Leverage

[Batmatt Beyond]

It returns tonight at 9e/8c on TNT! Yay!!!!

[Jason Marconnet (Pint sized mod)]

I'm excited. I have a huge crush on Gina Bellman who plays Sophie. I'm seeing Harry Potter tonight so I've got the DVR set to record!

[Batmatt Beyond]

Have you seen the original UK Coupling or Jekyll? She's great in both of those series.

[Jason Marconnet (Pint sized mod)]

I've seen a few episodes of Coupling. She was good in that.

[Cavaliere (moderator emeritus)]

We watched the season premiere tonight. It wasn't Leverage at its best. It was still good. A "merely" good episode of Leverage is still better then, oh, about 98.793% of what airs these days.

[Jason Marconnet (Pint sized mod)]

I the premiere last night. I liked it. It was a good set up for this season.

[Batmatt Beyond]

Yep, most of the premiere was simply getting the band back together, thus the con wasn't all that complex. Which is a good thing, because I was getting very sleepy during the second half of the episode.

Still, I love that such a good-natured show is on television. I loved Parker's comment that doing good got under her skin and made her want to do more.

[Travis Herrick (Modular Mod)]

I actually liked the idea of the scam the bad guys had going. I thought it was a great story idea.

[Alan M.]

In case you haven't seen it: John Rogers (co-creator, executive producer, head writer) responds to questions about episode 201 on his blog. Good stuff!

[Cavaliere (moderator emeritus)]

Thanks, Alan. That was a really good blog.

Even though I kept the VHS tapes we made of Season One, we're still renting S1 from Netflix so we can a) see the episodes with a better picture (the VHS recordings stink!) and b) the special features.

[Doctor Hmmm?]

Over the past week or so, I've been catching up with the last 2 seasons -- yeah, I know.  The other night, I watched (for the 2nd time) "The Rashomon Job."

If you haven't seen this one and you get a chance, watch it.  It's the single greatest (TV) use of the Rashomon conceit I have ever seen.  It's funny the first time and even funnier the 2nd, as you see can see all the (tightly plotted) pieces falling into place.  Not only is every regular cast member bringing his or her A game, but guest star John Billingsley -- why, oh why, don't we see more of him on TV? -- is just delightful.  Without giving anything away here, he gets to reinvent his character in the last act by playing (basically) the same dialogue in two very different ways.

This may be my single favorite episode of Leverage ever.  And that's saying a lot.

[Doctor Hmmm?]

It's no secret that one of my favorite things about this show is the fun it has dropping little geeky Easter eggs.  I just saw (heard, actually) one of the best ones ever.

It's in "The San Lorenzo Job" -- the 3rd Season finale.  The team has snuck into the tiny fictional country of San Lorenzo to free a political prisoner, steal an election and bring down the international criminal pulling the strings of the country's corrupt political leader.

In short -- classic "Mission: Impossible" territory.

And sure enough, in a scene where the criminal mastermind has caught a glimpse of Nate and Sophie in the crowd at a press conference and realizes something is up, the episode's composer snuck in a {ahem} very familiar musical cue.  I actually backed up the recording and listened again just to be sure I'd heard what I thought I'd heard.  And just to (literally) underscore the point, beneath the dialogue you can hear a little "rat-a-tat-tat" on the snare drum.  It's completely unlike anything else in the episode's score, and completely unmistakable.

I smiled about thiiiisssss wide.