Leverage: Redemption: The Bucket Job
October 8, 2021 7:43 PM - Season 1, Episode 9 - Subscribe

The Leverage team's holiday good deed goes awry when their attempt tp give a small-town librarian the spy-thriller adventure of a lifetime is interrupted by a shadowy spy organization. (Guest starring Levar Burton, directed by Beth Riesgraf)
posted by oh yeah! (19 comments total) 1 user marked this as a favorite
 
Just wanted to get the ball rolling for the new half-season. I was pretty underwhelmed with the reboot by the end of the first half of the season, so, I'm thinking I might enjoy this back half better if I space it out more. If anyone else feels like posting episodes 10-16 or a full-season thread, please go ahead.

Overall, I enjoyed this episode. I still wouldn't rank it as highly as a Leverage:TOS episode in entertainment value, but it was nice to see present-day Levar Burton as we're nearing the end of the Fanfare ST:TNG rewatch, and seems like a solid directorial debut for Beth Riesgraf. Comedy-wise, I think my favorite moment was Eliot's reaction to Wilson's utterly ridiculous spy costume.

I assume Brianna will turn out to have been lying about not finding anything on the floppy disc -- though I'm finding it hard to believe that the floppy (a) could be readable after 30 years and (b) could have anything worth reading after 30 years.
posted by oh yeah! at 8:24 PM on October 8, 2021 [2 favorites]


So, I ain't mad about this ep. Most librarian characters in TV, I (as a librarian myself) can't recognize as librarians. Burton's character I could. I appreciate that.

(I have to hope that the hacked Gateway contains only Burton's character's personal checkout list, though. If that's actually the Integrated Library System... I have a lot of questions, many of them about data minimization.)

As for the floppy diskette, HI HI HELLO, I actually run a one-horse A/V digitization and digital-data rescue shop! Yes, that floppy has a fighting chance of being readable! Without heroic measures (beLIEVE me, a cleanroom lab is orders of magnitude more than I can afford), I successfully get data off eight or nine out of every ten that come my way.

So a Leverage ep used my specialty as its MacGuffin! That totally means I'm cool now, right?
posted by humbug at 8:29 PM on October 8, 2021 [13 favorites]


Heh, I ran across a specific hardware item to help me read floppies today, for $40 or so. I still have some in my parents' attic.

Edit: I'm talking about the Greaseweazle.
posted by Pronoiac at 9:34 PM on October 8, 2021 [1 favorite]


My favorite part is the section (before the fight at the restaurant) where Burton's character must think that Eliot's the most incompetent spy who's ever lived. But because he's a kind and helpful person, he keeps calmly making smarter suggestions rather than getting annoyed by what must seem like really really dumb moves.
posted by creepygirl at 12:45 AM on October 9, 2021 [6 favorites]


I had such a great time with this episode! The twist! Burton getting to show some range and not just be the nice quiet librarian! The absolutely on-point defense of everyone's right to use the library! The very late-20th-century list of who was after the Ledger (The Company, OPEC, the Vatican...)!

I gotta say, early on I really 100% bought that this would be a "give an old man a thrill" episode, before it turned into a kind of "We Can Remember It For You Wholesale" mixup!

Is Alexandra Bligh wearing a leather dress in the scene at the country club?

Eliot's dad :( :( :(

I said to my spouse that the "unspeakable incident in Reno" was going to a Circus Circus.

creepygirl: TOTALLY. The "whoa whoa whoa" voice feels familiar to me from at least a few TNG episodes!

humbug: yeah that ILS recordkeeping is BAD AND WRONG but also in the first scene we see him just handwriting a few notes while checking some books out to a patron, not scanning anything! Also if you freeze-frame the checkout history while Breanna is looking at it, I think there's a Dewey number for each fiction book, which doesn't make sense.
posted by brainwane at 6:39 AM on October 9, 2021 [1 favorite]


Thank you for turning me onto the Greaseweazle, @Pronoiac! I've been relying on the FC5025, but the Greaseweazle looks quite a bit more Kryofluxy, which is cool because a Kryoflux is another thing I can't afford.

It's... possible? to use Dewey numbers for fiction, but yeah, I've never been in a Dewey-using library that bothered. Genre and author's surname.

Anyway, fun episode, Our Mr. Wilson was apparently a real crapweasel, and I don't even know if I want Eliot to see his dad again, honestly. Not sure it'd help.
posted by humbug at 7:10 AM on October 9, 2021 [1 favorite]


Aside from the usual overacting, I counted two blatant star trek mentions. I really enjoy this show, but sometimes it's despite itself.
posted by Marticus at 3:36 PM on October 10, 2021 [1 favorite]


The TNG reference was definitely a bit on-the-nose, as was the number of times it seemed Very Intentional that Noah Wylie said the word "librarian" or "library".
posted by rhiannonstone at 8:47 PM on October 10, 2021 [2 favorites]


Loved all the meta stuff in the episode. I know it's cheesy, but it's that kind of show. Now. I guess.

I have a massive soft spot for libraries and librarians.
posted by porpoise at 12:05 AM on October 11, 2021 [1 favorite]


I have a massive soft spot for libraries and librarians.

