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Four years in, Leverage knows what it’s about, and so do we. TNT’s quasi-procedural about a team of professional criminals playing Robin Hood fits neatly into a weekly hour-long package that won’t challenge viewers but will easily and breezily entertain.
After taking down a major international criminal at the conclusion of season three, mastermind Nate Ford (Timothy Hutton) and his team return home to find his apartment bugged and a mysterious new opponent looming in the shadows. After three seasons of taking down powerful and corrupt individuals, their enemies’ bench runs mighty deep, and the odds are high that one of their past exploits has come back to haunt them.
Meanwhile, Nate and grifter Sophie (Gina Bellman) attempt to sort out their newly-rekindled relationship, while hacker Hardison (Aldis Hodge) and thief Parker (Beth Reisgraf) also explore a growing attraction. Hitter Elliot (Christian Kane) delivers snarky lines and, well, hits people. Hey, there are five of them; somebody’s got to be the odd man out.
The season follows the standard track of standalone con jobs that lightly touch on seasonal arc before bringing everything to a head in the two-part season finale. Along the way, there are plenty of opportunities for enjoyable formal experiments and recurring guest stars. Standouts include “The Ten Li’l Grifters Job,” an Agatha Christie riff set at a murder mystery party, “The Van Gogh Job,” an episode that partly takes place during World War II, and “The Office Job,” which pays homage to the faux-documentary style and corporate satire of its TV namesake.
My personal favorites are the two-part “The Girls’ Night Out Job” / “The Boys’ Night Out Job,” which splits the team along gender lines for concurrently running stories that briefly intersect with each other. Jeri Ryan’s fellow grifter, Tara, makes a welcome return for the first part, completing a nice Charlie’s Angels-style trio with Sophie and Parker, while the second part brings back one of the series’s better comic relief characters, the hapless Hurley from season one’s “The 12-Step Job.”
If there’s one major drawback to the season, it’s that including two will-they-won’t-they couples in a group of five people overloads the soap opera factor a bit. The show has teased Hardison and Parker for four seasons now, and while the dance between this brilliant but somewhat damaged twosome has had some nice moments, it’s been dragged out about as far as it can go. Hopefully season five will do for them what this season does for Nate and Sophie—if only so that both storylines can recede a bit. I mean, come on; if nothing else, Elliot’s got to be going crazy by now.
The DVD set for this season goes a little light on special features, but it continues the welcome tradition of audio commentaries for every episode. Executive producer John Rogers leads each commentary, along with a couple of the people involved in each particular installment. The commentaries are a nice mix of production notes and banter, and it’s always struck me that this is a group of people who really seem to love working with each other.
That’s the enduring appeal of a show like this, and it’s probably the biggest reason why the show has made it to season five. Everyone seems to have locked down what they’re there to do, from the characters onscreen to the creators behind it. As long as they continue, I’ll come along for the ride.
