Best Show Ever - Tumblr Posts
Watch these two episodes one right after the other, these two scenes in particular, if you’re in the mood to break your heart over a thief and a hitter. Parker (in The Stork Job) and Eliot (in The Big Bang Job), are both confronting their painful pasts, and it struck me how very similar the rhythms of their words are as they talk about it. There’s that same moment of hesitation, that same painful pause before they make the damning admission that they’ve looked inside themselves and hated what they saw. They think of themselves as something gone wrong, corrupted, and they feel that whatever they’ve become is a fate they wouldn’t wish on anyone else.
It’s that feeling, I think, that drives their actions for the rest of these episodes. In The Stork Job, Parker risks everything to rescue those orphans, wanting to give them even the tiniest hope that their lives would get better, that they could have the childhood she never had. And in The Big Bang Job, Eliot kills more than a dozen men, and he does it for the team, he does it for the mission, and truth be told, the others on the team are also implicitly responsible for those deaths, but he asks Nate not to tell them. He doesn’t want them to have the same blood on his hands as he does, doesn’t want them to live with the weight that he carries every day.
This is why I will forever be raving about Leverage’s perfect ending. It’s perfect for all of them, but especially for these two. Parker finds a place where she is beloved and safe, and nothing says “you’re a part of this family” more than being given the honor of leading it. And Eliot, after years of being a weapon, gets to spend the rest of his life being a shield, gets to spend his days with people who entrust their lives to his protection. Parker’s wounds are caused by others hurting her, and Eliot’s guilt is caused by the hurt he brought others, but both of them find healing and redemption in the family they’ve made.
(gifs made by uuuhshiny and used with permission. Check out her blog for more gif goodness and more Christian Kane eye candy than you’ll know what to do with)
This is the moment I truly fell in love with Sophie Devereaux. Her instinctive reaction to Parker (whom she hardly knew at this point) saying she was sick was to check on her, to offer a caring touch that Parker may not have felt in a very long time. I was surprised. I mean, femme fatales I know. Maternal figures, I know them, too. But a femme fatale with a motherly side? I sat up and took notice.
That’s how Leverage got me. It took all these tropes, shook them all up, added a pinch of this and that, and somehow gave us complex human beings we’d want to get to know and understand. So we got a femme fatale who mothers everyone, an emotionally intelligent tough guy, a charming and outgoing geek, a mastermind whose own life is out of control, and a childlike innocent who is perhaps the most dangerous member of the crew. And by the time the show’s over, not one of them has remained the exact same person we met in the first season—they’ve all changed and grown, as a family and as individuals, they’ve let their edges melt and overlap into each other while settling more comfortably into themselves. And we saw it happen.
What a joy to have seen it happen.
what exactly is that show with "Eliot"? I know him as Jacob Stone from Librarians, but all of a sudden I'm seeing this show on the librarians blog and other places but I have nO IDEA WHAT IT IS
Oh hon let me tell you a thing
It’s called leverage and it will change your life.
If you’ve seen the show Hustle it’s kind of like that but better. Which is saying something because Hustle is really good.
The premise:
A con artist, a hacker, a hitter, and a theif turn from a life of pure crime, to a life of crime for a good purpose, led by a former insurance investigator.
They target the rich and powerful that are picking on the little guy, and basically set them up due to their own greed and selfishness.
Then stand there and watch while the mark implodes on itself
The team:
Former insurance investigator, turned Mastermind and crime dad.
Is much smarter than he looks. Somhow manages to herd cats (aka his crime children) and get the job done, despite being a human dissaster.
Con artist, art theif, and crime mom.
Is the most incredible acress to grace this earth, when she’s not actually trying to act.
seriously don’t let her act on stage.
genius hacker, fountain of snark
giant adorable nerd.
