Wednesday, July 15, 2009

The Ony Heist Show with the Bank Bailout, Explosions, and Gunplay ...

... all in one place returns tonight on TNT. Or so I've heard.

Post questions here after the episode, I'll answer them, with the usual post-mortem, tomorrow. In the meantime, some Leverage links.

Season One Recap


Season Two Sneak Peak


Character recaps

Nate:


Sophie:


Eliot:


Hardison:


Parker:


And, for what it's worth, those shots at the beginning of the promos are all from shooting #207, "The Two Live Crew Job."


They got Chris and I drunk, and got us talking in Part 1 and Part 2.

Hope you enjoy it, thanks for spreading the word, and being fans and getting us our Season Two.

90 comments:

  1. It's great that the Season 1 DVD is out, but what about Blu-Ray?? when can we expect the first season in Blur-Ray format???

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  2. GinaFan11:46 AM

    Sharker is on the DVDs! They were on the bottom shelf at the store, but clearly a dint had already been made in their stock.

    The commentary track I listened to for the first episode was great. (Although, I was hoping to hear some from the cast too. Maybe in S2?)

    Thanks for including some scenes that were originally cut.

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  3. Man, I've been looking forward to this for weeks now.

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  4. Anonymous1:12 PM

    Me, too. What a great cast and great writing, very excited to be watching the season start tonight. I've completely given up on network television, thank the gods for original and good shows on TNT, USA Network, and SyFy.

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  5. Heeeeyyyyy!

    The Oregonian says the new season is supposed to be taking place in Boston.

    No love for Stumptown?

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  6. I will admit, as a resident of Portland, my initial reaction upon hearing that filming was going to be moving to Portland was that they probably weren't going to be setting the show in Portland. The Rose City doesn't exactly strike me as a hotbed of corruption and intrigue suitable for the sorts of hijinks the show demands. Maybe they'll go meta later in the season and actually have an episode set in Portland proper.

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  7. Robert M.2:05 PM

    Any idea whether we might see Leverage streaming on Netflix soon? I prefer life without cable, and iTunes has some serious drawbacks as a delivery method for TV.

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  8. ScrambledD2:45 PM

    Not sure where to put this, but did anyone else see the conan bit about the Leverage promo? It's on hulu here: http://www.hulu.com/watch/53083/late-night-with-conan-obrien-leverage-promotion

    Back on topic, can't WAIT to see the show tonight. The interview was great: I always appreciate it when you share the show running process, Rogers.

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  9. You are the non-pimpiest TV pimp on Twitter, Rogers!! Been waiting for you to at least tell people the debut date, but nooo! I had to Look It Up at TNT's site!

    Suggest you set up a @Leverage pimp acct for the pimpage. I'd Follow TNT, but they do other shows and I don't much care about them.

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  10. Will S2 be available on iTunes, and if so, any idea what the turnaround time will be?

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  11. And now for the wait for Season 2 to appear on iTunes or... other... questionable online sites *cough cough*

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  12. Anonymous5:12 PM

    BRUTAL! everything on one page. Friendly user. Neat. Finally, I am able to see sneak peek in my MAC. Looking forward for tonite. In about 50 minutes (Eastern time, Puerto Rico) we'll be watching. That Parker as a nun, :-))). Cool. She is a devil.

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  13. I just started watching it -- literally, Nate just came on screen -- and I have to say, TNT seems to be loving it, based on the intro. Congrats for that!

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  14. Explosions, power tools, Costigan and Costello - this is a great start! You guys are brilliant, as ever!

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  15. just finished re-watching season 2 premiere. I was at the Tampa screening. It was great both times!!! Keep up the good work, all of you, directors, producers, cast, extras, camera crew, stunt people, everyone. good show.
    no question, have an idea for an episode. Here in Sunny Florida, in Miami there is a big problem with Medicare fraud, maybe Nate and the team could come in and clean that up for us!!! Eliot can kick their ass for people selling their social security cards and companies taking the money and run and not helping anyone.
    Jen

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  16. Okay. Season 2 premiere was just as fun as last season. Good job!

