Leverage (American TV series)

Leverage
Genre	Drama Thriller
Created by	John Rogers Chris Downey
Directed by	Dean Devlin
Starring	Timothy Hutton Gina Bellman Christian Kane Beth Riesgraf Aldis Hodge
Composer	Joseph LoDuca
Country of origin	United States
Original language	English
No. of seasons	1
No. of episodes	13 (list of episodes)
Production
Executive producers	Dean Devlin John Rogers
Production locations	Chicago (pilot) Los Angeles (Season 1)
Running time	approx. 42 min.
Original release
Network	TNT
Release	December 7, 2008 – present

Leverage is an American television drama series on TNT which premiered in 2008.^[1] The series is produced by director/executive producer Dean Devlin's production company Electric Television.

Leverage follows a Los Angeles-based team of thieves, computer experts and con artists, headed up by former insurance investigator Nate Ford, who use their skills to right corporate and governmental injustices visited on the little person.

On February 2, 2009 it was announced that TNT had renewed the show for a second, fifteen episode season, to premiere in July 15, 2009.^[2][3] The second season will also see the Leverage team relocate to Portland, Oregon following the destruction of their headquarters.^[4]

Cast and characters

Main cast

• Timothy Hutton as Nathan Ford, a former insurance fraud investigator for IYS Insurance and the team's leader. During the pilot, it is revealed that Nate's son was seriously ill, and the insurance company he worked for refused to pay for his son's "experimental" treatment, resulting in the death of his son. Victor Dubenich plays on his desire for revenge to interest him in the initial operation against Ford's former employer. Although Ford disliked the idea of stealing at first, he realized that he would be doing the wrong thing for the right reasons and went along with the operation. He is careful with his team, often thinking two steps ahead. He paid for the headquarters (with help from Hardison) with what was left over from the millions from the first scam after he had donated most to a pediatric hospital. His feelings towards Sophie are clearly more than professional. Nathan has raised concerns with his team and especially Sophie, due to his drinking habit. When he pretended to be a person in rehab for a scam, he went into actual detox, showing the problem was bigger than the others realized. He is sometimes called the "Black King" by the group.

• Gina Bellman as Sophie Devereaux, an actress and accomplished con-woman with a penchant for art theft. Ironically, while she is brilliant when it comes to scamming people—Nathan calls her "the best actress you've ever seen…when she's breaking the law"—when she tries legitimate acting work like theater or commercials, she is horrible at it. (In the second episode, she tries to audition for a soap commercial and turns the commercial into a metaphor for sin.) The episode "The Stork Job" reveals that Sophie is unaware of her poor acting ability when the team tries a scam involving taking over a movie production. Nathan is unable to tell her the truth, but she surprises everyone by actually giving a good performance. (He explains that since she is only pretending to be an actress, she is able to pull it off.) She often coaxes Nate into cutting the team a little slack as she and he appear to have unresolved feelings after an obvious, old relationship. (In "The Nigerian Job", she is shown cutting a painting from a frame. Nathan walks in, Sophie shoots him in the shoulder, and he returns fire by shooting her in the back.)

• Christian Kane as Eliot Spencer, a highly skilled martial artist, weapons expert and retrieval expert. He grew up around horses in Kentucky. He is both proficient with and very knowledgeable about guns, despite his distaste for them. In "The Homecoming Job", Eliot was able to identify a gun by the sound of the gunshot, as well as identifying a man as ex-military simply by a short glimpse of his knife-fighting style. He can also disarm an opponent in one swift stroke. Eliot can work fast, as shown in the pilot when he single-handedly defeated a group of guards before Hardison's bag hit the ground. He also appears to have some skill as a chef. He followed Nate even after he quit IYS Insurance, and showing concern for the lost of his son.

• Beth Riesgraf as Parker (her last name, since her character profile said she does not have a first name), a thief, cat-burglar, and explosives expert from Camden, Illinois and later Kansas City. A risk-taker, she is more in this for the thrill than for the monetary rewards. In "The Homecoming Job", Parker explains "I don't like things, I like money." Later in the episode she is seen hugging a large amount of cash. She has a fear of horses, due to watching a children's party entertainer in a horse costume beat a clown to death. In the pilot, it shows her abusive father telling her to do as she is told or become a better thief. She chooses the latter option, and is seen exiting her house moments before it explodes. Although she acts very calm and cool, she has a soft spot for children and Hardison. In "The Stork Job", she reveals that after she blew up her home she was regularly passed around from foster home to foster home, making her very cold to people who mistreat orphans–as she demonstrated when she stabbed one target with a fork. She doesn't have any human interacting skills, stated by Hardison that "For jumping off a roof she is alright, but she terrified when it comes to speaking to people". This is shown throughout the series with her vacant stare, speaking whats on her mind, and unusual reactions to certain issues (where Sophie stated for her to think of a sad time, giving her father's death as an example, she instead laughs). A running gag with her theft skills is her ability to appear in the room without anyone noticing until she reveals herself, causing Eliot to ask Nate how she does that–only for Nate to answer "I've given up asking a long time ago". Another joke is the other characters stating how she is nuts, where in the first episode alone Nate called her crazy and Sophie and Eliot stated there was something wrong with her.

