Leverage 1x09-1x13

[oyceter]

Yes! I have now hit semester-end heavy procrastination mode! Maybe I'll finish Middleman by the end of the semester if I can figure out how to get my hands on it.

The Stork Job

Oh Parker, you are awesome. And Hardison, you are also awesome! I love the "I like the way you turned out." Every time I think Hardison cannot possibly get more awesome, he does! And I see what people mean by the interesting gender roles here. I especially love that after the reveal of Parker's background and the orphanage, her first response is not to rescue them, as the viewers probably expect, but instead to ditch them. It's Hardison who wants to go back, and it's Hardison who I feel is more and more the moral center of the group. The best part was Parker kicking the ass of all the security guards, and her insistence on going lone ranger and doing it by herself. I feel that's very much a role that has been masculinized by fiction, that of the stoic go-it-alone cowboy.

Although we've seen motherhood before in the series, I think we've seen more fathers than mothers, given Nate's central drama. (The mothers I can recall are the wife of the guy in the real estate job, who isn't the main client, and the woman whose restaurant was taken by the mafia, and she's portrayed more as wife.) In this episode, we get Sophie being kind of motherly, Parker being... very sort of motherly, and the actress woman, whose maternal instincts are a sham for the camera.

The Juror #6 Job

More Parker learning how to socialize! Awesome. This is the second Parker job we get. We've gotten the Eliot job before, with the horses. I don't have that much to say about this one, save that I love Hardison the lawyer.

The 12 Step Job

This was definitely not a favorite of mine; I am not particularly impressed by Nate's angst and personal drama and hallucinations. Alos, Sophie playing the therapist trying to help him and in general being the supporting woman drives me crazy (even though she's right).

Also, I snarled a little at the unreal depiction of giving someone antidepressants right off the bat, even though the entire show is unrealistic. Ditto the way the pills supposedly make Parker act. Ha. I wish antidepressants in real life worked the way they do in fiction... no side effects, no trying multiple combinations, no meds suddenly failing on you, and magical happiness the second you take them!

I'm not sure if I saw it again in this episode, but the relatively often use of Hardison "playing the race card" has me a bit puzzled. I think the reactions he gets are spot on, and yet, I am not sure if it fully recognizes the extent of stereotyping going on in people's subconscious minds, or if it reinforces the thoughts of people who think Black people "play the race card" to get out of tough situations. I don't know. What do people think? I personally love the roles Hardison gets in the show, that he's consistently shown as someone who is not physical, very technologically adept, and emotionally intelligent and very kind, which is at odds with pop culture stereotypes of Black men (I do think some are stereotypically portrayed as very kind, but that usually goes hand-in-hand with the Magical Negro role).

The First and Second David Jobs

Nate's angst still boring me, although I love the twistiness of the two episodes. I also enjoyed us getting to meet Maggie, even though I wasn't thrilled with Sophie's jealousy. On the other hand, I liked Maggie a lot and especially like that she and Sophie are not set against each other. And I LOVED that Maggie gets to punch evil CEO guy. Oh! And Parker stroking her hair and thinking she's cute for being so innocent!

These are Nate and Sophie's jobs. We've gotten jobs from Nate and Sophie before (the church job, the wedding job), but these are far more personal and backstory-revealing, like the Parker jobs and Eliot job we got previously. I don't think we've had a Hardison one yet; maybe next season?

Also, this Sophie I like! I don't dislike her, but I get annoyed at the role she has to frequently play as the emotional balance to Nate, so it was great getting to see her grifter side showing through again. Bringing that in got some of the old dynamic back from the pilot episode, and oh, I loved her treasure trove in storage and her complete inability to apologize. Given how Sophie is usually the emotional reader on the team (actually, I personally think Hardison is, but the team more officially recognizes her as such), it's fun watching her mess up with team dynamics.

Plus, although the Nate angst is not my thing (also, the flashback to the hospital scene and him rushing in through the doors had me rolling my eyes and wondering about hospital operating room procedure and sterile environments), these two episodes were chock full of teamwork and ensemble-ness, which is why I love this show so much in the first place. Even though going back to the aerial shot of the five of them walking away (twice!) was maybe a tad heavy-handed for me, I still loved it. I love the callouts to the pilot. I love the rescue of the hideous Nate portrait, Hardison's sorrow at leaving the office, the team stubbornly refusing to disband (Eliiot's "I leave the team when I say so."), and the ending. Gah! New episodes in the summer, yes?

