Episode Reviews
My 3 episode reviews for leverageland challenge 12.
1) Season 2, Episode 6 - The Top Hat Job
There was magic in the screen in season 2, episode 6 of Leverage, causing it to be aptly named The Top Hat Job. The episode starts with the explanation behind the mark - a company called Lillian Foods chose ignore health and contamination risks to food in order to save money. There’s a comical aspect to the beginning of the episode as Hardison, Eliot and Parker try to do reconnaissance on the building but are stopped, showing that the team is not infallible. Behind the sidelines Sophie tries to set up Nate with Dr Jameson, not very subtly.
The team decide to infiltrate the company as the ‘entertainment’ for the mandatory state of the company meeting, with Nate as a magician and Parker as his lovely assistant. While Nate and Parker put on a show for the corporate employees, Hardison and Eliot go to the server room only to find multiple problems with accessing the room due to the security which leads to an inventive use of gummy frogs and ‘stealing’ the CEO.
In the end, all is well when they manage to trick the bad guy and get Dr Jameson her job back. There are some great action scenes in this episode, as well as some truly comical moments thanks to the brilliant acting in combination with excellent writing.
Favourite Quote: “Oh right, right. You guys never had real jobs.” - Nate
Rating: ☆☆☆☆
2) Season 3, Episode 6 - The Studio Job
The theme of The Studio Job is music, as the mark who owns a record label effectively steals music and songs from other artists. Eliot poses as a country signer in this episode and has a love interest in this episode in the form of Kaye Lynn Gold (Alona Tal).
The team realise that the mark is planning to kill Eliot to steal his music after they discover that the original artist who recorded the single which made the mark famous was killed under suspicious circumstances. There is a brilliant fight scene between Eliot and the mark’s men when they try to kill him like the original artist.
This episode is full of interesting costumes and witty lines as the team try to take down the mark. This episode has the most inventive costume of the entire season, with Parker dressed in a bright yellow dress with a toy duck attached to it. However the focal point of this episode is Eliot singing one of Christian Kane’s own songs - Thinking of You, which proves to be a hit with the crowd as he eventually gets his own fan page and fan girls.
The episode ends in the typical fashion with the team outwitting the bad guys, causing the mark to show he’s lip-syncing and confessing to murder. This helps to give stardom to Kaye Lynn who picks up where the mark left off in the song, causing her to get scouted from the show. The best part of this episode is that the audience sees a different side to Eliot, as other episodes show him as just a muscle man whereas you see more depth to his character during this episode.
Favourite quote: “When you've done the things I've done, there's no such thing as paranoia.” - Eliot
Rating: ☆☆☆☆☆
3) Season 4, Episode 16 - The Gold Job
The Gold Job is an episode which goes into one of the latest schemes which has taken the world by storm - cash for gold. You see these adverts on TV all the time, with countless different companies all wanting gold and giving cash for the item. A brother and sister team run one of these companies, but scam their customers by giving them much less money than what the item is worth.
Hardison takes control of this con, as he feels he is under appreciated within the team, by applying game theory in order to make a new, very complicated con - the ‘Double-Pronged Monkey’ con which sends the marks in a hunt for treasure. The gem of this con is the code names - Eliot will be forever known as 'Mr Punchy' in my mind!
There’s all of the classic elements of a Leverage episode in this episode, the crazy costumes, the clever conning of a bad guy and the giving back of to the people who the mark had stolen from. However, with this episode it has a different feel to it, possibly because of who is running the con (Hardison) rather than Nate, but the audience does see a different side to Hardison and Nate’s relationship towards the end of the episode.
Favourite quote: “I had a lot of psych exams as a kid, they’re actually pretty easy. Sometimes I made my doctors cry but...” - Parker
Rating: ☆☆☆
1) Season 2, Episode 6 - The Top Hat Job
There was magic in the screen in season 2, episode 6 of Leverage, causing it to be aptly named The Top Hat Job. The episode starts with the explanation behind the mark - a company called Lillian Foods chose ignore health and contamination risks to food in order to save money. There’s a comical aspect to the beginning of the episode as Hardison, Eliot and Parker try to do reconnaissance on the building but are stopped, showing that the team is not infallible. Behind the sidelines Sophie tries to set up Nate with Dr Jameson, not very subtly.
The team decide to infiltrate the company as the ‘entertainment’ for the mandatory state of the company meeting, with Nate as a magician and Parker as his lovely assistant. While Nate and Parker put on a show for the corporate employees, Hardison and Eliot go to the server room only to find multiple problems with accessing the room due to the security which leads to an inventive use of gummy frogs and ‘stealing’ the CEO.
In the end, all is well when they manage to trick the bad guy and get Dr Jameson her job back. There are some great action scenes in this episode, as well as some truly comical moments thanks to the brilliant acting in combination with excellent writing.
Favourite Quote: “Oh right, right. You guys never had real jobs.” - Nate
Rating: ☆☆☆☆
2) Season 3, Episode 6 - The Studio Job
The theme of The Studio Job is music, as the mark who owns a record label effectively steals music and songs from other artists. Eliot poses as a country signer in this episode and has a love interest in this episode in the form of Kaye Lynn Gold (Alona Tal).
The team realise that the mark is planning to kill Eliot to steal his music after they discover that the original artist who recorded the single which made the mark famous was killed under suspicious circumstances. There is a brilliant fight scene between Eliot and the mark’s men when they try to kill him like the original artist.
This episode is full of interesting costumes and witty lines as the team try to take down the mark. This episode has the most inventive costume of the entire season, with Parker dressed in a bright yellow dress with a toy duck attached to it. However the focal point of this episode is Eliot singing one of Christian Kane’s own songs - Thinking of You, which proves to be a hit with the crowd as he eventually gets his own fan page and fan girls.
The episode ends in the typical fashion with the team outwitting the bad guys, causing the mark to show he’s lip-syncing and confessing to murder. This helps to give stardom to Kaye Lynn who picks up where the mark left off in the song, causing her to get scouted from the show. The best part of this episode is that the audience sees a different side to Eliot, as other episodes show him as just a muscle man whereas you see more depth to his character during this episode.
Favourite quote: “When you've done the things I've done, there's no such thing as paranoia.” - Eliot
Rating: ☆☆☆☆☆
3) Season 4, Episode 16 - The Gold Job
The Gold Job is an episode which goes into one of the latest schemes which has taken the world by storm - cash for gold. You see these adverts on TV all the time, with countless different companies all wanting gold and giving cash for the item. A brother and sister team run one of these companies, but scam their customers by giving them much less money than what the item is worth.
Hardison takes control of this con, as he feels he is under appreciated within the team, by applying game theory in order to make a new, very complicated con - the ‘Double-Pronged Monkey’ con which sends the marks in a hunt for treasure. The gem of this con is the code names - Eliot will be forever known as 'Mr Punchy' in my mind!
There’s all of the classic elements of a Leverage episode in this episode, the crazy costumes, the clever conning of a bad guy and the giving back of to the people who the mark had stolen from. However, with this episode it has a different feel to it, possibly because of who is running the con (Hardison) rather than Nate, but the audience does see a different side to Hardison and Nate’s relationship towards the end of the episode.
Favourite quote: “I had a lot of psych exams as a kid, they’re actually pretty easy. Sometimes I made my doctors cry but...” - Parker
Rating: ☆☆☆