User Reviews

It reminds me of the lower decks episodes of Stay Trek in the best ways.

Maybe spoilers: The main characters were there as brilliant as ever but in more of a supporting role and the normal everyday people got to shine. It does differ from a lower decks story in that they have no idea that they are being helped by the main characters. It was a fun change of pace episode. I mean I obviously love the main characters and their quirks, it's why I watch the show, but to see it from another perspective was interesting. The main thing I would like to see though is some of the other Leverage Internal teams a real lower decks story.

Leverage has a set formula we know and love: set up the premise, present the victim and prepare the con, hit the snag either by being too good or underestimating the baddies, solve the snag, fulfill the promise of the premise, gloat.

This is the way of Leverage. Now, we have a new snag, and it comes from the fact that we know what already happened: introducing the Snag 5 minutes in, by giving us people we don't WANT to see damaged as they are screwing up the team's entire plan. This? This is fun! We already know the Leverage team has other teams, now we can see how those teams get built: finding potential new blood who have skills and just need a little training. Will we get to see Hurley overseeing Jenna and Keith? Will Harry's lawyer trainee join Leverage Jr? Will Breanna be torn between the OGs or the Kid's table? Is this the means of a spin-off, or a new complication for the team when the kids get in too deep?

Shows have to evolve, just like the team, and Leverage is showing they can stay fresh with new ideas. I look forward to seeing how they keep evolving. Meanwhile, PLEASE can we have Keith meet Hardison, Harry and Hurley for the next Boy's night out? Poor Eliot, he won't be able to keep up with the trouble they'll cause!

Having the POV be from a civilian was unexpected but super cool! I really liked being dropped into the middle of the con like this - it reminds me of other episodes where Leverage previously showed us parts of the con we don't see, like how the Bank Shot Job started off with the teardown of the con. Jenna and Keith were charming and endearing with their 'rookie' awkwardness, and it was awesome to see the Leverage crew in the background nudging them along. The plot was simple yet effective, the acting was refreshing as we were focused on characters who weren't the main crew a lot more, and the humor was great! I hope to see more of stuff like this in the future or to see Jenna and Keith again.

It's the second season of a reboot. Of course the writers and the production staff are going to try something different. As I noted in a review way back, there's not much else to do with the show. Otherwise it follows a particular formula, and they have to follow it. So they either change the formula for an episode, or it's same-old same-old.

As far as the one-off formula, the episode isn't bad. Emily Hall makes a plucky protagonist, with Julian Silver as her plucky IT sidekick. The appearances from the regulars were usually amusing: I liked Eliot' grin as he took over for the front desk security guard, and Parker is always a hoot whether she's doing her disappearing act at the juncture box (along with her cart), or her fake-video over-the-top acting on how to crack a safe, or just dropping out of the ceiling to lend Jenna a hand when Jenna's back is turned.

The singing bit, just to give Aleyse Shannon a spotlight, was okay. Shouldn't she be covertly helping Keith? Sophie was okay, and the Noah Wyle "lumberduke" bit seemed to exist to a) give Wyle another in his endless opportunities to ham it up, and b) take a few shots at Hallmark.

And... I'm not quite clear from an in-universe point of view why the main crew is so big on keeping their help a secret. I guess they're trying to test how well will the civilians do on their own. But then why help them? That doesn't seem like much of a test. It's not like it's some big secret: if Jenna and Keith do join up with Leverage International, they'll eventually find out who the founders are, and that the founders (well, three of them) helped them out. If that happened to me, I'd be more offended than anything. TV reality, I guess.

That's why Harry and Breanna's roles made a bit more sense. Harry doesn't interact with the Dynamic Duo at all, and Breanna has a walk-on and walk-off bit. The funniest parts were Harry's over-the-top impersonation of a "lumberduke", and Jenna's failed attempt to appeal to Carol's conscience.

So the entire plot seems more there to justify doing a "different story" then because it makes internal sense. And if you think about it hard, it doesn't make much sense ("Why was the main team playing secret?"). But it was entertaining in the moment.

But that's just my opinion, I could be wrong. What do you think?

There was a lot of potential with this premise, but it never really worked. They did give us a very real look at harassment in the workplace, a problem impacting far too many people, but they took a very roundabout way of getting there.

Leverage: Redemption may involved the cast pushing the limits and boundaries to steal something or set something up, but the cases themselves should be a little bit more simple and I feel like they.

A lot of low scores and reviews for this one. I won't go that far, but this is definitely not an episode I would recommend to highlight how good this program can be.