Leverage: Redemption: The Belly of the Beast Job

January 11, 2023 7:43 PM - Season 2, Episode 11

"The team reluctantly enlists the help of a naïve but ambitious assistant to take down a predatory music producer, in an episode told entirely from the POV of a regular person."
posted by jenfullmoon (15 comments total)

Meet Jenna, the new assistant to a big shot, Hank Hogan, who seems to be having some odd things happening around him lately.

"That name, Lethbridge Stewart, it's a Doctor Who character." If someone's trying to get in under false pretenses...like your ex-wife... FINALLY SOMEONE ON A TV SHOW GETS BUSTED FOR USING A RECOGNIZEABLE GEEK ALIAS (looking at you, Supernatural).

"If Jenna wants to help these young women, we are gonna help her."

"I'm not sticking a random thumb drive in my computer just because some Nebraskan high school drama club treasurer tells me to do it."
"...Vice president..."

OMG THEY'RE BRINGING HALLMARK MOVIES INTO THIS PLOTLINE I'M GONNA DIE. "She's really trying to find a duke who's pretending to be a lumberjack?" "Carol appears to be trying to manifest a lumberduke, yes."
(Suddenly I need to figure out how to introduce the concept of "lumberduke" into everything.)

"Did you just roofie a serial sex offender?" "Do taggers wear tutus?"

"I know your secret! You're a Belgian prince!"

This video of Parker obviously telling how to open a safe makes me think, nobody noticed her as the repair lady....?

"Come down for a random fire alarm, have the biggest bust of our careers. How random is that?!"

The dynamic duo Just Happen to find a card for Leverage International....

This was a fun change to do!
posted by jenfullmoon at 9:08 PM on January 11, 2023 [4 favorites]

I've been a little meh about this series because damnit I miss Hardison and the higher stakes of the earlier seasons but this episode was absolutely charming. Lumberduke is PERFECT - the moment with the waiter at the end, chef's kiss.
posted by dorothyisunderwood at 3:01 AM on January 12, 2023 [2 favorites]

Random.
posted by Marticus at 1:48 PM on January 12, 2023

Giggled a lot at the Eliot whoosh sound effects throughout the food-truck scene.
posted by humbug at 6:32 PM on January 12, 2023 [2 favorites]

also absolutely DYING at Lumberduke
posted by humbug at 6:56 PM on January 12, 2023 [1 favorite]

Incredibly charming episode!
posted by grandiloquiet at 8:01 PM on January 12, 2023 [1 favorite]

It felt very spin-off/backdoor pilot. I can see the desire to continue the franchise with a much younger crew to appeal to the "youth" demographic (or whatever they call that under-35, or whatever it is, preferred viewer). I mean what's the average age of the current crew? Excluding Breanna, it's pretty close to 50, and as we all know, TV viewers of that age (and especially women, and somehow, I get the impression Leverage has a pretty high female viewership) aren't what any TV producer wants as a core audience.

Mind you, if this does get turned into something, I know I'm going to get so tired of the line "I have a business degree."

(For the record, Noah was born in 1971, Beth in 1978, Christian in 1972 and Gina in 1966.)
posted by sardonyx at 9:17 PM on January 12, 2023 [1 favorite]

In case it sounds like I didn't enjoy it, I did, a lot more than the rest of the season. It was a much needed break in format.
posted by sardonyx at 9:24 PM on January 12, 2023

Eh...they could have these two as recurring characters, I wouldn't mind. They were fun.

I'm seriously designing a lumberduke hat in my head. Lumberjack plaid, fake beard, crown around the hat. I picked out patterns to make it, but would anyone IRL get the joke?
posted by jenfullmoon at 11:06 PM on January 12, 2023 [2 favorites]

Considering how popular the Lifetime/Hallmark Christmas movies are, I think chances are good someone would get it even if they wouldn't necessarily associate it with Leverage.
posted by Constance Mirabella at 11:18 PM on January 12, 2023 [1 favorite]

I wouldn't be mad at a Leverage International Extended Universe dealio. I also wouldn't be mad if Julian "Keith" Silver was in it; he was a refreshing twist on IT stereotypes.
posted by humbug at 10:05 AM on January 13, 2023 [3 favorites]

Yeah I do not want this all the time but I really, really dug this episode. It was a nice balance between "this woman may actually be the smartest person we've met in a very long time, including our crew" and "it really, really takes a whole team and a lot of experience to pull something like this off."

I don't know that I want a full series focused on the new kids but I am 100% behind them as recurring characters - like the Evil Versions team in an earlier season.
posted by restless_nomad at 9:22 AM on January 18, 2023 [2 favorites]

Noah Wylie gets to wear a ridiculous beard and mustache and say things like, "But sadly no... My family does not support my rugged, forest-oriented lifestyle."

What an amazing job.
posted by fifteen schnitzengruben is my limit at 12:19 PM on January 22, 2023 [1 favorite]

Yeah I do not want this all the time but I really, really dug this episode.

Same, I felt it was a little too heavy-handed in all ways which meant some truly terrible irredeemable bad guys, as well as over the top fun stuff from our crew (Lumberduke, Breanna can SING and looked like a totally different person all femmed up) but I was hoping for more follow-up on the "Wait Sophie maybe has a DAUGHTER?" from a few episodes back.

I like the episodes that are a bit more complex that show some of the hidden ways in which our crew was setting it up the whole time when it looks like they've been truly outsmarted. And basically I like our crew so I wasn't as stoked spending time with a possibly new crew (so we have the brain and the geek but these younguns clearly need a good hitter and someone who can scale an elevator shaft). I did like the "How random is that?" "How random IS that?" recurring tagline but I didn't love or totally buy the female lead and her business degree.
posted by jessamyn at 9:41 AM on January 24, 2023

Oh, see, I assumed the Doctor Who callout was lampshading how very Sally Sparrow Jenna was.

I would bet folding money that there was a draft of this episode where it was 100% from her perspective, but they had to add in the couple of Crew-only scenes.

And, thematically, this was the right topic to do it on.

(I, too, was skeptical, that she didn't recognize Parker in the video, even if not as ladder lady)
posted by DebetEsse at 11:07 PM on February 25, 2023