Leverage (Season 3)

After Leverage's second season didn't do much to improve on the first season, I went in Season 3 a bit more wary. Thankfully, my concerns quickly vanished, this season is absolutely amazing!

Leverage starts its third season by establish an actual story arc for the season, with the introduction of a villain named Moreau and the Leverage team being blackmailed by a mysterious individual into defeating him. It's such a relief to see a storyline that doesn't entirely revolve around Nate, and later on the season, we learn that Eliot of all people plays a very important role. The season returns to the first's excellent balance between episodic and serial. Each episode is its own standalone heist, but there's always either a bit of character development or some fleshing out of the mystery about this enigmatic Moreau. It all culminates in another strong two-parter at the end of the season which ties together the whole season in a spectacular fashion. But even the standalone episodes are strong this season, with Leverage's signature creativity still on show. As a matter of fact, Season 3 might have the best and most inventive episode of the whole show to date, The Rashomon Job (more on that down below).

Even more, this season manages to give the more neglected characters so much more screen time. As the season goes on, I was pleasantly surprised to find that pretty much every single character got a ton of focus rather than just Nate and Sophie. Rather than just having one episode each, Parker, Hardison, and Eliot have multiple episodes that focus on them. Even Parker and Hardison's romantic subplot gets more focus, which I've always found more compelling than Nate and Sophie's. This whole season made me realize that Nate is, by far, the least likable and interesting character in the show, which is why I'm so glad this season gave so much focus to the others. And the great character development from the first two seasons just continues here, with many episodes showing just how well this team works together. There are so many heartwarming bonding moments between the team this season, and they're some of the best scenes of the bunch.

There were a ton of strong episodes this season, but these were some of the best:

The Inside Job: Have I mentioned how awesome Parker is? Some of the show's best episodes are the ones that explore her backstory, and in this one, we meet her mentor/father figure who is revealed to have taught her how to become a thief. The whole episode is a tense situation but it all just goes to show how much Parker has developed these past few seasons. Great stuff.

The Studio Job: This episode was just perfect, literally perfect. That cliche country music video, Parker's pickpocket dance, Christian Kane getting to show off his musical chops, Eliot being chased by fans, the "pitchy" scene, Parker's Bjork parody, the soundproof fight, Eliot's romance with Kaye, that finale! Every time I thought it couldn't have gotten any better, it does, and shows how focusing on the power trio of Eliot, Hardison, and Parker leads to the show's best episode so far.

The Rashomon Job: And then, somehow, this show manages to top The Studio Job with easily the best episode of the series, probably out of them all. The premise of everyone arguing over who stole the dagger is simple but brilliantly executed, with sharp writing and a ton of hilarious gags, especially once more and more of the characters start telling their stories. This episode gives us five different cons, screen time for the whole cast, and ends with a cute message of how the team completes each other, pretty much making it the definitive episode of the series. 

The Morning After Job: I'm not the biggest fan of what fans call "gaslighting" episodes, where the team tries to make their victim believe in something false, but this one was a massive exception. Parker playing dead was such a fun premise, Hardison and Eliot's buddy cop subplot is predictably entertaining, and the ramifications for the Moreau arc do a good job of kicking the final stretch of the season into high gear.

The Big Bang Job: This show's penultimate episodes tend to be pretty shocking and explosive, but this one was particularly special. We finally meet Moreau, Eliot is revealed to have worked with him, the Italian gets shot, and Eliot uses a gun in one of the most spectacular sequences in the show. It's fast-paced, action-packed, and brilliantly sets up the season finale.

The San Lorenzo Job: This wasn't as good of a finale as the last two seasons as it was pretty light on character moments, but I can't deny this episode's sheer ambition of having the Leverage team essentially steal a country. The presidential hijinks were fun and Moreau's defeat was definitely satisfying, and the cliffhanger of Nate and Sophie sleeping together is a pretty exciting hook for Season 4.

Overall, I absolutely loved this season. It utilized the whole cast to their absolute fullest and was packed with fun and creative episodes, while also maintaining a satisfying arc throughout to tie it all together. With this season, it feels like Leverage has finally achieved its full potential.

5/5 Stars