TNT’s newest show Leverage, starring Timothy Hutton, premiered on Sunday. I’m a big Hutton fan thanks to his amazing work on A&E’s Nero Wolfe series, so I recorded it and watched it last night.
Boy, was that a waste of time.
It’s been quite a while since I’ve seen such a haphazard pile of cliches, predictability, and bad acting. It was absolutely horrendous, Hutton included. Even Saul Rubinek, an actor I generally enjoy, couldn’t do anything but twitch a lot. The one minor bright spot was Aldis Hodge as a computer hacker type dude, but that was like finding an open candy bar buried in a pile of steaming horse dung.
I predict this turkey will be cancelled by episode 4, and it doesn’t even deserve to last that long, even on cable.
I’m still gonna give it a shot. It didn’t blow me away be any means, but it looks like it could be good. It was just rough. It seems like everyone was over acting at the start, but it seemed like it started to mellow out by the end. I’m not gonna write it off just after the first episode.
I’m trying to link to Alan Sepinwall’s review but can’t get it to work. He liked it, but he’s seen the first four episodes. Maybe it’s better after the pilot.
Hmmm, I thought for a caper-type show, it was pretty good (although I did see the twist coming twenty minutes before the reveal). I’m going to give it another shot and see if it can maintain the energy of the pilot without having to resort to a lot of back story.
I think it’s trying to be the “Burn Notice” of industrial espionage. It would be nice to see it succeed, but it’s not there yet. I was surprised that it’s set in Chicago. They used some locations to good effect, especially Millennium Park, but there’s so much more they could do.
I didn’t watch the first airing, but then in the promos I recognized Gina Bellman. I want to see what she’s like in a role other than the one that I know her from.
i could have told you that, as soon as I heard it starred Timothy Hutton. which i just heard a commercial for about 10 minutes ago. when’s the last time he was in anything good besides the outsiders
I enjoyed the pilot thoroughly, though I actually agree about the predictability and cliches. Not so sure on the bad acting–it was up to snuff for me, though there’s no guarantee that I don’t have low standards. In fact, quite the opposite–I don’t ask a lot out of television. A bare level of competence, nothing terribly annoying, and a certain ‘gee whiz’ factor, whether in the form of memorable/endearing characters, slick gadgets, or something else, will keep me happy. All the more so now that I’ve rediscovered my ability to effortlessly suspend disbelief for all but the most unforgiveable inconsistencies. (Those shows that go beyond, of course, are the rare jewels of television, and I appreciate them as such.)
Given that several of my favorite shows are either on their way to the chopping block or already gone, I’ll be following this one, at least for the moment. Given that it’s a heist/con show (one of my favorite plot premises) and Timothy Hutton, whom I adore from back in his Nero Wolfe days, I’ll probably be able to put up with quite a lot.
Well, watching the show costs nothing. I don’t have any pressing business tonight. So I’ll tune in for Episode #2, even though the pilot wasn’t impressive.
Because I’m shallow. The preview showed Christian Kane in a suit, with his hair slicked back–reminding me of that lawyer with an Evil Hand. And Gina Bellman does have range–she was a ditz on Coupling. And she was also Mrs Jekyll. Maybe the showrunners can do something with the raw material. If not, no great loss…
(What do you mean by “even on cable”? Mad Men is a cable show. No, I hardly expect Leverage to rise to those heights. But there are damn few news shows I bother to watch–on the networks & on cable.)
I really enjoyed it. I thought it was a lot of fun to watch. I like Timothy Hutton. It was a little too cliche and somewhat predictable, but that’s OK. I’m not often surprised these days anyway, so that’s OK. I didn’t care for how ‘weird’ they made the girl. Quirky is ok, weird isn’t IMHO.
Sarah Alexander was in Stardust last year (in heavy makeup, easy to miss her) and I recognized Ben Miles in some Masterpiece Theater period piece. Jeff and Sally are the only two I haven’t seen in anything else.
He wasn’t in The Outsiders. Are you thinking of Taps?