I think it’s generally accepted that the first season of TNT’s Leverage was near-perfect. Season two, not so much, but still fun. So far, season three seems to really be trying to get back the magic of the first season. It’s not nearly there, but I’m enjoying this season well enough.
To answer the question I posed in my title — no, I don’t think Leverage can get back the perfection of season one, no matter what they do. The problem is two-fold. Because the characters know each other so well and they aren’t struggling against being thieves versus being the good guys anymore, there’s not that character complexity there. Now that they’ve been together for three years, I don’t think they can ever go back and watching them grow together was part of what made season one so magical.
Also, there’s no driving story arc. In season one, we had the Nate / Sterling insurance issues which were serious and compelling. We’re ten episodes in and we don’t really know what the story arc is all about yet and no one is personally involved enough with it for it to matter like season one’s did.
I do think they are trying to bring back some elements we all loved about season one, though. We’re getting an awesome Eliot fighting scene in every episode and tonight’s episode brought us one of the famous Sophie-coaching-Parker moments. We’re getting Hardison talking technology with a frustrated Eliot and less of Sophie and Nate and their relationship woes. There have been a couple of flashbacks, and we know there aren’t more because they are expensive to film. It’s still not enough for me though.
All that said, I’m looking forward to next week’s episode more than any other this season … it looks to be one big flashback of a night they all independently tried to steal the same thing. Maybe I’ll finally get my flashback fill….
Clacked by Debbie McDuffee
on Aug 15, 2010 @ 22:22 EST5EDT
better make that “good guys” up there :-)
I agree, that I don’t see how they could possibly return to the near perfect 1st season. However, this season is a real improvement on last season and I like their work. It remains one of my favorite shows. Again cable is continuing to put out several scripted shows that are showing the networks how it should be done.
I think this season has been great. I love the characters and that they have made each one of the characters grow and show them off in different ways. Leverage is one of my favorite shows and my only regret is that the cable shows have such short seasons.
Actually there is a season wide story arc: this italien lady with the task to get down onto one big bad guy (sorry for the swishy mode of expression, I’m just to lazy to do recherche after a days work). I have no idea why this arc isn’t mentioned any more, since it seemed to be the “big story” for this season when it was introduced back in the episodes one and two.
Actually there is a season wide story arc: this italian lady with the challenge to bring down onto one big bad guy (sorry for the swishy mode of expression, I’m just to lazy to do recherche after a days work), pressing Nate with the knowledge about who he is and what he’s doing.
I have no idea why this arc isn’t mentioned any more, since it seemed to be the “big story” for this season when it was introduced back in the episodes one and two.