Seven Reasons Why You Should Watch Leverage

If you've been keeping up with my tumblr (which I totally understand if you don't), you know that my most recent obsession is Leverage. 



This show (this beautiful show) ran from 2008 to 2012, and featured five seasons of cons, hilarity, and friendship.  Starring Timothy Hutton, Gina Bellman, Christian Kane, Aldis Hodge, and Beth Riesgraf, created by the same genius team who would later go on to create the wonder that is The Librarians, and started by smashing every trope you've ever known.

So why should you watch this fantastic show?  Here are seven reasons why:

1. It's on Netflix.

Okay, kind of a weird one, I know.  But honestly, if something's on Netflix (especially if all of it's there), I'm much more likely to watch it.  All five seasons are available.

2. It's completed.

This kind of goes along with the first one.  It wasn't canceled, it wasn't dragged out until it died, it was finished.  With a satisfactory ending.  What more could you want? (*cough* a spin-off with the trio, please and thank you *cough*)

3. The storyline is brilliant.

Here's the plot: An ex-insurance investigator (Nathan "Nate" Ford) is thrown together with the world's greatest criminals - a thief (Parker), a hacker (Alec Hardison), and a "retrieval specialist" (Eliot Spencer).  To wreak vengeance on the man who betrayed them in the first episode, the join forces with a grifter [or actress] (Sophie Devereaux) and decide that working together might be just what they needed.  They end up becoming a team, calling themselves "Leverage Consulting and Associates", and fighting the bad guys of the world through scams and cons.  Because don't you just love when characters who are all like "I work alone" become each other's found family?  I know I do.

4. It's so quoteable.





Quips and witty remarks abound.  Where most other crime shows have a tendency to be dark and gritty, Leverage remains light-hearted through most of it's episodes.  I mean, there's a parody of "The Office".  It's hilarious. 

5. The friendships are golden.

Especially these three oh my gosh.  In every episode, the relationships between the characters are deepened and explored.  The family aspect between the team has quickly become one of my favorites in all of television.  And I love television.

6. Alec Hardison.

He gets his own category.  Why is it that the sassy African American men end up as my favorite characters?  (I'm lookin' at you, Burton Guster)  I have no clue, but the fact that Alec Hardison exists should be enough reason to watch this show.  He's snarky, he's brilliant, and he's guaranteed to make you laugh every time.  (with the exception of that one episode in which he makes you cry... he made me cry...)

7. It's beautiful.

As I said, it deals with some heavier topics, but it keeps everything balanced between the hard things and the light fluff.  Yes, there's some language.  There are a few... um... questionable scenes.  (You can't say I haven't warned you.)  But once you've finished, it's worth it.  Each character is developed deeply, their arc is really seen through, they grow and change as they learn from each other, and you learn things from them.  They have real issues, they deal with serious problems, and yet at the end of the day, they stand by each other and really do become a family. 

So, how long will I love Leverage?  Eliot knows:

Indeed.

Have you ever seen Leverage?  If you watch it and need to ramble about it, do come to me because I am always up for a Leverage ramble.

(Oh, and, yes, I'm trying to get into a better schedule to actually keep up with this thing... so bear with me.)

~ Mia