We provide... Leverage

[thepowerofdeath]

Apologies for the radio silence over the last week. I discovered, fell in love with and got dragged head-first into a (new-to-me)TV show.

The show is Leverage. It ran for 5 seasons from 2008 to 2012, and a 2 season revival in 2021. Its a bit Robin Hood-esque and follows a five-person team: Parker a thief, Sophie a grifter, Hardison a hacker, and Eliot a retrieval specialist, led by former insurance investigator Nathan Ford, who use their skills to carry out heists to fight corporate and governmental injustices inflicted on ordinary citizens.

From what I understand, a lot of the storylines are based on real events, as are the cons the team pulls. They had actual (reformed?)con artists/pickpockets as consultants on the show as well, which I think is a fantastic detail. Gina Bellman, who plays the grifter Sophie is mindblowing - Sophie plays different characters every episode, often multiple in the same one, with different accents, different body language.

It's produced by Dean Devlin - who was involved in the Stargate movie, and also The Librarians tv show. And Christian Kane, who played Jake Stone in The Librarians, plays Eliot in Leverage. He also has bonus points for not being hard on the eyes. Admittedly, the whole cast is very aesthetically pleasing in various ways.

I found it through fanfiction. I was continuing to explore various kinks on AO3, found a few that related to the show, enjoyed them enough to look the show up. There is so much fanfiction (10,079 on AO3) and I'm enjoying the variety of pairings - although I think my favourite might be the (pretty much canon)OT3 of Hardison/Parker/Eliot.

I know it's a pretty old show now but does anyone else watch it?

Comments

[lagertha_the_warrior]

I've never heard of this show but it looks good, i'll add it to my watchlist.

[whoopsitswhump]

I haven't watched it (yet!) but it seems like it could be right up my alley :) I might have to give it a try!

[cassildra]

I adore Leverage.

And, Word of God (John Rogers) has said, probably on Twitter, that yes, the OT3 is canon--it's likely corporate meddling that made it not be on-screen.

[blaesus]

I've never seen it but I'm aware of it - it's kind of Supernatural-centric, Jensen's friends with Kane and he's in a lot of the RPF fic. It sounds like a lot of fun though

[elistaire]

I haven't, but I've mentioned it to my hubs and we're going to give it a try at some point. Thanks!

[irreversibly]

Oh, that sounds like I'd really like watching it. Never heard of it before, but I think I'll put it on my list of shows to watch out for! Just in case I ever find it available anywhere.

[mythicmistress]

I watched Leverage during late 2021 to early 2022 if I'm remembering correctly. (Burned my way through most of my Hoopla credits in the process during those months). That reminds me, I didn't get around to finishing Leverage: Redemption. (I need to figure out where to finish watching that...) I really enjoyed the show! It was fun, and I love me some characters getting to be competent. And it was extremely satisfying seeing the villains get taken down, especially since Dean Devlin claims that the show's writers got so many of the schemes from real life.