Speaking of which... another point to the research/writers' room for having Burton's character mention attempts to get the library shut down.

THAT'S HAPPENING, FOLKS. AT REAL PUBLIC LIBRARIES. Sometimes as directly as discussed in the episode, but often via so-called "tax hawks" defunding them (not uncommonly to throw the money at police instead). Please signal-boost and help where you can.

And the thing with the unhoused person and the harasser? Yeah, that's super-real.
posted by humbug at 9:45 AM on October 11, 2021 [5 favorites]


You can tell he's only a pretend librarian because the checkout system keeps a record of who checked out what book longer than the time it was out. (Back when I worked in a library, this was an intentional design of the catalog system, librarians are NOT into being in the business of keeping records of what you checked out. They take that very, very seriously.)

I really wanna know what else was in that chili recipe. Also, LeVar being Felix Leiter++ is a huge miss for the Bond franchise, as demonstrated here.

"Don't take my word for it." *knocks a guy out* (He even came with his own catchphrase already!!!)
posted by fifteen schnitzengruben is my limit at 11:10 AM on October 11, 2021 [1 favorite]




You can tell he's only a pretend librarian because the checkout system keeps a record of who checked out what book longer than the time it was out. (Back when I worked in a library, this was an intentional design of the catalog system, librarians are NOT into being in the business of keeping records of what you checked out. They take that very, very seriously.)

I'm fanwanking Mr. Blanche keeps a list of all the books he's personally checked out and when he checked them out. Partly so he can keep track of when to check out Shogun but also because he likes to keep track of his reading and wants to make sure he doesn't accidentally reread a book he didn't like.
posted by Constance Mirabella at 1:24 PM on October 11, 2021 [3 favorites]


That is an excellent theory and now I subscribe to it as well.

I will add my theory that there was a mixup in the hospital and Mr. Blanche is just fine. Once he realizes this, he will start Yet Another Leverage Crew that can come back in later seasons if Mr. Burton so wishes.
posted by fifteen schnitzengruben is my limit at 1:32 PM on October 11, 2021 [1 favorite]


I thought that his checkout list was going to be an encryption of the Ledger because yes, checkout records = bad. Having a floppy in a book too is fine, I guess. As long as LeVar Burton had a good time (and I think he did), I'm pleased.

I immediately clocked Breanna as lying about the Ledger to Sophie but it was never followed up on?
posted by snerson at 2:42 PM on October 11, 2021 [1 favorite]


I suspect the Ledger will reappear later. Possibly in Hardison's hands. (And I suspect Sophie knows this perfectly well and is ok with it and/or curious to see what the new kid does with it.)
posted by restless_nomad at 7:12 AM on October 12, 2021 [2 favorites]


Awww, I loved the whole "he's really a spy!" thing! Adorable.

OMG HOW DID THEY FIND A MINI-HARDISON? I seriously thought that kid was a flashback to Teen Hardison in the first scene. Is he some IRL relative?
posted by jenfullmoon at 7:31 PM on October 12, 2021 [4 favorites]


I felt kind of bad for mini-Hardison, though! As far as he knows, his favorite librarian has been tragically killed. And it's kind of sad for Blanche, too, who could have died among people he had grown fond of, and now has to find a new place to hide when he's sick and old. It was a less than entirely satisfying ending.
posted by tavella at 8:31 AM on October 14, 2021 [3 favorites]


I've never been in a Dewey-using library that bothered. Genre and author's surname.

Exactly.

Most librarian characters in TV, I (as a librarian myself) can't recognize as librarians. Burton's character I could. I appreciate that.

(I have to hope that the hacked Gateway contains only Burton's character's personal checkout list, though. If that's actually the Integrated Library System... I have a lot of questions, many of them about data minimization.)


I've been trying to not bug everyone with my year-after feels about all these episodes but THIS ONE omg. Levar Burton was a nice recognizable librarian except for his reading on the job (which nearly none of us have the time to do). I was pretty surprised that the computer was tracking checkouts because it's certainly not best practices but even more surprised that it went back ten years since a LOT Of libraries if they do keep records don't keep them that long. The Shogun thing was such a joke because that book is in every library and no one seems to ever read it. Most libraries I know don't weed if a book hasn't circed for merely a year but I was actually impressed enough that the show knew enough to even have that be a plot point that I forgave it. I winced when the started shooting up the library and for a brief second it looked like they were going to turn the sprinklers on and I was like "NOOOOOOOOO"

For a show that is so digitally savvy in some ways (I mean the hacking is oversimplified but at least they have it) I'm always surprised when plot points revolve around a single copy of some sort of digital information. Who does that anymore?


Eliot's dad :( :( :(


Gosh I hope that has a nice resolution at some point. That's all so raw and Eliot deserves some healing or at least some closure.
posted by jessamyn at 8:31 AM on January 4, 2023 [1 favorite]


« Older Foundation: Barbarians at the ...   |  Supernatural: Survival of the ... Newer »

You are not logged in, either login or create an account to post comments