Leverage: The Bottle Job
May 2, 2020 1:47 PM - Season 2, Episode 11 - Subscribe
To save the bar in Nathan's building from being lost to an avaricious loan shark, the team tries an old-school con.
Kung Fu Monkey - LEVERAGE #211 "The Bottle Job" Post-Game:
"We'd been meaning to explain the significance of McRory's Bar -- and Nate's background -- for a while. The idea that Nate became a rigidly law-and-order asshole in rebellion to a criminal father seemed a nice twist on the usual TV backstory, and very ... well, for the lack of a better term, Irish. I'm one generation down from the town of Roscommon in County Roscommon, and all those father/son/identity waters can get very deep indeed. McRory's is a combination of the joint I used to drink at in Montreal and the bar where Tim Hutton went as a kid. It's now as much a character on the show as the actors, and probably more beloved by the writers than either last year's offices or Nate's loft, as well-designed as they may be.
We also needed Nate to go off the wagon again. We'd just resolved the Sophie arc, and were in the middle of introducing Tara ... a lot of balls in the air. Giving Nate a good reason to start drinking again, the sort of self-justifying reason a self-righteous bastard like Nate Ford would accept, that was crucial.
We got very, very lucky that the scheduled director was Jonathan Frakes. Frakes was one of our first directors, and knows our sets -- and their limits -- like the back of his hand. He and our DP created the snowy, dim atmosphere for the bar, and he managed to keep the camera moving in ridiculously tight spaces."
posted by oh yeah! at 4:42 AM on May 3, 2020
"We'd been meaning to explain the significance of McRory's Bar -- and Nate's background -- for a while. The idea that Nate became a rigidly law-and-order asshole in rebellion to a criminal father seemed a nice twist on the usual TV backstory, and very ... well, for the lack of a better term, Irish. I'm one generation down from the town of Roscommon in County Roscommon, and all those father/son/identity waters can get very deep indeed. McRory's is a combination of the joint I used to drink at in Montreal and the bar where Tim Hutton went as a kid. It's now as much a character on the show as the actors, and probably more beloved by the writers than either last year's offices or Nate's loft, as well-designed as they may be.
We also needed Nate to go off the wagon again. We'd just resolved the Sophie arc, and were in the middle of introducing Tara ... a lot of balls in the air. Giving Nate a good reason to start drinking again, the sort of self-justifying reason a self-righteous bastard like Nate Ford would accept, that was crucial.
We got very, very lucky that the scheduled director was Jonathan Frakes. Frakes was one of our first directors, and knows our sets -- and their limits -- like the back of his hand. He and our DP created the snowy, dim atmosphere for the bar, and he managed to keep the camera moving in ridiculously tight spaces."
posted by oh yeah! at 4:42 AM on May 3, 2020
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Nate being pushed off the wagon, and keeps having one more rings true.
posted by porpoise at 2:37 PM on May 2, 2020