When “Leverage” premiered on TNT in 2008, it arrived amid one of the worst financial crises we’d seen in decades. Who wasn’t in the mood for breezy capers that took out the rich and unethical at the knees?
Nearly 10 years after the show came to an end, it’s been rebooted as “Leverage: Redemption” for IMDb TV, the ad-supported streaming service (owned by Amazon) that could use a buzzy, easy-viewing show to give it a boost. Re-teaming the hitter, the hacker, the grifter and the thief — who have never met a con they couldn’t out-con — is as good an idea as any.
The original cast returns, with the exception of Timothy Hutton (accused of sexual assault last year), whose character has been killed off. That requires a new player to step into the mix, and that comes in the form of “ER” alum Noah Wyle as Harry Wilson, a New Orleans-based lawyer and corporate fixer who has spent his career helping wealthy clients get away with anything and everything, but his disgust with the job has finally caught up with him and he plots a scheme to sink an especially self-serving and odious client. This is how he first comes into contact with Sophie, the witty grifter (Gina Bellman); Parker, the thief who never met an air shaft she couldn’t infiltrate (Beth Riesgraf); Eliot, the hitter who brings the muscle along with that flowing mane of hair (Christian Kane); and Hardison, the hacker who can make just about anything happen once he’s behind a keyboard (Aldis Hodge).
“These people you pursue, they don’t just cheat anymore — they rewrote the rules,” Harry tells them. “So now if they get caught, they never really get punished. I know how they think, I know the laws they bend and I know who they pay off to do it. Let me be your inside man.” This philosophy — this delicious wish fulfillment — has always been the show’s profound secret weapon, as well as that of its British predecessor, the terrifically snappy “Hustle” (available on Amazon Prime).
The spirit of fair play may feel like a joke these days. In the real world, affluence isn’t just about access to power and luxury, but a free pass to exploit and destroy and screw over everyone in your path. The cruelty is the point for these monsters, and here’s a TV show focused on doling out comeuppance for these greedy pharmaceutical execs and real estate speculators. That’s a fantasy I’m willing to buy, and I’m convinced there’s something meaningful — even on a subconscious level — in seeing the scales not tip in favor of the world’s power players for once. The world may be deeply unfair, but for an hour or so you can pretend otherwise.
There’s also the pleasure of seeing the old gang back together and they’re absolutely giddy about putting some karmic retribution into motion. The bad news is that Hardison is only around for the first two episodes due to Hodge’s scheduling conflicts with his Showtime series “City on a Hill.” The good news is his replacement — a new character named Breanna (Aleyse Shannon), Hardison’s foster sister who also knows her way around all things digital — fits in pretty seamlessly. And because she’s young and inexperienced, she brings something new to the group dynamic.
Original executive producer Dean Devlin returns and is co-showrunner with Kate Rorick (the pair previously worked together on “The Librarians”) and there’s a distinct feeling of consistency they bring to the new episodes. This team of con artists are a bit more democratic now that their ringleader is gone. They’ve relocated to New Orleans, where they’re working out of an abandoned restaurant space in the French Quarter, but the overall vibe is very much “Leverage” of old. The stakes are high but you never doubt their intellectual (or in Eliot’s case, physical) prowess. They’re always one step ahead of their mark. And when a plan goes sideways, they always find a way to improvise their way out of it.
The show doesn’t focus exclusively on righting the wrongs of Harry’s many years of corporate fixing, which could have been a potent thematic throughline. Wyle’s character feels almost sidelined in later episodes and it’s not clear why. We actually know very little about him. New Orleans is a small town when it comes to the social circles Harry surely ran in: What do people think he even does for a living since being booted from his high-end law firm? (There’s also something noticeably off in the show’s portrayal of New Orleans, a city that in real life is nearly 60% Black, but here is almost entirely devoid of Black people.)
What Harry brings is a fresh perspective to his jaded compatriots. When the team zeros in on a tech genius who’s developed a facial recognition software program used for nefarious purposes, Harry asks: “Is it a problem that we’re taking down the guy who invades people’s privacy by invading somebody’s privacy?” No, comes the reply — why would you think that? “Forget I said anything,” he says with a wry shrug, and it’s in this moment that you see just how well Wyle fits in with the show’s heist-with-a-heart energy.
Like the original, “Leverage: Redemption” works best if you don’t think too deeply about any of it, but instead allow the show’s jaunty confidence and loose playfulness wash over you. Someone has to scam the scammers. And if there’s some redemption in the end, even better.
“Leverage: Redemption” — Three stars (out of four)
Where to watch: IMDb TV
By NINA METZ
CHICAGO TRIBUNE
find the original article here: Review: Noah Wyle stars in “Leverage: Redemption” reboot – Chicago Tribune
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