tiggymalvern (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
tiggymalvern) wrote2024-03-17 08:32 pm
tiggymalvern) wrote2024-03-17 08:32 pm
Leverage Redemption season 2
I finally got around to watching season 2 of Leverage Redemption (yes I know it was released a little over a year ago, but 2023 was The Year of Burn Notice so...)
I was... distinctly underwhelmed? There were some episodes that were good. The one at the record company from the POV of characters of the week who kept falling over the Leverage cast was a delight. The one where Eliot went home to his dad was lovely. The reveal of more of Sophie's backstory had its moments. But for around half the eps that season, I found myself mentally checking out. Bored.
I was aware in the first season of Leverage Redemption that I wasn't enjoying it as much as the original Leverage. It isn't the same without Hardison (and I much prefer geek!Hardison to current cool!Hardison when he is around). The writing in Redemption doesn't seem as tight as it was in the original Leverage. And yet the two head writers are the same. Is it because they're running out of ideas? Is it because they're opting for fun over clever?
There were things that jumped out at me so hard as being plain wrong. Like in The Walk in the Woods, when it was revealed that Parker had previously removed the clip from a guy's holstered gun. Even if she can be that light-fingered and he's talking/distracted enough not to notice the click it makes when you release the clip, he then draws that gun and holds it on people like he expected it to work, and just... no. Bullets are heavy. Remove the clip from a pistol and it weighs about half as much and the balance is completely off. There's no way in hell he wouldn't realise as soon as he drew it.
And the reveals were bugging me too. Intrinsically. It's not clever writing when you fix a situation by telling the audience something they didn't know but the characters did. In Burn Notice, the audience always knows everything the characters know, and the twists come from outside influences. The characters are caught by surprise at the same time as the audience.
And I'm left wondering... has the writing for Leverage genuinely got worse? Or is it that watching Burn Notice has ruined me for something so similar but inferior? Genuinely looking for people to tell me here if they think Leverage is getting worse or not.
I was... distinctly underwhelmed? There were some episodes that were good. The one at the record company from the POV of characters of the week who kept falling over the Leverage cast was a delight. The one where Eliot went home to his dad was lovely. The reveal of more of Sophie's backstory had its moments. But for around half the eps that season, I found myself mentally checking out. Bored.
I was aware in the first season of Leverage Redemption that I wasn't enjoying it as much as the original Leverage. It isn't the same without Hardison (and I much prefer geek!Hardison to current cool!Hardison when he is around). The writing in Redemption doesn't seem as tight as it was in the original Leverage. And yet the two head writers are the same. Is it because they're running out of ideas? Is it because they're opting for fun over clever?
There were things that jumped out at me so hard as being plain wrong. Like in The Walk in the Woods, when it was revealed that Parker had previously removed the clip from a guy's holstered gun. Even if she can be that light-fingered and he's talking/distracted enough not to notice the click it makes when you release the clip, he then draws that gun and holds it on people like he expected it to work, and just... no. Bullets are heavy. Remove the clip from a pistol and it weighs about half as much and the balance is completely off. There's no way in hell he wouldn't realise as soon as he drew it.
And the reveals were bugging me too. Intrinsically. It's not clever writing when you fix a situation by telling the audience something they didn't know but the characters did. In Burn Notice, the audience always knows everything the characters know, and the twists come from outside influences. The characters are caught by surprise at the same time as the audience.
And I'm left wondering... has the writing for Leverage genuinely got worse? Or is it that watching Burn Notice has ruined me for something so similar but inferior? Genuinely looking for people to tell me here if they think Leverage is getting worse or not.