Now I want fic! Is there fic? Is this another one of my miniscule fandoms? (Then again, compared to "The Queen and the Soldier" or "Angel Sanctuary," it feels like a gigantic fandom already.) I love Parker, Hardison, and Eliot the most, and would especially love gen involving the entire gang, Parker/Hardison, or Parker/Hardison/Eliot. Nate bores me the most, although if there's amazing Nate fic, I will read that too.

Comments

[laurashapiro]

It's funny, I am perfectly fine with Nate's angst about his son, since that is what originally created the whole proposition, and it's the heart of his character. What I don't like is the alcoholism, and what it brings out in both him and Sophie. I also feel like the show is trying to have it be both funny and bad, I think the time for "funny alcoholism" is long past.

I enjoy it when Nate and Sophie spar over their respective criminal interests (like the Sophie in the David jobs), but not when she's staging interventions or pestering him about the booze. As you say, she's right, but it sets her up as the nagging woman, which in turn transfers sympathy to Nate, and before you know it, the audience is enabling him!

You are absolutely right that Hardison is the heart of the show, empathic, the voice of the audience in some ways. He is the most normal of all of them, and I love the way that inverts typical race-based expectations. Re the "race card" gambits, I think that's allowing the audience to see how often PoC deal with bigotry in their daily lives, but it's being used to point out bigotry (i.e. individual white people's issues) rather than systemic racism -- which is what Hollywood loves to do. It's not optimal. I'd love to see them do a job in which systemic racism is the issue they're taking on. If the show carries on long enough, it's not outside the realm of possibility.

Others have referred you to brownbetty's fic; also liviapenn posted a great Parker/Hardison/Eliot story a couple of days ago. And there's a Leverage news comm!

[oyceter]

Heh, I am cruel and mean about white guy angst! Though more seriously, I do feel for him re: his son, it was mostly the hospital scene that managed to kick me out and go "Wait, they can't let parents just wait outside and stare in the window of an operating room or ER!" I don't know. I think I generally feel for him re: his son, but I roll my eyes a bit when the show mines it for angst potential.

The lack of resolution in the 12 Steps Job re: Nate's alcoholism drives me crazy. I keep wanting to shake him and say that eventually it will have negative consequences not just for him, but also for the team.

Re the "race card" gambits, I think that's allowing the audience to see how often PoC deal with bigotry in their daily lives, but it's being used to point out bigotry (i.e. individual white people's issues) rather than systemic racism

*nods* I think my worries are mostly that it's very much from a white POV, as in, Hardison is playing on assumed white guilt. And it bothers me more because oftentimes, we don't see the people he pulls it on acting in overtly racist ways. I do think the side glances and such are an issue POC deal with a lot, but I also got the feeling from the show that Hardison would pull it before something happened, thereby reinforcing the notion that POC are oversensitive and belligerent. I don't know. I still need to think about it.

[torachan]

And it bothers me more because oftentimes, we don't see the people he pulls it on acting in overtly racist ways.

Yeah, that was my feeling, too. Like the one that comes to mind is when he dressed as a janitor and got on the elevator and then got off in a suit and when the other guy was all bzuh? Hardison was like "you think we all look the same!?"

It seems like that sort of thing is just reinforcing the idea that black people play the race card all the time, even when no one's done anything racist.

I agree with whoever said above that it makes sense for his character to use anything he can, but... :-/

(It actually reminds me of similar conflicted feelings I have on a manga I'm following, Kodomo no Jikan, which is about a grade school girl who makes advances on her teacher and threatens to report him for sexual harrassment if he doesn't do as she says. I like the story and it makes sense for her to act that way, but I don't like the idea that it's reinforcing the whole false rape accusations thing...)

[laurashapiro]

"Wait, they can't let parents just wait outside and stare in the window of an operating room or ER!"

P. and I spend a small portion of every episode discussing the eye-rolling dismissing of reality upon which every plot depends. This was a particularly glaring example, though.

The lack of resolution in the 12 Steps Job re: Nate's alcoholism drives me crazy. I keep wanting to shake him and say that eventually it will have negative consequences not just for him, but also for the team.

Agreed. I really wanted that ep to wind up with some kind of change in him -- maybe not that he gets himself into a program, but some kind of acknowledgement that he has a problem and needs to deal. I feel like the show will definitely go there, but we will probably have to wait for it. And yes on it having negative consequences for all of them. My fear is that, when it does get dealt with, it'll still be all about his relationship with Sophie.