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  17. Great recap of the characters. I have so much love for this show. It was great to see them come together slowly over the episode. I had to laugh when Elliot made the new door way. Does this mean that they are all moving into the building? (like a big frat house?)

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  18. Fun times, glad it's back, &c. Loved watching the team realize they were all in the theater lobby. Did you really need to beat us over the head with the briefcase thing at the end, though?

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  19. Becky9:17 PM

    5 out of the 6 people I worked with today are fans of the show and were already looking forward to it coming back tonight. The 6th said she'd check it out.

    Watched it with my family and everyone enjoyed it.

    The cast works well together and it really shows when you're watching. Great writing, great acting, wonderful show.

    Are we going to get to see what everyone was up to for the 6 months, or was the brief mention in tonight's episode it?

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  20. I guess the big reason why everyone split up to begin with is left on the fun train? That's okay, I like the fun train.

    Will we see more Sterling again this season? Mark Sheppard is a fantastic actor and I love seeing him get work.

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  21. Yay, new Leverage! I have to say, it's been very fun playing spot the Portland landmark so far! I was totally in every place you guys filmed!

    Kudos and including the mortgage crisis and all that. Great work, I so totally look forward to seeing more! We even had a season 2 premier party with beer! (So please ignore the typos).

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  22. Congrats on Season 2 premiere tonight! I have a question: one of Christian Kane's songs played in an S1 episode - will he get another song in S2 AND might we get to see Eliot sing at some point?

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  23. Finally caught it...not bad, not bad. It was definitely a shift in tone, watching the other four cajole Nate into accepting the job. It's interesting to see that they all seem to be much more on-board with the "working together" thing than he is now. Even the normally-reserved Elliot seemed to be getting in on it. Are we going to be seeing any of the Nextwave-style flashbacks showing what the characters were up to for those six-months (besides stealing and putting back the Hope Diamond and doing hinky things in Pakistan)? Actually, are we going to get any more Nextwave-style flashbacks period? Because I thought those were some of the funniest little moments in the first season, and I'd hate to think they weren't coming back.

    So, it's a very minor quibble that I have, but I'm kind of hoping the little intro credits were a one time deal, sort of a 15-second "you are here" for all the first-time viewers...they weren't terrible, understand, and they were quick, but I have to admit that I liked how season one just went with a quick title and got straight to business. It's hard for me to imagine a good spot for such credits in the opening of something like, say, The Bank Shot Job, which was very deliberately paced and set up. I mean, yeah, it's a picky little thing, but there you go.

    (Well, the car crash CGI was also a little...well, not quite as impressive as the 747 landing on the freeway. But whatever.)

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  24. How was Nate able to land a job at an insurance company after the events of last year?

    Also, is Leverage World a year ahead of us the way its been jumping 6 months?

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  25. Seconding what Kai said about the intro credits--I much preferred the way you did them in season 1.

    Also, I was seriously amused to see Kevin Chapman playing an Irish mob boss again. I could only take one season of Brotherhood, and that was only because of Jason Isaacs, but Kevin Chapman was great as Freddie Cork.

    And...okay, maybe I got a little sniffly when they all showed up at the play.

    YAY! We can haz moar Leverage!

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  26. Been bouncing impatiently for the new season of Leverage all week and it didn't disappoint. Good action, great comedic moments, the cast look happy and comfortable in the roles and it's all clicking back into place.

    As an aside, I have to say if I were Nate, having people barging in and trashing my place would drive me straight back to drink. Looking forward to seeing how he continues to cope with the not drinking thing, especially working with this crew!

    Have ordered Season 1 on DVD, really looking forward to re-watching the episodes and listening to the commentaries.

    Way to go, Leverage team!

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  27. I'll second the idea of more Sterling! Mark A Sheppard is great fun to watch and his character is so interesting. More please!

    Split seasons, 'eh? Hmmmm. Will this become a habit for future seasons (what, there will be future seasons!) or is this a one-time thing to deal with the quicker turnaround?

