The commercial-free premiere of TNT's new heist drama, Leverage, scored a hefty five million viewers last night. It didn't touch The Closer's insanely high numbers, but it'll do. Leverage delivered TNT's best ratings for the 18-49 demo for an original series aired during a regular broadcast season. That means we'll probably see a lot more of Timothy Hutton and crew gracing our tubes in 2009. Fans of good TV everywhere should be celebrating.
I mostly tuned into Leverage to see Christian Kane, who I loved as the scheming Lindsey McDonald on Joss Whedon's Angel. Kane plays Eliot Spencer on Leverage, a dude who could make Jason Bourne cry "uncle!" with his amazing hand-to-hand combat skills. Kane was only one of the things I liked about this show. The entire cast was great, especially Hutton, and the whole A-Team meets Ocean's 11 thing really worked for me.
The show's breezy tone really fits the premise: A jilted good guy leads a team of crack criminals to right the wrongs done by greedy corporations. Still, I was hoping Leverage would be a bit darker. I'm a huge fan of Hutton's Oscar-winning turn in Ordinary People. A few early reviews of the show led me to believe that he'd be revisiting some of that film's weighty themes here. That really wasn't the case, but Leverage won me over from the start anyway. The pacing was great, the dialogue was fast and funny, and there was enough suspense to keep me glued to the set. I'm glad to see that 5 million other people also decided to give it a try.
The show's lead-in, the TNT original movie The Librarian: Curse of The Judas Chalice, also did well with 5.4 million viewers. Leverage moves to its regular timeslot, Tuesdays at 10 p.m. (Eastern), this week.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
12-08-2008 @ 7:50PM
I fear thee Mariner said...
I've liked Timothy Hutton since ordinary people, so I think I'll be tuning into this show. Sounds quirky and interesting
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12-08-2008 @ 7:50PM
LW said...
Reminded me of HU$TLE on AMC but with more action and no partonly fatherly figure..yet
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12-08-2008 @ 11:20PM
0megapart!cle said...
It's good. Kind of sloppy and creaky, but the good thing about cable, is they will give it room to grow.
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12-09-2008 @ 8:18AM
Diane said...
Yep, loved it. But as was stated above- clever remake of Hustle from BBC (BBC America/AMC). I'm looking forward to making this series one of my cable rotations
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12-09-2008 @ 10:47AM
ladytex said...
I watched it. I really enjoyed it. I loved how the characters interacted and how it jumped straight to business. I liked the flashbacks to show us a little about the characters without making us watch an entire episode on background. I hope the pace can keep up and I look forward to watching this on Tuesday nights.
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12-09-2008 @ 10:47AM
Karen said...
I think they lurched a little over the line between "breezy" and just plain silly a few too many times, but I liked it overall.
Some things, like the little girl murdering her parents in a giant fireball PLAYED FOR LAUGHS, was a little too off key for me! But I get what they're going for, and I'll keep watching for the nifty capers they'll be pulling off.
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12-09-2008 @ 4:46PM
bukster said...
I got this show in the mail pre-installed on a flash drive. Anyone else get this or who sent it.
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12-09-2008 @ 7:21PM
Chip Douglas said...
I thought that this show did well. It did remind me of Ocean's 11, but it was still fun. I liked Timothy Hutton best in "The Falcon and the Snowman" I am pretty sure he was nominated for an Oscar in that role.
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