Leverage – Bleeding ears, Santa Claus and a sucker punch

(Season 1, Episode 4 – “The Miracle Job”)

Can it be true? Has a quality show just been born? You know, in this age of TV that either goes away during its stride, or turns to crap, I feel a bit like guest clacker Carissa. I don’t want to get too excited about a show, just to have it fail when my heart belongs to it.

Since Leverage is on TNT, though, I have some faith that they’ll not only turn out the quality week after week, but that this show will stick around. So let the love affair begin! Leverage started off very strong, and now this, its fourth episode, continues to raise the game. What did I like about this episode? Read on….

Someone on Leverage‘s writing staff is gifted with making the random funny. This is such a huge part of what makes Leverage‘s unique brand of humor. Whose brain dreams up Sophie, playing the role of Willy Loman in Death of a Salesman, as a man? Sheer brilliance, I tell you. But then to insert Eliot’s random flashback, of a gun to his head going off — thankfully and surprisingly, not loaded — and have Eliot say seeing Sophie’s play was the worst moment of his life? Raising the game.

Another thing I loved was the way they carried the Santa Claus joke throughout the episode. I’m quite certain no other show has had a Christmas episode quite like this one. And I quote:

“That’s St. Nicholas?” – Parker
“Yeah.” – Hardison
“Santa Claus has a church? – Parker

So again, it isn’t just that Parker can’t get past the fact that St. Nicholas isn’t Santa Claus. It’s the fact that St. Nicholas turns out to be the patron saint of thieves; now that’s tight writing.

How about the scene when Eliot and Hardison go to question the local talent to find out who mugged the priest? That is something that has been done on every procedural and cop show since the dawn of television. I don’t think it has ever been done quite like this, though, and that’s what makes Leverage so good. They really know their characters and can twist a run-of-the-mill scene into something special by actually using every bit of their actors’ talents and being true to the characters every moment of the show. A quote Hardison, bursting with pride that he hit a guy and he fell over:

“How ’bout that? You see me?” – Hardison
“He was injured.” – Eliot
“Well somebody’s gotta fight the injured — that’s my niche.” – Hardison

Amidst the case, we learn a lot more about Nate this episode. He went to seminary school with Paul (DB Sweeney), who baptized Nate’s son. The scenes between Paul and Nate about faith were good ones, like in the confessional and at the end, before Nate lights the candle for his son. The way the information was revealed was so natural, and just fit with the case and the characters. Nothing was forced.

We learned more about Nate through a conversation he had with Sophie too. Are they setting these two up for a potential romance? There’s obviously some history there, which was hinted at in the pilot, so it’s nice that they are revisiting that. We learn that Nate never cheated on his wife with Sophie, but was tempted, and that she doesn’t want him to take too long to figure things out. Hmmmm….

One thing that didn’t quite work for me was Grant, the bad guy this week. He was funny, I’ll give him that (especially when the team slipped him some speed and got him stuck in the elevator), but he was almost a caricature of a person to me. Leverage has walked that fine line in its other three episodes, and either the actor or the director missed the mark — just a bit — this time.

Other things:

• I love that Parker rigged Paul’s test results as positive for pregnancy; there’s a way to get him to stay at the hospital a little longer.
• Bibletopia — come to pray, stay to shop!
• Apostolic visitation = the Pope’s CSI team.
• Nate’s serendipitous presence in the wrong side of the confessional cleverly worked in his favor when Grant’s assistant confesses. How’s that  for moving along the plot?
• Stigmata paint ball gun!
• Hardison trying to fake a miracle on a time crunch was priceless: “I said bleeding tears, not bleeding ears,” says Nate. Hardison retorts, “Look, look, you’re lucky on this deadline I didn’t give you a baking soda volcano.”
• An angel stole the St. Nicholas statue … a unique Christmas episode, I say again!

So are you all in love with Leverage like I am?

Clacked by Debbie McDuffee
on Dec 23, 2008 @ 23:00 EST5EDT