I think my worries are mostly that it's very much from a white POV, as in, Hardison is playing on assumed white guilt. And it bothers me more because oftentimes, we don't see the people he pulls it on acting in overtly racist ways.

Yeah, I definitely see why that's a problem. It assumes white guilt, it assumes a white audience, and it does reinforce the stereotype that PoC use white guilt to their own advantage. That's not good. OTOH, Hardison is so clearly and obviously a sympathetic character -- arguably THE sympathetic character, as we've said -- that I'd be surprised if viewers judge him negatively for it. I don't see the show shaking its finger at him for this. I dunno. It's hard to know how to feel about it.

[oyceter]

My fear is that, when it does get dealt with, it'll still be all about his relationship with Sophie.

Urgh, yes, me too. I keep getting the feeling that the show writers want to do more unconventional stuff and have interesting POC and POC one-off characters, and that people in power are more, "But! You must focus on the heterosexual relationship about the white guy's angst!" But that might just be me being influenced by other stories of Hollywood and how things get made there.

Also, right there with you on being baffled by the Hardison race card thing.

[seekingferret]

I really wanted that ep to wind up with some kind of change in him -- maybe not that he gets himself into a program, but some kind of acknowledgement that he has a problem and needs to deal.

I felt like that moment doesn't come until the First David Job, when Nate tries to make a joke of his alcoholism to Maggie and she flips out and suddenly there's an oh, shit moment of oh, maybe alcoholism isn't a joke.

It seemed to me in general that Nate got a whole lot more therapy from a)exacting revenge on his ex-boss and b)confessing the truth about his son to Maggie than he got from the actual therapy place. Whether that's because the show is trying to denigrate therapy or denigrate Sophie's skills as a therapist is up to the viewer to try to parse.

Part of me wonders if the 'best actress in the world when she's breaking the law' element factors into it. Sophie does a good job of getting information out of her mark and a terrible job of reaching out to Nate.

[laurashapiro]

It seemed to me in general that Nate got a whole lot more therapy from a)exacting revenge on his ex-boss and b)confessing the truth about his son to Maggie than he got from the actual therapy place.

Definitely. And I don't think the show is anti-therapy so much as suggesting that Sophie isn't, in fact, a therapist.

She's actually strikingly ineffective when it comes to making Nate do anything, which is why it's so weird that the show continues to imply that she's going to save him somehow. I wish that Nate would get over his shit, and that Sophie would get over his shit, too. Then they could Just Kiss Already and everything would be fine.

[seekingferret]

Heh. Well, on the other hand, it's in character with the anti-authoritarian tenor of the show that the implication of Nate getting healing through revenge on his boss is that sometimes the only way to get emotional healing is to hurt people who have wronged you.

In this scenario, the rehab clinic should be considered schematically no different from the insurance company or military contractor or pharmaceuticals company or any of the other institutions of conventional authority that the Leverage team challenges- even though they were doing a Job on a run of the mill thief, really what they were doing was subverting the authority of the rehab clinic.

[laurashapiro]

But did the rehab clinic deserve it?

[seekingferret]

That's always a more complicated question than the show would like it to be. Vigilantes and Robin Hoods aren't actually good guys, they're just fantasy good guys.

[laurashapiro]

I don't disagree with that at all, but I was posing the question from the POV of the show's in-universe ethics. The show has our gang taking vengeance exclusively on people/entities that "deserve it", based on the simplistic criteria that it has devised. I would argue that the rehab clinic doesn't meet the criteria.

[seekingferret]

This is probably true. Still, that doesn't change the fact that effectively they pulled a Job on the rehab clinic. And they may not have done as much damage to that clinic as they do to one of their targets, but Sophie had other patients besides Nate/the mark in that episode!

Maybe the rehab clinic falls into the same category as the Vatican in the Miracle Job- not the target, and not explicitly 'deserving it' for any particular reason, but justifiable casualty of the process of taking down their real target because as authority figures they're always legitimate secondary targets. Or to use another example, the way Leverage, Inc. feels free to pose as FBI agents any time they want to and in the guise of FBI agents, do things like order pizzas.

Within the show's in-universe ethics, authorities can be subverted at any time for any reason as long as it's part of a Job.