Leverage: Season 2 (2009)

I've greatly enjoyed Leverage since the first episode I saw last year. I'll update this review as the season progresses but five episodes are out so far and available via streaming video: The Beantown Bailout Job (Charles Martin Smith plays a crooked Boston banker who's pushing for a government bailout), The Tap Out Job (Brian Goodman plays a nasty Nebraska fight promoter who almost outsmarts our heroes), The Order 23 Job (the team has two hours to swindle a convicted hedge fund manager by staging a mass contagion), The Fairy Godparents Job (a Ponzi con artist has hidden $20 million that could save a community hospital), The Three Days for the Hunter Job (Beth Broderick plays a self-righteous fearmongering TV reporter who must be brought down by a fake coverup of secret underground bunkers), The Top Hat Job (the team stages a corporate magic act as a distraction while breaking into a tight security system), The Two Live Crew Job (the team goes toe to toe, each member taking the challenge personally, to steal back two famous paintings from and outwit another team led by Griffin Dunn, including Wil Wheaton as hacker Chaos and Israeli hottie Noa Tishby as a hard-hitting ex-Mossad agent), The Iceman Job (the team, with its grifter taking time off, has to scramble to outwit an inside job of an inside job of a jewel heist), and The Lost Heir Job (Jeri Ryan plays the attorney for an adoption agency director who was bequeathed an inheritance contested by an ex-mob-enforcer's lawyer). (Episodes 10-15 have yet to be posted on IW.). Leverage has a super-cool premise and a talented ensemble. Think of it as Ocean's Eleven (but with five) meets Robin Hood. As Timothy Hutton riffs in the intro: "The rich and powerful take what they want. We steal it back for you. Sometimes bad guys are the best good guys. We provide ... leverage." Hutton is rumpled and cheeky as "the Brains" of a team that goes to bat for widows and orphans (basically). Gina Bellman is "the Grifter," Christian Kane is "the Hitter," Aldis Hodge is "the Hacker," and Beth Riesgraf is "the Thief." Each of these actors completely owns their characters, make no mistake; each has incorporated quirky little mannerisms and emotional cues into their roles which more than suggest how good they are at their talents and how much they love to ply their trade. (They are con men -- "confidence men" -- and women, after all.) I love to see Beth cockily spin and waggle her torso when she has an automatic weapon at the ready -- or Christian as he relishes taking on three street thugs armed with crowbars and tire irons -- or Aldis as he salivates over cutting through encrypted files like a hot knife through cold butter. The fight and chase scenes are quite believable -- or at least a tad better than Burn Notice, for what it's worth. As much as I enjoy Burn Notice and In Plain Sight, I dig Leverage best of all. Enjoy! 5 stars. (7-31-09 updated 8-7, 8-15, 8-21, 8-28, 9-3, and 12-14-09)