{"id":4573,"date":"2015-03-30T08:00:19","date_gmt":"2015-03-30T15:00:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/?p=4573"},"modified":"2015-03-24T11:01:49","modified_gmt":"2015-03-24T18:01:49","slug":"mark-watches-leverage-s04e04-the-van-gogh-job","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/2015\/03\/mark-watches-leverage-s04e04-the-van-gogh-job\/","title":{"rendered":"Mark Watches ‘Leverage’: S04E04 – The Van Gogh Job"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the fourth episode of the fourth season of\u00c2\u00a0Leverage<\/i>, let\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s go steal my feelings. Intrigued? Then it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s time for Mark to watch\u00c2\u00a0Leverage<\/i>.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Trigger Warning: For discussion of war, Nazism, racism (specifically anti-black racism), and anti-miscegenation<\/b><\/p>\n

I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t know how this show is ever going to top this episode.<\/p>\n

There\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a lot of risk taken here, from the non-traditional story, to the lack of a mark, to a heist that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s more of a treasure hunt, to the BRILLIANT and bizarre flashbacks\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s monumental. This was\u00c2\u00a0a gamble taken by a team that was clearly willing to be ambitious about staging a World War II flashback that was\u00c2\u00a0specifically<\/i> about how white supremacy kept two lovers apart. And make no mistake, there is absolutely no way you can divorce the racism from this story and have the same episode. It is integral to our understanding of what happened to Charlie Lawson.<\/p>\n

I know that\u00c2\u00a0Leverage<\/i> borrows from real-life events and phenomenon frequently, so I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m going to start with a terrible reality of the world: anti-miscegenation laws have been part of our society for over three hundred years. The practice of criminalizing sexual relations or marriage between white and black people was brought over by English colonists, lasted throughout the next couple hundred years, and was only repealed on a federal level on the 12th of June in\u00c2\u00a01967.\u00c2\u00a0<\/b>Look at that number. Understand that there are a shit-ton of people still alive who lived in this country when that was still on the books. Understand that South Carolina kept their anti-miscegenation language in their constitution until\u00c2\u00a01998.\u00c2\u00a0<\/b>Alabama? Until\u00c2\u00a02000<\/b>.<\/p>\n

(And to expand this beyond the United States, the Nazis were huge proponents of anti-miscegenation laws along Aryan lines as well and was also a manifestation of their vicious anti-Semitism. There were also anti-miscegenation laws in South Africa in the 1950s prohibiting marriage between whites and non-whites under Apartheid, and then there was that whole Population Registration Act of 1950, but that gets into an entirely separate form of oppressive discrimination.)<\/p>\n

Now, while I urge you to do research to understand what sort of historical context informs \u00e2\u20ac\u0153The Van Gogh Job,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d I think it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s also important to understand the kind of\u00c2\u00a0terror<\/i> that Charlie Lawson describes here. Something as simple and innocent and pure as flirting with a white woman at that time could have led to Charlie\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s death. He had to deal with his fellow soldiers stealing credit from him because that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s official policy. He had to deal with so many microaggressions and outright acts of blatant violence and discrimination, and this was\u00c2\u00a0every single day<\/i>. It was a relentless atmosphere of fear and terror.<\/p>\n

With this in mind, the show filters Charlie\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s story about the lost Van Gogh painting through Parker\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s mind. Again, this is a risky move, but I found it incredibly rewarding to see how she imagined the people in Charlie\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s past as the people in\u00c2\u00a0her<\/i> life. Obviously, it was a treat to see these actors get to try out such different roles than usual, particularly Aldis Hodge. But by putting these actors in the past, we could see parallels to the present. Charlie\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s entire motivation for telling the truth to Parker was because he saw himself in Hardison. He wanted to tell Parker not to waste time when it came to love. That parallel journey, then, resonates even stronger than it might have because it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s all performed by people we recognize.<\/p>\n

But holy shit, y\u00e2\u20ac\u2122all, Danny Glover and Aldis Hodge and Beth Riesgraf. How? HOW WE WERE ALLOWED TO WITNESS THESE THREE GIVE THESE KIND OF PERFORMANCES??? I was shocked by Danny GLover\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s appearance in the cold open because the man is one of the finest actors of our time, and then ALDIS HODGE COMES IN AND DESTROYS EVERYTHING. The challenge here, of course, is that Hodge could not bring an ounce of Hardison to his performance as Lawson. Even if this was through Parker\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s view, she was still hearing the words through Charlie, and that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s the view we get of the past. And so, Aldis Hodge gives us a side of him we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve never seen. Now, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not like Hardison isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t emotional, but there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a severity and a weight to his performance as Lawson, one that mimics the kind of character we see Glover play. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s almost eerie to watch because the two work so well playing the same character.<\/p>\n

I think ultimately, there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a tragic joy to watching this episode unfold. We know fairly early on that this story isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t going to have a happy ending. Dorothy was married to someone else, and she passed years before Charlie returned to his hometown. So I knew that ultimately, Charlie and Dorothy wouldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t end up together.\u00c2\u00a0Leverage<\/i> isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t the kind of show to dwell on tragedy, but it can also give us realism. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s sadly realistic that these two lovers never got to be with one another. But in that sadness, Charlie offers hope to both Parker and Hardison. He sees how she grips his hand as he leaves the room, and he knows he has to inspire her to pursue love. His message isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t overbearing, and it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not condescending, either. He just wants the best for these two, knowing that they still have a chance. Charlie doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t devalue his own life or how he chose to live it; instead, he chooses to enrich someone elses.<\/p>\n

I won\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t be okay with this episode for a long time.<\/p>\n

The video for \u00e2\u20ac\u0153The Van Gogh 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>
\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\u00a0 I’ve put up a detailed post explaining how you can!
\n<\/a>– Please check out the\u00c2\u00a0 MarkDoesStuff.com<\/a>. All Mark Watches videos for past shows\/season are now archived there!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"