Casual Cogitations

At one time, Nathan Ford was the best insurance investigator in the business. He was a master at recovering stolen goods, thus saving his bosses millions of dollars in payouts over the years. Unfortunately, the company wasn't interested in returning the favor, allowing Nate's son to die rather than pay for the experimental treatments that might have saved the child.

Crushed by the boy's death, Nate crawled into a bottle, which led to his divorce and finally, his inability to keep a job. Enter Victor Dubenich. Dubenich wants to hire Nate to steal back stolen research from a rival corporation—a corporation insured by the same company that screwed Nate over. Unable to resist the offer, Nate goes to the very best, the thieves and grifters he's spent his whole life chasing. He hires cat burglar Parker, hacker Hardison, and "recovery specialist" Elliott . They make quick work of stealing the research then destroying the computer copies, but once the job is done they realize they've been double-crossed and that makes them all very angry. We like this team, when they get angry.

Now it's time for Nate to pull a con of his own. He brings in the final team member, grifter Sophie and it's payback time. When all is said and done, this team of misfits finds that there's a certain joy in justice, so they decide to put their combined talents to work for the good of common man. Because all you need when fighting a corporate giant is just a little leverage.

Each episode is devoted to a new con that has Nate and the team pretending to be everything from FBI agents to priests to caterers at a mob wedding. The modern spin is that these cons are very complex and the solutions often lie in a high tech response to a very basic problem. Identities are stolen, safes are cracked, documents are forged, and it's all in the name of justice for the little guy.

The joy of Leverage comes from watching the plan come together. How do you get a crooked contractor to sign over the house he just stole to the people he stole it from? You simply pretend you're building a ski resort then fake an insurance scam, convince the mark Parker has a brain tumor, make two brothers suspicious of each other, then switch the legal documents at the bank, causing them to sign over everything to Nate who can then do what he wants with the assets. Like candy from a baby.

I'll give you that there are moments in the show that make you say, no way, but the writers assure us in the commentary, that (almost) everything they do is actually possible. They've gone so far as to recreate certain moments, such as sending a fake ID fax from a cell phone, just to prove the validity to the network who didn't believe them either.

One of the reasons the show works is because they have an expert in cons on their side who is not to be believed. I stood toe-to-toe with him and didn't see him steal my friend's watch, which turned up on his wrist. Apparently Beth Riesgraf, who plays Parker, learned her lessons so well, everyone checks their pockets whenever she leaves a room.

But even the cleverest con wouldn't be enough to keep you coming back every week if the characters weren't likeable, and that's a real danger when you're doing a show about thieves. Not a problem on this series. Even though they're crooks, these five are oddly relatable. Parker has social issues, which always has her saying the wrong thing at the wrong time. Elliot likes to punch things when he gets frustrated. Hardison is an often-overlooked nerd and even the lovely Sophie is plagued by a dream that's always out of reach. And Nate, he's the epitome of "when bad things happen to good people," and you just want to fix him but you can't.

FAMOUS LAST WORDS

Leverage is the perfect blend of action, drama and comedy. The scripts are clever, the characters are charming, and the overall look is as slick as a feature film. But don't think that funny means light. You're going to have to pay close attention, if you want to follow the twists and turns in the cons, but the payoff is always worth it.