Recap Review: ‘Leverage,’ The Pilot

LEVERAGE: 1.01 “The Nigerian Job”

In case you haven’t realized, I’m a wee bit hooked on Leverage. I unfortunately didn’t catch all of the episode from last season, including the pilot. Why unfortunate? Well, the show itself is awesome. But.

The pilot is especially fantastic.

Let’s ignore the general premise or plot for now. Let’s look at the structural elements of the pilot for a moment. The way characters were introduced. The way that the show is set up.

You know, before I realized how these five random people got hooked up with each other, I just thought that Nate somehow needed them and worked it out himself. How great is it that a random third party set four of them up. Literally. He set them up to steal–even using Nathan’s vulnerability to rope him in as the guy who does nothing wrong…he just watches the criminals. Three random criminals and Nate.

It’s not until they’re screwed (kudos to including an explosion in the first episode without it feeling over the top) that they rope in Sophie, who is a personal contact of Nate’s. I love that they give us a bit of surprise by juxtaposing her terrible acting on stage with the fantastic acting in their ploys.

And of course, you’ve gotta give it up for how they turned the tables on Victor Dubenich. It was bulletproof with a mighty big payout.

But you know, after seeing episode after episode of this show and going back to watch the pilot, you’d think that the con itself would be less than impressive. But still, it was. More so, you felt like these people were trapped. I mean, you don’t know these guys. You don’t know how good they are. What if they really were caught. But it worked out. Nice.

But lets get back to the actual elements of the pilot. One very important thing we needed to know was that Nathan’s son died. Died because his insurance company–the one he worked for–wouldn’t allow payment for his son’s treatment. They introduced this first thing in the episode. His anger at the mention of his son showed his weakness. The fact that he got so angry because Victor “used his son” showed us that it runs really deep. Plus, showing the clip while talking with Eliot, even more clues to how this event establishes Nate as a character.

What’s more? I love that they define why these thieves and questionable people trust Nathan. Well, Nate is honest. He’s an honest man. So why wouldn’t you trust him. For the other “black hats” of the group, he’s the one that you know won’t con you. It shows why he is the glue that holds them all together.

Anyway, it was an effective episode. And the end, when they all are in the suits, explaining their new roles–”We provide leverage”–well, we’ve just connected the show to the title. And given us chills and excitement for the next episode.

Recap Review: Tour 1 of Harper’s Island

HARPER’S ISLAND: 1.01 “Whap”

I think for any of you who watched Harper’s Island live, this might be interesting. For any of you who haven’t seen it, I recommend watching it along with me (it’s on Netflix for instant…and I think that it might still be online). Might be fun.

But if you do that, you should probably stop reading right about now.

So here’s my plan. I’m taking the season-long tour of Harper’s Island, and of course, I’ll do a review and some predictions as I go along. And those of you who have seen it can do one of two things: 1) relate or 2) laugh. In the meantime, I’ll sit in front of the TV getting more and more nervous and stressed. I’m really not someone who watches horror movies, so I jump easily. I mean, I’m all over the bad indy horror films that used to be shown on Sci-Fi, but actual “thrillers” so to speak, even if they’re on network TV, not so much. Sure, it’s taken out the actual gore aspect, but I still jump at the bumps in the night.

At the end of this episode, we’ve basically experienced three deaths: Ben (the cousin), Uncle Marty, and a large chunk of an engagement ring. Ok, I guess the third one doesn’t count.

We never really got to meet Ben, so his death didn’t really mean anything. I mean, it was very…original. But we weren’t really disappointed at the loss of the character.

Not that we were really disappointed with Uncle Marty. Personally, I thought he’d last longer, but then again, we should never trust when big-name actors are on a small TV show. They never last that long if they’re not advertised a ton (or in the case of Brothers and Sisters, I guess they’re advertised a lot). Anyway, I’d say he took his dead rather well. I mean, if I was being sliced and diced from below–gun or not–I’d be screaming and moving around a bit more. Maybe even dropping down through the bridge to try to save myself. Hey, even the smallest things can do damage. Maybe you’ll land on the sword. Maybe you land far enough away. Maybe you’ll land on the guy doing the dicing.

Of course, this makes us suspect the father-in-law. I have no doubt that it is not the father-in-law. Too easy. Setting up to wreck the wedding. Fighting anyone that wants them together… Too cliche.

Not that I have any idea yet who it is. I do think that Chloe and Cal will be dying soon, since they’ve spent so much time letting us get to know them. But the real question is, when will the dog die? And how?

But back to the real question, what do we think about Abby and her past? I personally found it really interesting, assuming that her mother was a victim, just to find out by the article in the end that her mother was doing the killing. I’d love to see this develop more.

My last prediction: Abby will be lasting, probably until the end of the series. She’s just too cute, and she’s that best friend that we want to have the happy ending. I guess a twist could have her being a psychotic killer (she is envisioning the dead people in the trees), but I don’t think she is. I think she’ll even make it out alive in the end.

Oh, and what’s with the creepy little girl?