{"id":4391,"date":"2015-01-23T08:00:39","date_gmt":"2015-01-23T16:00:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/?p=4391"},"modified":"2015-01-12T14:40:42","modified_gmt":"2015-01-12T22:40:42","slug":"mark-watches-leverage-s01e05-the-mile-high-job","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/2015\/01\/mark-watches-leverage-s01e05-the-mile-high-job\/","title":{"rendered":"Mark Watches ‘Leverage’: S01E05 – The Mile High Job"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the fifth episode of the first season of\u00c2\u00a0Leverage<\/i>, the team tracks down assets being liquidized by a corrupt company, but is trapped alongside them in the worst place imaginable. Intrigued? Then it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s time for Mark to watch\u00c2\u00a0Leverage<\/i>.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Trigger Warning: For airplane crashes<\/b>.<\/p>\n

It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s true that the vast majority of things that I cover for Mark Reads and Mark Watches are science fiction and fantasy. I tend to gravitate to those genres because it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a lot of fun to pick apart and analyze works that come from that sort of creative space. So it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s always a bit of a challenge experience to force my brain to think about criticism differently whenever I watch or read something that isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t from those genres. Truthfully,\u00c2\u00a0Leverage<\/i> exists in our world completely, and that means it doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t have to do the sort of worldbuilding I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m used to. That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not to say that it doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t ask us to suspend our disbelief, though. This episode surely does in its climactic scene, and we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re constantly expected to accept many of the hacking concepts outright with little explanation of what these people are actually doing.<\/p>\n

But that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not a bad thing at all. What\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s fun about\u00c2\u00a0Leverage<\/i> is how it shows us the methods the team uses to exploit social awkwardness or foolishness in a way that allows them to get access to anything that they want. There\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a technical angle that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s hard to ignore, but that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not what the show is best at. No, it fires on all cylinders when Hardison exploits people\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s perception of his skin color in order to distract them from what he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s actually doing. Oh my god, I could write AN ENTIRE REVIEW devoted to the way in which this show engages with gender and race to point out people\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s prejudicial treatment of one another. (Already! I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve only seen five episodes!) EXCEPT THAT\u00c2\u00a0LEVERAGE\u00c2\u00a0<\/i>USES THOSE WEAKNESSES IN OTHERS TO GIVE THE LEVERAGE TEAM AN ADVANTAGE. Sophie hits on others to disarm them; Hardison speaks in Spanish excitedly to make people look down on him; Parker refuses to allow people to see her as a silly, airy blond. These are all conscious things in practically every episode so far! I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t feel like that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s something that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s coming out of the writers by accident.<\/p>\n

I feel like it goes hand-in-hand with the team\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s progressive view of American society, at least in terms of how the show casts villains. In \u00e2\u20ac\u0153The Mile High Job,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d corporate America is in the crosshairs again. While the trope of a corporation covering up knowledge of a deadly product is nothing new (in our world or in fiction), I was floored by how far the show took this concept. At the heart of this is the idea that to Haldeman (and by extension, most of GenoGrow), everything is a cost-benefit analysis. When the Jameson\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s lawsuit gets too close to the truth, he reasons that it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s cheaper to CRASH AN ENTIRE PLANE REMOTELY than risk losing in court. If you don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t think that the basis for this plot is something all major companies consider, then this might seem like a ludicrous premise. But it is, again, something the show did not need to invent. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s already a real practice.<\/p>\n

That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s part of why this is such a disturbing thing to unfold. As the Leverage team tries to find out what assets Haldeman is having sent to the Caymans to liquidate, we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re also dropped into a BOTTLE EPISODE on a plane and IT\u00e2\u20ac\u2122S LEGITIMATELY SUSPENSEFUL and PARKER NEVER FAILS TO BE ENTERTAINING. (I see that I was wrong about my perception of her character. She actually\u00c2\u00a0is<\/i> pretty direct, often going for the cutting remark rather than small talk or sugar coating\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 well, literally anything.) It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s an absurd plot at times, sure, but I actually think that Hardison\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s role in \u00e2\u20ac\u0153The Mile High Job\u00e2\u20ac\u009d is a lot harder to believe.<\/p>\n

And yet? It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s so perfect. IT IS A SPECTACLE, PLEASE TELL ME ALDIS HODGE IS IN\u00c2\u00a0EVERYTHING<\/i>. How could you not adore him after this? He\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a wonderful comedic actor, no doubt. But in this episode, while he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s back at the office supporting the team, he finds himself having to run an entire con job\u00c2\u00a0by himself<\/i>. At the start of the episode, of course, he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s goofing around with Hot Pockets and snooping on Nate\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s computer, which is a clever way for Hardison\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s later doubt to make an appearance. We have to remember that these people have only known one another in a professional sense for a few weeks, if that. They\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re not quite a super team, they get on each other\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s nerves, they disappoint one another, and sometimes, they doubt themselves. After Hardison weasels his way past the front desk with his brilliant janitor routine, he then embeds himself within the massive GenaGrow employee population. I think part of his role here is to act as an agent of parody, since the early scenes with him poke fun at corporate culture. But when he needs to, he finds ways to pull Haldeman out of his office or hack a plane remotely. HACKING AN AIRPLANE, Y\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ALL.<\/p>\n

And yet, this doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t mean that Hardison is a perfect hacker, and there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s that genuinely scary moment when he has no idea what to do to help. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a rare glimpse of vulnerability from this character, and it also shows us how Nathan truly works as the team member who keeps this whole ship together. When Hardison freaks out (and understandably so!), he doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t berate him or insult him. He tells Hardison that he believes in him, and even if he is silly and sassy,\u00c2\u00a0he always comes through in the end<\/i>. And that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s what matters most, right?<\/p>\n

Then we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve got Sophie and Nathan, whose past relationship is explored EVEN MORE THAN BEFORE. With each episode, I come to understand just how close these two were. This was not a short fling or some sort of disposable relationship with one another. I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m confident that these two loved one another, and\u00c2\u00a0fiercely<\/i> so. There\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s some humor here, but it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s still something that the show is treating seriously. Sophie is never quite sure if Nathan feels the same way about their past as she does. Which makes me wonder if either of them are entertaining a relationship again, or if this is all just nostalgia. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s fun to reminisce about the good times (OH MY GOD WHAT HAPPENED IN PARIS AND WHAT HAPPENED IN TUSCANY), but is there meaning beyond that? (I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m sure the fanfiction says there is!)<\/p>\n

I feel not an ounce of desire to criticize the unreal nature of landing a plane on a bridge, so I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m just gonna say I loved this episode.<\/p>\n

The video for \u00e2\u20ac\u0153The Mile High Job\u00e2\u20ac\u009d can be downloaded here for $0.99<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Mark Links Stuff<\/b><\/p>\n

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