In the second episode of the fourth season of\u00c2\u00a0Leverage<\/i>, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a murder mystery inside of a con inside of a heist. THIS SHOW HAS GIVEN ME EVERYTHING I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122VE EVER WANTED. Intrigued? Then it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s time for Mark to watch\u00c2\u00a0Leverage<\/i>.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
I really don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t know how this show is real, y\u00e2\u20ac\u2122all. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s like all the good karma in the world that everyone\u00c2\u00a0<\/span>ever<\/i> earned was suddenly redeemed through\u00c2\u00a0<\/span>Leverage<\/i>. At least that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s the case for me because A MURDER MYSTERY ON A SECLUDED ISLAND. AND A HEIST. AND A CON. ALL AT THE SAME TIME. And Parker\/Hardison as Nancy Drew\/The Hardy Boys???? COULD THIS SHOW PROVIDE MORE SHIPPING MATERIAL IF IT TRIED??? (Yes. Please keep it up, PLEASE.)<\/span><\/p>\n Let\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s discuss.<\/p>\n Fun with murder mysteries!<\/b><\/p>\n This has to be the most ludicrous con that the team has come up with on the spot, y\u00e2\u20ac\u2122all. I liked the idea of the premise of this party being one giant game of\u00c2\u00a0Clue<\/i>, and then Morris Beck was murdered FOR REAL during the fake murder mystery, and SOPHIE BEAUTIFULLY COVERS BY INCLUDING HIM IN HIS VERY GAME. I mean, they were skating on remarkably thin ice here, I won\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t deny that. That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s part of the terrifying fun, though, because I wasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t actually certain that they could pull this off! I absolutely trusted their talents, but there were too many variables here.<\/p>\n But that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s because this episode was written by someone who CLEARLY LOVES MURDER MYSTERIES. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s absolutely overflowing with tropes of the genre. We open on a DARK AND STORMY NIGHT. Literally! The episode cycles through the multitude of suspects by introducing us to each of the people who hate Morris Beck enough that they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d keep them. I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d count all of the Leverage team as part of this trope, too, since they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re all in disguise and have ulterior motives at play. What about the black-outs??? Those are remarkably common in murder mysteries. So are shadow murders!!! So are red herring suspects, and the mystifying and shocking final reveal. Y\u00e2\u20ac\u2122all, I never once suspected Detective Hammett as the killer, meaning that this was PERFECTLY plotted to make me suspect everyone else.<\/p>\n I liked that this was a combination of parody\u00c2\u00a0and<\/i> a love letter to the genre. Well-played,\u00c2\u00a0Leverage<\/i>.<\/p>\n Hardison \/ Parker<\/b><\/p>\n Their relationship is, relatively speaking, moving slowly, and normally, that would frustrate me, but I think\u00c2\u00a0Leverage<\/i> does this well. To me, it speaks of Hardison\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s willingness to be patient with Parker, to let her control how quickly she wants to move with him. At this point, I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t even know if their relationship is physical; it could just be platonic with a hint of romanticism. (Part of me wants to believe that the \u00e2\u20ac\u0153pretzels\u00e2\u20ac\u009d reference in the last season was confirmation enough that they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re totally doing it.) But there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a slight difference to the way these two work with each other here. I noticed that Hardison is more outwardly concerned about Parker\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s well-being, though he knows she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s capable of taking care of herself. He\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s\u00c2\u00a0worried<\/i>, isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t he??? OOOH, HE\u00e2\u20ac\u2122S CAUGHT THE FEELINGS, HASN\u00e2\u20ac\u2122T HE?<\/p>\n He did a long time ago, let\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s be real.<\/p>\n Nate<\/b><\/p>\n Well, holy uncomfortable, y\u00e2\u20ac\u2122all.<\/p>\n Despite that we knew for certain that Nate didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t kill Morris Beck, there was a\u00c2\u00a0very<\/i> brief moment when each member of the team (maybe not Hardison so much) believed that perhaps<\/i> Nate actually killed someone. It is a very weird plotline, perhaps the only thing that felt out of place in \u00e2\u20ac\u0153The Ten Li\u00e2\u20ac\u2122l Grifters Job.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d I can understand them all feeling the need to know who\u00c2\u00a0actually<\/i> killed Beck so that Nate can clear himself of suspicion, but it actually seems a bit out of character that anyone would seriously believe Nate was capable of this. Even then, it was a subtle plot within this episode, and then it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s blown into something much bigger when Nate and Sophie discuss it at the end. I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t know, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not awful or anything, it just felt\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 odd, I guess. I can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t really put my finger on why that is.<\/p>\n Perhaps this is all a continuation of the complicated feelings Nate has towards Sophie, and this was just another means for him to take them out on her.\u00c2\u00a0That<\/i> makes sense to me, given how willing he is to stay in denial. What are your thoughts on this subplot, y\u00e2\u20ac\u2122all? I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t know how I feel about it.<\/p>\n The video for \u00e2\u20ac\u0153The Ten Li\u00e2\u20ac\u2122l Grifters Job\u00e2\u20ac\u009d can be downloaded here for $0.99<\/a>.<\/p>\n Mark Links Stuff<\/b><\/p>\n – The Mark Does Stuff Tour 2015 is now live and includes dates across the U.S., Canada, Europe, the U.K., and Ireland. Check the full list of events on my Tour Dates \/ Appearances page.<\/a> In the second episode of the fourth season of\u00c2\u00a0Leverage, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a murder mystery inside of a con inside of a heist. THIS SHOW HAS GIVEN ME EVERYTHING I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122VE EVER WANTED. Intrigued? Then it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s time for Mark to watch\u00c2\u00a0Leverage.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[625],"tags":[626],"class_list":["post-4560","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-leverage","tag-mark-watches-leverage"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4560","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4560"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4560\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4560"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4560"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4560"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n– My Master Schedule<\/a> is updated for the near and distant future for most projects, so please check it often.\u00c2\u00a0My next Double Features for Mark Watches will be the remainder of\u00c2\u00a0The Legend of Korra<\/i>, series 8 of\u00c2\u00a0Doctor Who<\/i>, and Kings<\/i>. On Mark Reads, Diane Duane’s Young Wizards<\/i> series will replace the Emelan books.
\n<\/b>-\u00c2\u00a0Mark Does Stuff is on Facebook!<\/a>\u00c2\u00a0I’ve got a community page up that I’m running. Guaranteed shenanigans!
\n– If you would like to support this website and keep Mark Does Stuff running,\u00c2\u00a0I’ve put up a detailed post explaining how you can!
\n<\/a>– Please check out the\u00c2\u00a0MarkDoesStuff.com<\/a>. All Mark Watches videos for past shows\/season are now archived there!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"