Hey, it’s a new show!: Leverage

Posted by sara December 8th, 2008 at 11:00am In All Things TV General Hotness Leverage

Sunday night, Roommate and I watched the series premiere of TNT’s new Ocean’s 11 ripoff, Leverage. And it was a delight. I do like a good heist, even better when there are quippy, handsome men involved in said heist. And gadgets. Gadgets are fun.

You guys, The Right Stuff was like 25 years ago. Can we stop reenacting it?

Here’s the deal: Timothy Hutton is Nathan Ford, a former insurance investigator with a massive grudge, because the insurance company for which he recovered bazillions of dollars’ worth of art and other valuables refused to pay for his ill son’s experimental treatment, and the kid died. Which is terrible, and I think we can agree that insurance companies suck goat balls. So when some random in an airport lounge, whom we shall from hereon out call The Airpostor a380 approaches Ford to ask him to steal back some aircraft blueprints that a competitor stole from him (and that are insured by Ford’s stingy former employer so he can get a little revenge on them) he’s all, where do I steal?

The Airpostor a380 has put together a Crack Team of Iconoclastic Thieves Who Only Work Alone Except This One Time, including Hardison, played by Voodoo from Friday Night Lights, who is the computer guy; Spencer, who’s the muscle (and who I think looks like David Foster Wallace); Parker, a pretty, limber sociopath who’s the weak link in the cast; and Sophie, who is an awesome grifter played by Jane from the good Coupling.

So they steal the aircraft plans. And then they don’t get paid and Airpostor a380 tries to blow them up and they find out that they weren’t stealing those plans back, they were just stealing them. Weak Link is pissed because they didn’t get paid, David Foster Wallace is pissed that Airpostor a380 tried to kill them, and Timothy Hutton is all, HE TALKED ABOUT MY DEAD SON I WILL END HIM. So they put together a Spectacular Triple Cross involving Nigerians, Jane from Coupling‘s bad South Efrican eksent, and the FBI. All the necessary ingredients of an excellent heist were present, including banter, muscles, jokes about ladies enjoying shoes, and lots of sexy rappelling and explosions.

This is my sexy-breaking-out-of-jail face.

If you missed the premiere, TNT is showing it at 9 on Tuesday before the second episode. At the end of the premiere, the Merry Men (and Ladies) decided to keep on being a team, even though the Airpostor heist pulled in enough cash for them each to buy an island and stop heisting, because they just have so much fun working together (and Timothy Hutton still needs Ye Olde Parenting Revenge). In future, they decide to destroy companies that do bad things. I hate to break it to them, since the boys are just so cute when they’re hacking and scheming, but the American economy seems to be taking care of that for them.