• Aldis Hodge as Alec Hardison, a computer/Internet specialist, hacker and gadget guy. He is a genius, a self-proclaimed geek and science fiction fan. (In "The Nigerian Job", he tried the Jedi Mind Trick on hotel security guards who discovered his party with three women in Princess Leia metal bikinis claiming "This is not the room you're looking for" while using the Jedi hand motion, and later took offense at Eliot claiming to dress up like a Klingon. In "The Bank Shot Job" he comments on torrenting episodes of Doctor Who and later in "The Mile High Job", three of the IDs he created for Nate are named after actors who played The Doctor while one of Sophie's is named after Sarah Jane Smith.) He can hack into most, if not all, forms of electronics, and he rarely gets caught in the act. Like Parker–who he seems to have a crush on–he was raised by foster parents who were Jehovah's Witnesses, giving him exceptional conversation skills which he used when posing as a trial lawyer.

Notable guest stars

• Mark A. Sheppard as James Sterling, Nate's former business partner, now rival.

• Saul Rubinek as Victor Dubenich, the Chicago businessman who put the team together and brought Nate in to lead it.^[5][6]

• David S. Lee as Serbian arms dealer Nicolas Obrovic in "The Stork Job".

• Jeremy Roenick, forward for the San Jose Sharks of the NHL, as a security guard in "The Mile High Job".

• Sara Rue as a reluctant accountant turned victim in "The Mile High Job".

• Danny Strong as the smart son of an unscrupulous contractor in "The Snow Job".

• Brent Spiner, Armin Shimerman and Lauren Holly as William Quint, the doctor testifying for the corporation, and Toby Earnshaw respectively in "The Juror #6 Job".

Episodes

Thirteen episodes were commissioned for the first season.^[7] The series began airing on December 7, 2008.

In the pilot, Victor Dubenich persuades Ford, a retired insurance investigator with intricate knowledge of scams, to lead a team of talented criminals to "steal back" aeronautical plans allegedly stolen from him by a competitor. After a successful heist, Dubenich double-crosses them, withdrawing their payment and attempting to blow them up in an abandoned warehouse. In retaliation, the group decides to run a con on Victor, eventually exposing his corruption and implicating him in a bribery attempt, and having him arrested by the FBI. At the end of the episode it is revealed that by short-selling stock in the target company each team member made over $32 million; however rather than retire, they decide to keep working for the thrill each gets doing the work they are best at, and the added bonus that they enjoy the improved performance they get by combining their efforts with those of a team of individuals who also excel at what they do. Ford's condition for continuing is that he is allowed to select their jobs, steering them from crimes engaged in for pure profit to jobs undertaken to benefit those with a genuine need who cannot use the legal system or other 'legitimate' methods to redress their grievances--typically, as most later episodes play out, some person or persons victimized by a wealthy individual or corporation capable of bribing politicians and other important persons, hiring the best lawyers and generally manipulating the legal system. (As everyone is now independently rich, and the only real reason to continue taking on jobs is the thrill, not money, they are all more or less agreeable to this.) The episode ends with a couple mourning the death of their 17 year old daughter, who died in a similar fashion to Ford's son. Ford says "We provide... Leverage."

In the first regular episode, "The Homecoming Job", the team (now operating as Leverage Consulting & Associates) runs a scam on the head of a military contracting firm responsible for critically injuring their client, a US Army reservist. Ford's old insurance company is mentioned in this episode. They learn that the company has stolen taxpayer money from the government, and Nathan insists they arrange to return it to the government (although they do keep a portion for the hospital treating the injured veteran.) During this episode, the team members realize they enjoy their work not just for the thrill of excelling at their criminal craft, but because they are actually doing good things and helping people who deserve to be helped.

Ratings

The series ranks as ad-supported cable’s #1 entertainment program in the Tuesday 10 p.m. (ET/PT) timeslot among viewers, households and adults 25-54. The Dec. 7 premiere was watched by 5.6 million viewers and scored TNT’s best original series telecast ever in delivery of adults 18-49 during the regular broadcast season. Through its first nine episodes, Leverage has averaged 3.2 million viewers and 1.4 million adults 18-49 in Live + Same Day viewing. The first six episodes scored strong growth when comparing Live to Live + 7 numbers, with total viewership rising 33% to 4.1 million and adults 18-49 rising 42% to 1.9 million.

International broadcasters

Country	Broadcaster	Series Premiere
Portugal	AXN	March 19, 2009
Poland	nScreen	May 18, 2009
Malaysia	AXN	May 18, 2009
Italy	Joi	April 17, 2009
Netherlands	RTL5	April 2, 2009

References

External links

• Official website at Turner Network Television
• Official Leverage Wiki at Turner Network Television
• Kung Fu Monkey: Official blog of series creator John Rogers
• Leverage at AllMovie
• Leverage at IMDb
• Template:Tv.com