Leverage: Redemption: The Work Study Job
January 3, 2023 5:15 PM - Season 2, Episode 10 - Subscribe

A celebrity physics professor steals a grad student's research and humiliates her. The crew infiltrates a campus, makes friends with the janitorial and security staff, and grapples with the intersection of university politics and tech transfer to industry.
posted by brainwane (9 comments total)
 
I enjoy watching this show, and also enjoy nitpicking it.
The science babble wasn't too bad, until they gave us 'Tomahawk reactor'; even google knows that's wrong:
"Including results for tokamak reactor
Search only for tomahawk reactor"
posted by Marticus at 8:39 PM on January 3, 2023 [2 favorites]


For this episode in particular I'd like to know more about earlier drafts and what got cut for time. For instance, I bet there was more detail in an earlier draft regarding how Breanna coached Emma so she could actually do the elevator presentation.

Have we seen Nash before?
posted by brainwane at 9:57 AM on January 4, 2023


"What do all tech billionaires do?" Cut to HARDISON IN SPACE JOINING THE CON. "Sorry to disturb your seventh sunrise of the day." LOLOLOLOLOL.
posted by jenfullmoon at 12:56 PM on January 4, 2023 [2 favorites]


re: tokamak - yeah, that was jarring enough to take me out of the moment too.

Breanne: "... Dr. Tennant and Dr. Whittaker..."

If we're nitpicking, I'm tired of the 'eccentric academic' look/ stereotype that Sophie used. Who sticks two dead-tree pencils in their hair bun anymore? Mechanical and stylus these days.

And where did the oversized pencil go to after Hardison hooked Gray? But showed back up after the gang finalized the end game. And then disappeared again after they arrived on campus.

I'm of two minds about sticks in hair; a bun is a useful place to stick a stick, but a stick can be used to make a bun. However, in the later scenario, you can't use the stick for it's other purpose without one's bun being undone. Sophie's bun was the former type.

If we're still nitpicking, I'm surprised that the Fraternal Order of Support Staff (paraphrasing by me) - has zero sister members. Maybe there's a separate Sorority?

However, I do have to appreciate that the closing card shot of the campus, they left the crane* in there.

*donations to alma maters tend to go towards capital projects instead of, you know, improving education

Overall a little better than it could have been. But the mental health issues/ anxiety-in-particular wasn't good (minimizing, "one-weird-trick-overcomes").
posted by porpoise at 7:01 PM on January 4, 2023 [2 favorites]


I am much more likely to use a pen to put my hair up because dead wood pencils with appropriate sharpeners are just not lying around these days. In those cases, though, they're structural and not meant to be removed for later use.
posted by Karmakaze at 8:15 AM on January 5, 2023 [1 favorite]


All season long, I've been thinking "Why did the writers send Hardison into space? Wouldn't overseas work just as well for their purposes?" I thought the answer was that they could shoot scenes of Aldis Hodge in front of a green screen wherever and whenever he had a break from his other projects, and everyone expects space backgrounds too look a little wonky anyway.

But to have space be worked into the con ("of course he's in space, he's a below-the-radar tech billionaire") was just a brilliant payoff.
posted by creepygirl at 8:37 PM on January 8, 2023 [2 favorites]


Not to mention the 'Contact' reference, too.
posted by porpoise at 6:40 PM on January 9, 2023


This one hit a little close to home. Where I work, there was a notorious bully in the engineering school who didn't get put on ice until one of their students... well... yeah.

And the division I work for is currently "led" by a smarmy moneygrubber all too much like the dean in this ep, only white and even smarmier.

But I did enjoy Hardison as space billionaire.
posted by humbug at 6:18 PM on January 12, 2023


The billionaire with a heart of gold was a bit much, but I did enjoy the Grand Lodge of Janitors was great.
posted by fifteen schnitzengruben is my limit at 9:09 PM on January 18, 2023 [1 favorite]


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