Also pretty much the best dressed on the show which was refreshing, because as the huge computer nerd, that’s usually the stereotypical role of social outcast loner. Hardison has the best style and the best actual inter-personal skills and empathy of anyone on the show. Sophie can manipulate people, but hardison actually understands people. And cares about them. Biggest heart. Ray of sunshine.
parker my homegirl. Best thief in the world.
socially awkward and you never quite know what she’s going to do next. It could be eat cereal. It could be blowing up the building.
My dear eliot. The “muscle.” But also…the secret brain.
he’s much, much smarter than he looks. And everyone, including his team at times, underestimates him.
that’s code for “i love you”.
Bottom line:
Every.Single.Character has an incredible, organic character arc. And make progress that you could never see coming in season 1.
It will make you laugh. It will make you cry. A lot.
Watch it.
Stress that there is “only” five seasons, even though it finishes perfectly and wraps up better than almost any other series i’ve ever watched.
Watch it again.
One of the things I love about Leverage is how all of the main male characters are giant middle fingers to toxic masculinity.
Like, Nate is shown to suffer through his grief, coping through alcohol, and he’s not portrayed as weak for his emotions.
You think Eliot would be the most obnoxiously masculine person in the show, being a former military black ops dude who busts heads for a living. But he isn’t! He’s passionate about cooking, he loves kids, even when he sleeps around he treats all of those women with an equal amount of respect; when Hardison is affectionate with him he often denies his small moments of reciprocity but instead of getting violent (”gay panic”) he simply goes “Dammit Hardison!” and is embarrassed because Hardison usually does it to embarrass him in front of a girl he’s flirting with, but he’s never ashamed or humiliated.
Speaking of Hardison.
Oh, Hardison.
My dearest, beloved marshmallow.
The most loving and affectionate member of the team is a black man. This guy hacked the bank of Iceland to pay his foster mom’s hospital bills. He plays the violin, he paints, and he just feels so much empathy for the people they help. He’s the first one to go in for a hug, the first one to admit his feelings, this funny and delightful man who is so fiercely protective and loving. He owns up to his weaknesses, admits when he needs someone, is so supportive of his team. The first one on the team to call them a family!
Sometimes I just randomly think about Leverage and want to cry because I have never seen another show that does characters the way Leverage does.
“Controlling the violence” for parvasilvi.
I just want to remind everybody
Leverage gave us a middle-aged couple who impetuously fell into bed and had hot passionate sex, then cleaned up their acts emotionally before committing to each other in marriage.
Leverage gave us a young black man gently, wisely courting a non-neurotypical blonde white woman.
Leverage gave us a young black man whose two white male best friends both describe him as the smartest man they’ve ever known.
Leverage gave us a guitar-playing country boy, an ex-hitman and army vet, who puts his life in the hands of a geeky black man and his blonde girlfriend (till death do them part).
Leverage gave us Parker, Sophie, Maggie, and Tara; it also gave us female villains with as much cunning, ruthlessness, and agency as any man’s.
Leverage gave us villains who were rich, powerful, greedy white people who had to have just a little bit more, and a clever, cunning, usually compassionate, occasionally terrifying white guy who beat them at their own game and robbed the rich to help the poor.
Leverage, gentlefolx.
(x) I’m not as into Harry Potter as I used to be but by God I love headcanoning characters into Hogwarts.
endless favorites ♡ parker (leverage)
“i think people are like locks: really complicated and frustrating, but you can’t force them. you have to take time and be fiddly. you learn to be patient, and just wait until you hear the… click.”
Also nothing will ever be funnier than the whole Leverage crew spending the first episode whining about how they work alone and this is a one-time thing ONLY and they DON’T work in a team EVER and then like two days later Nate tries to get rid of them and every single one of them is like “why are you trying to tear this family apart :(”
When someone needs help… We provide Leverage
i bet y’all thought i was done with these just because it’s been 7 months!
So here’s another thing that I love about Leverage.