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  28. I didn't like:
    - The cheap, heavy-handed emotional manipulation with the daughter. ("Sometimes the wolves are the good guys?" Really?)
    - Yet another set of one-note villains whose main motivation seems to be "Nyah! I'm greeeeedy! I'ma go twirl my moustache now!"

    I liked:
    - The mechanics of the con itself.
    - The surprisingly strong performance by the actress playing the daughter.

    I loved:
    - Everything to do with our heroes, from their interactions to the superb performances.
    - The excerpt from the "Sound of Music" review.
    - That last scene with Nate in the bar. I was on the edge of my seat.

    All in all, big fun TV. You could coast all season on the strength of your lead ensemble, and I'd quite happily tune in. But I'd really like to see you add some nuance and complexity to your villains.

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  29. David Hunt7:31 AM

    I also missed the character building flashbacks. I will remember to my dying day, Elliot declaring that the watching Sophie act on stage was the worst moment of his life right after we see a flashback of him being forced to play Russian Roulette. It also made the fact that he actually came to see her in the Season Two premier really touching.

    The other character moment I found really telling was that what almost drove Nate to drink wasn’t being dragged back into criminal activity, or almost being killed. It was finding out that Sophie now had a boyfriend. That’s the kind of thing that makes me suspect that at least part of how he got off the hooch in the first place was telling himself he was becoming someone that Sophie could love. That was a cruel gut-punch. I loved it.

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  30. Ok I watched the first episode of S2 last night 'cause you've got a guest star called W.W. coming up sometime. That gets one free viewing, but what I saw last night will at least make me check it out next week.

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  31. So happy the show is back! I seriously missed it.

    Some of the scenes in this ep had a comic book feel, like I could actually see how they would be laid out in panels (the mob hitman sneaking up on Nate, the first scene with Sophie and Nate in the warehouse), and I loved that. I also loved Nate's put-on Boston accent. That Timothy Hutton sure is good at what he does.

    Since the character flashbacks were mentioned, will we be seeing any flashbacks this season? In particular, any flashbacks of those missing 6 months? (I know we already heard about what they all did, but it could be fun to see at some later point. Lots of room for tiny visual gags.)

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  32. DaveMB8:27 AM

    Interesting how you dealt with the problem of establishing the Boston setting while filming in Portland. Establishing shots, check. Dockland setting that might well have been Quincy, check. But the biggest thing was introducing all those characters who were more or less convincingly Bostonians.

    I still have fond memories of _Spencer For Hire_, which was actually filmed in Boston. Robert Urich would routinely drive into a bridge on Memorial Drive in Cambridge and drive out in Southie someplace...

    WV": "hetie", which makes more sense with a hyphen after the first "e", I think...

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  33. Yay! Season 2!

    I liked the opening bit...I really dig the repeated phrasing of "Hacker, Hitter, Grifter, Thief" (though, in consultation with my advisers, we think you should add "Beagle" to the list.)

    Nato said he didn't like the one note greedy villain. Nato apparently doesn't watch the news or notice our economy being in shambles because of one note greedy villains running banks.

    Production question: The CGI car crash. Lots of places, entertainment folk talk about how expenseive CGI is and how long it takes etc...Is it something that's getting to the point that it is though cheaper to make a car flip digitally than to get a car and have a stunt man flip it or are there other considerations that lead to it's use?

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  34. Ah, that's the stuff. I've enjoyed watching the first season episodes in the interim but this was an absolute delight. I've only been able to watch it on my iPod at work so I missed a lot, I know, but I enjoyed it immensely.

    My one quibble is fairly minor but it distracts me to hear the same musical score played again and again. I know it's a question of logistics and schedule that prevents a completely new musical track for every episode, but hearing the same bit over and again is a bit tedious after a while. And probably a sign that I've probably watched the first season entirely too much, too.

