In news that have nothing to do with The Thing...
Finished my Leverage rewatch. Knowing how it ends gave me a renewed appreciation for its series-long arc. It isn't Hannibal by any stretch of the imagination, and I didn't find myself much invested in Nate's random walk through the 2x2 matrix of (absolute vs relative assholery) and (sobriety vs alcoholism), never mind his father issues, but it is a story about mid-life personal change, for all of them, that has nothing to do with "getting more badass," and I can appreciate that.
Also, I found myself constantly comparing the Leverage crew with Dominic Toretto's; both are composed of assembled criminals becoming exponentially more powerful through synergy, but the aims with which they use this power couldn't be more different. The Toretto crew becomes both a family and a Family; the Leverage crew becomes a family and a force for good. A good, by the way, that is more nuanced, realistic, and humanistic than in most other fiction. They both punish evildoers (and they are awfully explicit about, and totally unfazed by, not all crimes being illegal) and help victims - Nate is usually the only one who engages in revenge for the sake of revenge, what I think is why he eventually takes himself out of the picture - and that's something, I think, key to who they are.
And of course there's one of the most explicit and canonical OT3s in the history of OT3s. I'm not convinced that Elliot's relationship with Parker and Hardison is sexual (and I'd have found it believable for Parker and Hardison's relationship not to be, or only sort-of), but that's as utterly irrelevant as to whether Will Graham and Hannibal Lecter will or would ever bone each other (if anything, Hannibal's motto should be Mary Rakow's quote “Some people underestimate how erotic it is to be understood”; not as leading to sex, but as a form of eroticism parallel to and no less strong than (and something that, yes, I very much relate to)).
Elliot and Sophie, on the other hand, I can definitely see as having a physical friendship. They are probably the sanest ones when it comes to sex, as well as the most emotionally mature, and we have scenes that show them connecting on that level. It wouldn't be romance, but it would be fun; if they didn't, I think it'd be due to both of them considering it'd lead to problems with th group's dynamics. By that I mean Nate being an idiot, which is about 93% of all the problems with the group's dynamics.
So apparently I still have Thoughts and Feelings about Leverage. But, c'mon, in how many shows does the series' arc finish - in a mostly organic and slowly developed way &madsh; with the middle-aged male lead proposing marriage and the young female badass becoming the undisputed leader and mastermind of a crew-slash-family unit that includes a psychologically insightful ex-assassin/chef who'd rather hit than kill, and rather *cook* than hit, and a soft-hearted relationship-oriented black male polymath genius whose earliest crime we saw was having a bank paid for his Nana's medical bills, all of them taking on the freaking worldwide financial system one victim seeking help at a time?
Also, I found myself constantly comparing the Leverage crew with Dominic Toretto's; both are composed of assembled criminals becoming exponentially more powerful through synergy, but the aims with which they use this power couldn't be more different. The Toretto crew becomes both a family and a Family; the Leverage crew becomes a family and a force for good. A good, by the way, that is more nuanced, realistic, and humanistic than in most other fiction. They both punish evildoers (and they are awfully explicit about, and totally unfazed by, not all crimes being illegal) and help victims - Nate is usually the only one who engages in revenge for the sake of revenge, what I think is why he eventually takes himself out of the picture - and that's something, I think, key to who they are.
And of course there's one of the most explicit and canonical OT3s in the history of OT3s. I'm not convinced that Elliot's relationship with Parker and Hardison is sexual (and I'd have found it believable for Parker and Hardison's relationship not to be, or only sort-of), but that's as utterly irrelevant as to whether Will Graham and Hannibal Lecter will or would ever bone each other (if anything, Hannibal's motto should be Mary Rakow's quote “Some people underestimate how erotic it is to be understood”; not as leading to sex, but as a form of eroticism parallel to and no less strong than (and something that, yes, I very much relate to)).
Elliot and Sophie, on the other hand, I can definitely see as having a physical friendship. They are probably the sanest ones when it comes to sex, as well as the most emotionally mature, and we have scenes that show them connecting on that level. It wouldn't be romance, but it would be fun; if they didn't, I think it'd be due to both of them considering it'd lead to problems with th group's dynamics. By that I mean Nate being an idiot, which is about 93% of all the problems with the group's dynamics.
So apparently I still have Thoughts and Feelings about Leverage. But, c'mon, in how many shows does the series' arc finish - in a mostly organic and slowly developed way &madsh; with the middle-aged male lead proposing marriage and the young female badass becoming the undisputed leader and mastermind of a crew-slash-family unit that includes a psychologically insightful ex-assassin/chef who'd rather hit than kill, and rather *cook* than hit, and a soft-hearted relationship-oriented black male polymath genius whose earliest crime we saw was having a bank paid for his Nana's medical bills, all of them taking on the freaking worldwide financial system one victim seeking help at a time?