jesus and take up figure skating with Moira Kelly if he ever wants to win a gold medal. (Eight Men Out and Memphis Belle? Please! We all know what movie we identify D.B. Sweeney with.)

OK, anyway, Father Paul’s beating lands him in the hospital. Nate’s ex-wife, Maggie, calls him to let him know about Father Paul, since he used to be their pastor. (Also, apparently Nate went to seminary school with Father Paul before he became an insurance guy…huh.) Nate decides to help Father Paul save his church, St. Nicolas’ (which is in danger of being developed over to make a mall) whether Father Paul wants his help or not. Miraculously, the rest of the team is on board, despite any apparent revenue steam or convincing from Nate.

Andrew Grant (Scott Lowell) is a neurotic developer they suspect of having directed the attack on Father Paul. Sophie cons Grant and gets into his good graces, and leaks his mall (or “lifestyle center”) plans, causing a public outcry. In order to make sure the Church doesn’t close down, they decide to “create” a miracle. They underestimated the massive reaction to their “miracle” in Saint Nicholas’ Church. Unfortunately, Grant decides to use the reaction of the public to exploit the church and the “miracle” to make money. Additionally, Father Paul comes under investigation from representatives of the Vatican due to the presence of the “miracle.”

Ultimately, they steal back the “miracle” they created and frame Scott Lowell, saving the Church. As a nice detail, they note at the end that (among other things), St. Nicholas is the patron saint of thieves.

Thoughts:

Like “The Two-Horse” job, we once again have a client who is from one of the team’s past, rather than a random stranger. I suppose I can see how, at the beginning of the series this is a useful device for fleshing out the characters, but too many in one season (and we’ll see at least one more this season), and it seems a bit too contrived.

We have a couple good running gags in this episode, like Parker keeping referring to Saint Nicholas as Santa Claus, and Hardison’s moral issues when it comes to messing with religion (He missed “Thou Shalt Not Steal” apparently).

As for character background, there’s a lot going on here for Nate. We learn his wife’s name, and it’s inferred that they don’t talk much. We learn about his past in that he went to seminary school and that Father Paul was the priest who baptized his son. We also learn a little more of the background between Nate and Sophie. It’s pretty clear that while they never were actually together, there was at least a flirtation, and Sophie, at least, is still interested.

With Hardison, we learn he was raised his “Nana”, who he apparently told he would never do anything she wouldn’t, hence his trepidation in conning people when it came to religious matters. I suppose high-tech thievery is something she wouldn’t do because of lack of skill? Interesting rationalization.

The Well-Worn Couch presents:
“Leverage”
“The Two-Horse Job”
Reviewed by Dan Brottman

Airdate: December 16, 2008
Timothy Hutton, Christian Kane, Gina Bellman, Beth Riesgraf, Aldis Hodge
Created by: John Rogers, Chris Downey
Written by: Melissa Glenn, Jessica Rieder
Director: Craig R. Baxley
Producer: Phillip M. Goldfarb



A few notes initially. I’m writing these reviews in the order the episodes aired, not in the order they appear on the DVD. Also, this episode marks a departure from the first two as it was not written or directed by Devlin, Downey or Rogers. The episode is written by newcomers Melissa Glenn and Jessica Rieder, and directed by Craig R. Baxley (Action Jackson, The A-Team). I loved the A-Team as a kid (OK, and as an adult) and as my friend MosBen commented after reading my first “Leverage” review, the premise for both shows is very similar, what with outlaws helping the downtrodden. So it is fitting that Baxley would have a good vision for this show.

This episode also gives us the first (and thankfully not the last) appearance on this show of the marvelous Mark Sheppard (Battlestar Galactica, Firefly), as Jim Sterling, Nate’s former co-worker and devious rival. (Yes, you may all feel free to do the Mepos Dance of Joy now).

Synopsis (spoilers ahoy!):

Eliot is contacted by an old acquaintance from Kentucky, who has recently lost his barn, and most of the horses therein to a fire. It turns out this acquaintance, Willie Martin, is a horse trainer and the father of Aimee Martin (Jamie Ray Newman), an old flame of Eliot’s who he hasn’t contacted for 8 years. Willie has gone into business with a New York business man, Alan Foss (Rick Hoffman), who gave him a 10% ownership stake in the horses that Willie trained and stabled. When the horses weren’t performing well, Foss set fire to the barn to recoup his investment through the insurance policies he took out on the horses through IYS Insurance Company – Nate’s old bosses. All but one horse – Baltimore, was killed in the fire. Willie doesn’t want money or revenge, he simply wants Foss out of the horse business and he wants full ownership of Baltimore.