    But yes, please... is it next week already? :)

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  35. Anonymous9:13 AM

    Okay, someone on twitter gives me a link to see the Episode streaming...
    And I still buy the damn thing on iTunes much to the consternation of my overworked hard drive. TNT take note!
    By the way, great opener. And why I tend to agree that the villain this time out wasn't that complex, I would argue that the ep was about getting the team back together and any additional scenes making the villain more complex would have taken away from that.
    (Sidebar: I'm really glad to see Charles Martin Smith still kicking around. I've been a fan since he was hanging out in the tundra in "Never Cry Wolf".)
    Also, it looks like next week's ep is the one where my old college buddy, Mike Prosser gets his butt kicked! Can't wait!

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  36. Amazon.com has informed me they've charged me for the first episode. Can't wait to get home and watch it!

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  37. Unfortunately, have not seen the episode yet - no cable, only internet.

    When will TNT follow pretty much all the major, and some minor, networks and support the Mac OS?

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  38. The monologue from the banker seems amazingly prescient, given the news story about Goldman Sachs posting record profits after being bailed out by the U.S. government.

    Reminds me of the senator from The Homecoming job echoing the fall of Ron Blagojevich.

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  39. CindyD100010:34 AM

    Why is Nate wearing a pajama top with a towel?

    And who among you is the Departed fan? Irish mob, I get it, cute. ;-D

    ("Not-King-of-the-Witty-Banter" me would probably just have named them Abbott and Costello.)

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  40. @Nato: Dang, now I pretty much don't have to post. You hit pretty much all the talking points for me.

    I do, however, want to offer a big thumbs up for the way you guys danced tauntingly around the reset button at the very end. Most suspenseful moment in the whole show to date right there, and resolved most satisfyingly (for now?).

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  41. Its Back!!!

    Must say that Leverage is a sight for my eyes sore from lack of good summer programming so far. Loved the getting back-together aspect of the ep and the ever present cameraderie.

    Question: When Sophie surprised the guy attacking Nate, why did she adopt a persona (couldn't catch the whole thing but ended with "Stitch this!").

    She referenced it to make the con work later on, but it seemed convenient that she went "Irish" ahead of time.

    Welcome Back!

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  42. Jeez Rogers, who knew? "I was a big fan of his [Tim Hutton's]Nero Wolfe series, and knew he could bring the funny along with the class." http://therapsheet.blogspot.com/2009/07/thieves-like-them.html

    I'm a huge "Nero Wolfe" fan, too, and Tim Hutton sure does bring the funny along with the class in "Nero Wolfe" and in "Leverage" too. I hope you've got some winks and nudges in Season 2 for the "Nero Wolfe" fans like you did in Season 1 for the "Dr. Who" fans.

    Last night's ep was a blast. Loved every bit of it. Just one comment - McRory's is a lot tiddier than any Boston Irish bar I've been in. Maybe you can scruff it up a bit?

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  43. Cripes, Rogers!

    I didn't know how much I missed your pack of well-fitted misfits.

    Kindly write and produce much faster. Two or three times more 'Leverage' per week, all year 'round, would not be too much.

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  44. Honestly I enjoyed season one so much, I thought there was no way season two wouldn't be a disappointment in comparison. I was thinking sophomore slump all the way. But if the first episode is anything to go by I couldn't be more wrong. I loved it, from start to finish. My team is back!

    And now I have a question: So when the team meet at the play, we're given the impression none of them have been in touch. Later Hardison tells us he looked for Parker for the whole six months the team has been apart and didn't find her. And yet Sophie managed to contact everyone to invite them to her performance? Is she just that good? Or did Parker maintain contact with Sophie, while avoiding Hardison? I'm confused!

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  45. 'twas fabulous -- enjoyable start to finish.

    And on a different note -- did you read this Salon article?
    http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2009/06/06/lear_jet_repo_man/index.html

    Since we already know your crack CGI team can do amazing things with planes, maybe there's a third season story idea in there.

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  46. DaveMB9:18 PM

    Rachel -- I had the impression that all four of them independently learned of Sophie's performance, perhaps through googling, and independently decided to attend. Not unlike their all turning up at the art museum in the season one finale.

    WV: "tatuam" -- accusative singular of the latin for "tattoo"

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  47. I finally figured it out. I can see Eliot singing, but not country music. More heavy metal - AC/DC, Black Sabbath...Jackyl....

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