The chemistry between the actors is still good (including relative newcomers Wyle and Shannon), the scripts are still pretty tight, the jobs are still entertaining, the rich and powerful still get taken down. It's like the show never left. Which in a sense, it didn't, so no surprises there.
I think Wyle is better as the "fixer" than Hutton as the "mastermind". I'm not impressed with the dynamic between Harry and Sophie, which seems more like "the new guy has to fill in for the old guy romantically, since he's taking his place otherwise". It still feels like Nate is coming back and Harry is just filling his spot. Which presumably is impossible, since Nate is dead. I do like how Sophie is more of the team leader, even though she's the "grifter".
Is Shannon better than Hodge? Hard to tell, since they pretty much fill the same role on the team. Does Breanna really do anything different than Hardison did? Sure, she's a "maker", but she seems to spend more of her time doing what Hardison did. As such, I wish they'd stop bringing Hardison (and Hodge) back. I can accept that he's gone for reasons that the production staff has no control over. So is Hutton. But it seems like the production staff just can't led Hodge go. Okay, he's gone. I could accept that if the production staff would. It just seems like Hodge blows Shannon out of the water each time that they're sharing screentime together, or even when Hodge is on his own (like the opening sequence).
Or in other words, I'd like Breanna more if I didn't keep expecting Hardison to stick his head around the corner and yell "surprise!" It seems like it's cutting her off, and not giving her time to fully develop as a character knowing she could be "replaced" by her predecessor at any time.
Christian Kane is still Eliot, and Beth Reisgraf is still Parker. I suppose Gina Bellman is still Sophie. I like her more when she's her old self and not trying to be the team leader. She's not bad as team leader: I just think Sophie works better in a subordinate role.
It just seems like Redemption is review-proof. If you liked the original run, you're not going to dislike Redemption. If you didn't like the show, why are you watching or reading this review? If you didn't like it, you still won't. If you do, you do. I do.
Nothing has changed, Leverage is still just like it was originally was. They haven't really come up with a multi-arc villain yet, like Latimer or Chaos. Maybe they will with Redemption: it took time for them to develop, too. Redemption is very much "fire and forget". Do we really expect Pietr to show up again? Do we want him to?
But that's just my opinion, I could be wrong. What do you think?