In episode 2 of Leverage season 4 titled “The 10 Li’l Grifters Job,” we saw how Nate and company faced an unusual task of clearing the former’s name. Nate was accused of a real murder and everything rooted out from there.
TV Fanatic: This episode should have been a slam dunk. As exampled each week at the end of the episode we get the reveal of how the team pulled off yet another job, the show is built around the classic formula of a “who-done-it.” Sadly, this week reminded me that there is no such thing as a “sure thing”.
I really wanted to love this episode! There were many things I liked; the nod to classic and modern literature with costume requirements (Parker was a cute Nancy Drew), the house having secret passages, giving us a reason the power blinks off regularly, and several suspects in the murder, just to name a few.
However, none those things could get me past the feeling that the episode was written backwards from the idea: What if Nate and his team were stuck in a game of Clue? Allow me to give you a clue to a few of the things that failed in this episode:
We never got the clients name: While it’s not uncommon for us to meet the client after the meeting with Nate starts, he normally gives the other person from the team meeting the client with him background on the client so that we the audience also get that information at the same time.
We had no knowledge of Nate’s history with Beck: Until Hammond confronted Nate in the last 10 minutes of the episode; we had no reason to suspect Nate. This caused me to be out of sync with the story, or to understand why each of the team appeared to suspect Nate might have killed Beck at some point.
Using recognizable talent: We did get several suspects; however, when I recognized the actor playing Ray Hammond (Steven Flynn) and the actress playing Hayley Beck (Johanna Braddy) and none of the actors playing the other suspects, it wasn’t hard to figure out they would come into play.
Uninformative reveal: For the first time ever the end of episode reveal didn’t actually reveal anything to me. They showed the same scenes we saw the first time and I was left scratching my head. Someone apparently missed some days in “how to write a who-done-it” class!
I had hoped the episode was going to turn around right at the end when Nate called Detective Bonanno (who we last saw in The Jailhouse Job), as that was a great nod to last season. Sadly, my hopes were short lived as we went back to Nate sulking and drinking because he doesn’t think anyone on the team trusts him.
Boo Hoo! You want the team to trust you Nate, open up to them! It’s just that easy!
Overall, I like episode 1 as it was better. Given the issues raised on ” The 10 Li’l Grifters Job,” I hope they’ll not provide the same on next episode.
You can check Leverage Season 4 Reviews and Spoilers HERE.
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