Gina Bellman was 42 in 2008 when the show premiered and yet from the very first episode she is portrayed as beautiful and sexy and desirable. But not in a “she’s 42 but she’s sexy bc she looks 21″ kinda way and not in a “oh she’s a hot cougar I like older woman bc I a 20 year old manchild with an oedipal complex” kinda way. She’s portrayed as desirable bc Sophie is one badass bitch who can do anything and con anyone in any role she wants to. Also 42, despite what society tells us, is not actually old. But it feels like it is, for women at least. We are constantly bombarded with all this crap about how getting wrinkles in the worst thing ever and how looking over 30 is a horror story that should be avoided for as long as possible.
But no. Sophie is over 30. She is over 40. And she looks it. And she looks great. Not she looks great for her age. Just she looks great. Period. She is proof that women who are over 30 are not old or pathetic or “passed their prime” or whatever else society would have us believe. Women who are over 30 can be whatever the fuck they want. Sophie can be the “mom” for the team but she can also be the geeky museum curator or the fucking english mob boss or the seductress with the tight short skirts. And she fucking kills it.
I like Nate Ford, and I like Harry Wilson.
I think my favorite between the two is undoubtedly Nate Ford because he did start it all, y'know? He was unhinged and he was ruthless, but he was good. And there's a kind of complexity there for the man who is inherently good to do bad actions for the sake of good results.
On the other end of the scale is Harry Wilson who has a pretty straightforward character arc. Not that he's not complex in his own way, but he has a much kinder demeanor about him. Unlike Nate, he's not intentionally an asshole, even in his lawyering days. He just made excuses for himself which I guess in its own way is an asshole thing to do. I believe that even when he does grieve, like the loss of a marriage, he is still kind. Because when he grifts with Sophie posing as the husband seeking divorce, we get a glimpse of frustration from him, but not anger. So, when he is committing crimes you can clearly tell its not as sharp as Nate was. There is less willingness to use any means necessary to achieve the result they want. And it's not that he's not quick on the up take - he's clearly a smart man, it's just that he doesn't believe that things have to be done in A Certain Way to achieve his goals as opposed to Nate's controlling habits. Lawyers find loopholes all the time right? And they can't control judges, but they can use technicalities to their advantage, and that's what influences Harry Wilson's own judgement. Find the technicalities that work.
Not only that, Harry Wilson is a character with way more emotional depth than Nathan Ford does, and there is capacity to feel more deeply for things that matter like the Leverage team. He's not stoic with a stick up his ass - *cough* Nate, and he has great dynamics with the team that slowly - or rather very quickly, take him under their wing, and the dynamic is very soft in these instances.
Nathan Ford, for all that I love the man as a character, Harry Wilson carries a better human approach to becoming a better person. Nathan Ford was a Good Human who became a Great Bad Man. Harry Wilson was someone who went from being an arguably Great Bad man to a Good Human. And that's the approach we like to see folks.
PARKER IS THE ONLY PERSON IN HISTORY TO SUCCESSFULLY PULL OFF THE WHITE RABBIT
reasons to watch I Feel You Linger in The Air:
Protag has The Worst Day Of His Life and It Gets Worse, but don't worry he's a fighter
Love Interest is the most Green Flag man I've ever seen depicted in this genre. He's not boring, but he is so genuinely kind and compassionate despite the privilege he holds in the world of the story. So many of the choices he makes are such a breath of fresh air for love interests in these stories.
features some of the best written women I've ever seen in the genre. the two main female characters both have their own wants, their own schemes, their own agency in the story, even in a world where as women they have so little agency. one of them is a lesbian! the other is a cool badass! we stan
the other female characters are also generally well developed with their own mini arcs. yes there are multiple interesting female characters in this one!
James! he gets his own shout, he's just a cool guy
period setting! poetry! kissing in the rain!
we got genre twists: its time travel babey
oh and the Big Mystery gets solved by a drag queen who serves the most dramatic 'I saw! I saw it all!' dinner party murder mystery confession Of All Time
its on YouTube! with subs! for free!
