Leverage: The Three Days of the Hunter Job
April 5, 2020 1:49 PM - Season 2, Episode 5 - Subscribe
The team cons a sleazy tabloid newscaster with the story of a government cover-up.
I love the way Hardison takes a character and runs with it.
That car product placement is pretty jarring. Was loading maps onto a GPS via a CD a real thing back in the day or was that supposed to be some sort of special Leverage tech?
posted by Naanwhal at 7:13 PM on April 7, 2020
That car product placement is pretty jarring. Was loading maps onto a GPS via a CD a real thing back in the day or was that supposed to be some sort of special Leverage tech?
posted by Naanwhal at 7:13 PM on April 7, 2020
Yeah, Aldis Hodge is - if not under-rated - under-prolific. I'm always impressed with every role that I discover him in. I kind of doubt his facial hair grows in splotchy like that, even at his age then, but that's a great detail.
As an old - yeah, that was a kinda fancy GPS unit that could be updated, in 2009.
But not through the car's CD player. Typically there was a card slot or you had to plug it into a computer and update via CD there. Later, you could download an update file instead of using a physical CD. Those updates were expensive, and iirc, there was some fairly heavy copy protection.
I'm kind of ok with that product placement since the previous scene has Hardison staring cross-eyed at a paper map while the tabloid newscaster was driving to the "secret army base."
However, it's kind of goofy that Nate updates "satellite images" for the army base. iirc, GPSs were sold regionally with regional maps. Its typically only if you want to update the map from several years ago, or if you're going to a different region/ country - depending on how money grubby the manufacturer was - that you'd need/ want to update. There was also pretty limited storage space on most units.
Google Maps was absolutely revolutionary, but I didn't have a smartphone until '13 or 14.
I remember pre-2000 planning routes in MapQuest (or the like) for cross-State/ cross-country roadtrips and printing out reams of directions. The accuracy/ pathfinding algorithms SUCKED, especially outside of the US. I remember a set of directions from Iowa to Toronto to Calgary where it wanted me to criss-cross the border several times between TO and Cal, until I wised up and just stayed on the Trans-Canada #1 and ignored the directions.
Even until the '10s I remember stopping at a gas station to buy (no refunds!, no browsing!) physical maps. I still see print roadmaps at the gas station, though.
posted by porpoise at 9:48 PM on April 7, 2020
As an old - yeah, that was a kinda fancy GPS unit that could be updated, in 2009.
But not through the car's CD player. Typically there was a card slot or you had to plug it into a computer and update via CD there. Later, you could download an update file instead of using a physical CD. Those updates were expensive, and iirc, there was some fairly heavy copy protection.
I'm kind of ok with that product placement since the previous scene has Hardison staring cross-eyed at a paper map while the tabloid newscaster was driving to the "secret army base."
However, it's kind of goofy that Nate updates "satellite images" for the army base. iirc, GPSs were sold regionally with regional maps. Its typically only if you want to update the map from several years ago, or if you're going to a different region/ country - depending on how money grubby the manufacturer was - that you'd need/ want to update. There was also pretty limited storage space on most units.
Google Maps was absolutely revolutionary, but I didn't have a smartphone until '13 or 14.
I remember pre-2000 planning routes in MapQuest (or the like) for cross-State/ cross-country roadtrips and printing out reams of directions. The accuracy/ pathfinding algorithms SUCKED, especially outside of the US. I remember a set of directions from Iowa to Toronto to Calgary where it wanted me to criss-cross the border several times between TO and Cal, until I wised up and just stayed on the Trans-Canada #1 and ignored the directions.
Even until the '10s I remember stopping at a gas station to buy (no refunds!, no browsing!) physical maps. I still see print roadmaps at the gas station, though.
posted by porpoise at 9:48 PM on April 7, 2020
Kung Fu Monkey - LEVERAGE #205 "The Three Days of the Hunter Job" Post-game: "The center of the episode is almost thrown away in, well, the center of the episode, when Monica Hunter explains what her job is: "I sell fear." This is one of those things about Pundit Parasites I find particularly offensive (really, John? We had no idea.). I mean, the crime rate in New York is the lowest it's been in 42 years -- it's almost as safe to ride the subway now as it was back when Mad Men was happening, yet nice middle-Americans still treat urban centers as hellholes. Your kid is literally as likely to be struck by lightning as abducted and killed, and yet we're lojacking our kids. We have nice, ill-informed old people with trembling lips begging their Congressmen not to vote for "death panels." All because selling fear, making sure people believe something unspeakable is about to happen at any time is cheap, easy and big business. There's a general rule we have on the show, in that the villain should be brought down by some version of his original sin. Hunter's sin was selling fear, and that's the fate she earned."
posted by oh yeah! at 7:35 PM on April 14, 2020
posted by oh yeah! at 7:35 PM on April 14, 2020
Aldis Hodge is just incredible.
I thought the overall plot of this episode taking down a cable news shock jock was really satisfying.
posted by medusa at 8:19 AM on May 12, 2021
I thought the overall plot of this episode taking down a cable news shock jock was really satisfying.
posted by medusa at 8:19 AM on May 12, 2021
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Sophie on her way crosstraining some mastermind skills.
posted by porpoise at 6:12 PM on April 5, 2020