Timothy Hutton brings just the right does of personality and solidity to Leverage (TNT, Sunday, 10:00 PM), a capricious modern day Robin Hood tale, wrapped up in the mechanics of the caper genre. Hutton plays an ex-insurance investigator, given to drinking, grieving the loss of his son, and angered at the insurance company that did him wrong. He puts together a team of crooks consisting of an attractive con artist (Gina Bellman), a laid back tough guy (Christian Kane), a computer hacker (Aldis Hodge), and an upscale thief (Beth Riesgraf), and together they drum up a full-scale con, exchanging sideways looks and petulant quips all along as they grab back the bacon from the pigs of the week. It’s a predictable paint-by-numbers hour, with a decent comic tone, easy and breezy, pleasantly forgettable. I’ve always enjoyed Timmy Boy’s work, and the intelligence and ease he seems to bring to it, but this is a mere popcult trifle, neither dramatically substantive or wickedly entertaining, not even registering enough to fight its way to the back-up DVR list.
2 comments:
Okay, I'm not going to argue your central thesis except to say...
Jeez, after all it's just TV. We grew up with the cheesiest of cheesey procedural caper spy/cop/thief melodramas and come on, this one has had at least moments of transcendence. Christian Kane as tough guy and Gina Bellman as grifter extraordinaire/love interest are strong. The other two aren't terrible. A couple of episodes took on contemporary issues; i.e., "The Snow Job" wherein we see a National Guardsman witness the ripping off of our 8 billion in Iraq by patriotic private contractors. "The Mile High Job" about corporate greed poisoning the youths of America, and even "The Wedding Job" featuring Dan Lauria, the "Wonder Years" Dad as a mafioso and an over the top Nicole Sullivan (Mad TV) as his crazy and irritating wife.
C'mon - this is good TV and will still be compelling in 2015 in syndication.
Anyways, check out "The Foot Fist Way". I watched it because of the impending "East Bound and Down" coming on HBO. Apparently, Danny McBride attracted attention from Ferrel and others with this strange little film. Not what I expected, but worthwhile.
Another viewing of note: Josh Wheedon's crazy "Dr Horrible's Sing-along-Blog". Sheer audacity and low budget genius that may be the future of TV. Available on iTunes for $7.99 or here:
http://drhorrible.com/mushortio.html
and http://www.hulu.com
Chapter 2 Commentary
Okay, watch the last two episodes of this season. Genuine and real alcohol infected main character who truly knows high functioning alcoholic behavior. I, personally like it. One more promising episode to go, every character challenged and the team threatened. Very nice end of season scenario.
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