{"id":4491,"date":"2015-03-06T08:00:55","date_gmt":"2015-03-06T16:00:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/?p=4491"},"modified":"2015-02-07T18:29:43","modified_gmt":"2015-02-08T02:29:43","slug":"mark-watches-leverage-s03e05-the-double-blind-job","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/2015\/03\/mark-watches-leverage-s03e05-the-double-blind-job\/","title":{"rendered":"Mark Watches ‘Leverage’: S03E05 – The Double Blind Job"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the fifth episode of the third season of\u00c2\u00a0Leverage<\/i>, Parker develops feelings; Nate may have gone too far; Eliot gets rejected. Intrigued? Then it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s time for Mark to watch\u00c2\u00a0Leverage<\/i>.\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n

It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s never easy to tell someone that you like them. But for someone like Parker, that task must seem monumentally terrifying, despite that Hardison had given her a number of signals along the way that he dug her. But what I appreciate about this episode \u00e2\u20ac\u201c and Parker\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s continued characterization \u00e2\u20ac\u201c is that ultimately, the writers\u00c2\u00a0care<\/i> about her.\u00c2\u00a0I laughed as she shot daggers at Ashley, and the show definitely uses Parker for comic relief at times. But it does for almost all of the characters at one point or another. At the heart of her character, though, is a young woman who is still trying to figure out how to navigate a world that seems to come easily to everyone else. As I said, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s been no mystery that Hardison is attracted to Parker, but the show still\u00c2\u00a0respects that even this fairly basic gesture is challenging for her. What do you do to reciprocate that kind of a feeling? That might be a little simpler to deal with, but throughout \u00e2\u20ac\u0153The Double Blind Job,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Parker is totally bewildered by a\u00c2\u00a0different<\/i> emotion, one she may not have ever had in the romantic sense: jealousy. As far as I can tell, she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s always been on her own. She\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s never really expressed interest in anyone before Hardison, and yet there are growing feelings within her towards him.<\/p>\n

So what happens when he is kind and flirty with another woman? Parker hasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t even returned Hardison\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s affection yet, and now she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s being dealt\u00c2\u00a0another<\/i> feeling??? WHAT ARE FEELINGS? HOW DO THEY WORK? And look, as someone who grew up perennially awkward and possessing a remarkably sensitive anxiety trigger, I like that at the end of the day, Parker has someone in Sophie to help her navigate this shit. A lot of us don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t. Human interaction can be a perplexing and horrifying thing for anyone, but compound that with any number of factors, and it becomes more than just\u00c2\u00a0scary<\/i>, you know? There\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s self-doubt; a lack of self-worth; disabilities; mental illness; sexuality; internalized oppression; being neuroatypical; THERE ARE SO MANY MORE. And Parker\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s own anxieties are unique to her and her situation.<\/p>\n

I love Hardison\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s response to all this because he recognizes that Parker has a lot of trouble communicating something like romantic attraction or even physical attraction. So he leaves a door open. He tells her that whenever she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s ready to take things further, he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll be waiting for her. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s such a good response because it removes the pressure on her to figure out what she wants RIGHT NOW. She can take things at her own pace, you know? I think that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s important and respectful, and it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s just\u00c2\u00a0damn good writing.\u00c2\u00a0<\/i>Shit, y\u00e2\u20ac\u2122all, this romance is such a slow burn, BUT IT DESTROYS ME SO COMPLETELY.<\/p>\n

Anyway, I had to open this review with FIVE HUNDRED WORDS ABOUT PARKER because I JUST ADORE HER SO MUCH. This is yet another solid episode that, at times, felt a tad bit similar to some of the other corporate corruption schemes. There\u00c2\u00a0were<\/i>\u00c2\u00a0aspects of it that kept it from feeling to repetitive. Namely, this episode opens with a death: Ashley\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s sister, who died during a drug trial. The threat of death gives \u00e2\u20ac\u0153The Double Blind Job\u00e2\u20ac\u009d and eerie and unnerving edge to it, especially since the team discovers that Darren Hoffman is so openly willing to kill people so he can make a profit for PalloGen. Again, there is truth in fiction: that cost-benefit analysis is something nearly all major corporations do, and that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s especially the case with big pharmaceutical companies. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s sometimes worth it for them to break the law because the penalties are so low relative to their profit margins. (And note that these fees that Hoffman speaks off are a percentage of a PROFIT, not a percentage of the gross earnings.)<\/p>\n

So that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s the threat that hangs over this episode. If the team doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t expose Darren Hoffman, he helps release a drug that is\u00c2\u00a0almost\u00c2\u00a0precisely\u00c2\u00a0<\/i>identical to the one that killed Ashley\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s sister. There are great performances all around in \u00e2\u20ac\u0153The Double Blind Job.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s always a bit surreal to see Eliot doing grifting because he often chooses characters who are polar opposites to his own personality. Of course, the hilarious irony here is that Jennifer Pearson, the\u00c2\u00a0actual<\/i> FDA representative, craves a man who is much more like Eliot REALLY is. WHOOPS, YOU GOT REJECTED. (I kept expecting \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Shake It Off\u00e2\u20ac\u009d to start playing, and then I remembered this aired like four years before that song even came out.) Sophie is also a delight as the faux FDA rep. Once again, her character uses her sex appeal to disarm and distract her mark, and it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s just SO SATISFYING to watch. This show often demonstrates how using people\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s prejudices against them is incredibly effective, and Sophie\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s an expert at that.<\/p>\n

Nate\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 well, Nate has an interesting role here, too. He seems to have settled into a regular drinking habit again, and while it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not nearly as bad as it was at the end of season one, he seems willingly to push the team\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s safety fairly quickly. He swears that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not the case, but he cuts it terrifyingly close with Parker at one point. Then, he injects himself into the con as a character that doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t even have a name or a backstory. While it ultimately works to push Hoffman in the right direction, it seemed super risky to me, you know? How risky is Nate willing to get? I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t want him to go too far again, but with the Moreau threat hanging over them all, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m worried he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll\u00c2\u00a0have<\/i> to.<\/p>\n

WHAT IS THIS SHOW DOING TO ME?<\/p>\n

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

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

– Mark Does Stuff is now on Facebook<\/a>! Feel free to Like the page, which I’m running myself, for updates and SILLINESS.
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\n– The 2015 Mark Does Stuff tour is being announced!!! Check my Tour Dates \/ Appearances page<\/a> often to see if I’m coming to your city!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"