The involvement of Nate’s old employers provides some incentive for him in this case, despite his misgivings about Eliot’s personal involvement with the Martins. However, it also brings in Jim Sterling (as noted above, played by Mark Shepard), which complicates matters because once Sterling sees Nate, he figures that Nate is out to catch Foss to impress IYS and take back his old job, which is now Sterling’s.

So, what starts as simply winning the horse from Foss in a poker game, turns into a more elaborate con to keep Sterling from derailing their plans. Ultimately they decide to trick Foss into buying a horse they steal and fake the credentials of to appear to be of prized blood-stock. When he gets his New York hedge-fund buddies to chip in millions to buy and insure the fake horse, they switch the horse with Baltimore, who Foss had already insured, which gives Sterling reason to deny Foss’s claim and keeps the New Yorkers out of the business.


Thoughts:

If the storyline here was an attempt to give Eliot some depth… it was only partially successful. The most that’s really revealed about him is his knowledge of the horse business, and that he once dated someone who still has some feelings for him but hates him for disappearing. We don’t see much more of the character than we already have in the series… but I suppose it’s good to know he comes from somewhere.

This episode neatly fits in with the show’s premise. We have an innocent “little guy” in Willie Martin and an arrogant, obnoxious Wall Street bully in Foss, who is financially ruined by the con. After the first episode we won’t see many clients who are both sympathized with and hated at varying points. Jim Sterling - or as Parker calls him, “Evil Nate” - presents an effective secondary antagonist who can counter many of the teams’ tricks. As I alluded to in “The Nigerian Job”, when you have a group of elites like the ones gathered here, realistic seeming challenges have to come from extreme sources like Sterling. Fortunately, the writers have crafted an adversary up to the task.

The Well-Worn Couch presents:
“Leverage”
“The Homecoming Job”

Reviewed by Dan Brottman

Airdate: December 9, 2008

Timothy Hutton, Christian Kane, Gina Bellman, Beth Riesgraf, Aldis Hodge

Created by: John Rogers, Chris Downey

Written by: John Rogers, Dean Devlin

Teleplay by: John Rogers

Directed by: Dean Devlin



Synopsis (includes spoilers):
In the time that has passed since the first episode, Nate and Hardison have formed Leverage Consulting and Associates, a firm that has, thanks to Hardison’s hacking and organization creativity, existed for 90 years, including tax records, health plans and company newsletters. Nate calls in Parker, Eliot and Sophie after he was contacted by Corporal Robert Perry, a wounded Iraq veteran who was shot by mercenaries working for a Blackwater-esque company called Castleman Security. We learn that Nate has donated most of his multi-million dollar payout from “The Nigerian Job” to a children’s hospital and spent the majority of the rest for the new companies’ offices.

The Army investigation into Cpl. Perry’s shooting determined that he was shot by insurgents, despite video evidence seemingly to the contrary. He is seeking money from Castleman to pay for his treatment and rehabilitation, since he can’t get what he needs from Veteran’s Services.

The team begins to look for evidence of a cover-up of the shooting to try to force Castleman to pay through blackmail. First they run a scam on the head of Castleman in order to obtain access to his files, where they discover that Castleman is targeting Cpl. Perry to be eliminated as a potential witness to something other than his shooting.

After securing the Corporal, they drive a wedge between the CEO of Castleman, Charles Dufort (Richard Cox) and his pet Congressman (Robert Jenkins), to uncover why they’re trying to have Perry killed.

Perry, it turns out, witnessed part of a huge money-laundering operation Castleman and Congressman Jenkins were involved in. The crew tricks both Dufort and Jenkins into appearing at the storage container holding millions of American tax dollars. They are met there by news crews, where their corruption is exposed… but not until after a lot, but not all of, the money is stolen by Parker and Hardison.

Thoughts:

“The Homecoming Job” is a faster-paced episode than the “The Nigerian Job”. As the first episode after the group has come together, the writers have chosen a very sympathetic figure for them be helping in Corporal Perry. This will begin a trend for most of the series. Here it helps the viewer to continue rooting for the Leverage Consulting team, and reminds us (and, as Nate explicitly does in the episode, the team) that they’re the good guys now. The episode is a bit heavy-handed in conveying this message, noting multiple times that people helping strangers for nothing isn’t “the way the world works”.

This is a show that works a lot better if you don’t examine it too closely. For instance, Corporal Perry says that he found Nate on the Internet. Really? I mean, you can find almost anything on the internet, but “I need someone to go after a private army to get me money because they shot me” is a tall order even for Google. You have to wonder what search terms he used. (Yes, it is explained in the episode that Hardison has set up web crawlers to find clients for them, but Cpl. Perry says that he found Nate…)Also, once the hospital treating Cpl. Perry is given however many hundreds of thousands of dollars… how the hell is that money accounted for? Pretty minor gripes in the grand scheme of things, but again, the show doesn’t take itself to seriously, and you shouldn’t take it too seriously either.