aradia22

I got distracted by both crowns looking like they came from Party City. The death masks were at least a slightly plausible prop. And you can get good fake jewelry! Sigh... it's okay for women to age. It's okay for Sophie to be older. It's okay for Astrid to be older. It's even okay if their characters are older than they are. (Wikipedia says Alexandra Park is 33.) I could maybe see the argument that a younger Astrid would be more forgiving but that seems like a very tiny reason to mess up the whole timeline. I agree with the tone and invincibility issues and I've said as much on other episode threads. For me, it's also pacing. I don't mind a silly tone if the bad guy isn't that bad or the situation demands some levity. I expect them to win in the end but with the invincibility it feels like any old nonsense, including wacky hijinks, can happen on the way from point A to point B because none of it matters. Pacing is part of this. It's okay for things to be silly at first if they then hit a wall and have to take the case seriously. I think that happened a little with the MLM episode but only on the part of the blond woman facing off with Sophie. The husband stuff stayed pretty silly throughout until he was actually trying to attack Harry, which was still mostly played for laughs. Another work around is taking the case seriously but leaving room for charisma. Not silliness, but an enjoyable grift whether it's a glamorous party or manipulating someone as part of the con. I don't know that there's a lot of budget for glamorous parties (I'd rather they splash out on one or two rather than cutting corners on so many) but Harry romancing Carol or Eliot befriending the security/janitorial staff at the college feel like charisma plays. It was a tiny part of the episode but Breanna as a reporter flattering the museum director was a version of this. I'm too tired to keep unpacking this but basically I feel like if the structure of the episodes was altered, you could have levity and seriousness and episodes would still feel tense because most procedurals manage to feel tense even when you know they're going to figure out who did it by the end. While they weren't the same as the original series, I think some of the reboot season 1 episodes did a better job with the pacing.

I would actually love to see a museum exhibit on Indian jewelry. The speed (or lack thereof) with which the team moved after Arthur's call was just ridiculous. So much dithering... they deserved to be separated by the security gate. Harry panicking in the vents was very silly but I did laugh. Eliot's speech about still feeling unredeemable felt like a darkness that hasn't been cloaking Eliot for a while. I haven't really investigated who is writing the episodes but there does seem to be a mix of stuff that's very loyal to the original series and characterization that either feels like character development or else sloppy new stuff from writers who aren't as familiar with the characters. Breanna doing an impression of Harry wasn't particularly accurate but it was a fun idea. It would have been better if she'd adopted Harry's touch and go New Orleans accent. Breanna as Eliot was funnier. lol, what? Astrid is supposed to be THIRTY? (10 years old + 20 years) OK, if Astrid has been looking for Sophie/Charlotte all these years then it's even more unbelievable that she didn't recognize her. Clarice Starling? Come on now... that movie won an Oscar. Breanna drugging the tea was brilliant. No useless details. And FINALLY we get Leverage International as backup. Arthur wasn't a great villain (and I still don't know how he managed so much of the con on his own) but he was appropriately smug. I really wanted Eliot to punch him in the face. I guess that counts for something. I'm disappointed that no one did punch him in the face even if the score is settled. With all the focus on Astrid and Sophie, it was easy to ignore how TRULY AWFUL the portrait of the Duke was. That barely looks like a person. Oh, NOW they mention Sterling. And I was a little sad McSweeten and Taggert got no mention when the FBI swooped in. I did find it sweet that Astrid called Sophie family at the end. I wish the onscreen reconciliation had been part of the flashback. I'm glad they wrote in that second reconciliation in front of the painting. I suppose I can buy that Astrid trusted Sophie enough to go along with the plan to catch Arthur and decide how to proceed afterwards. Anyway, they found a good actress. I hope Astrid returns.

Yeah, one benefit to this is getting the infallible crew caught in a sticky situation. But it's just hard to believe that Arthur was the one clever enough to do it. It should have been someone like Sterling. True. Eliot is one person with an easy out.

Woof. The painting bore some resemblance to Astrid but none to Sophie. Honestly, it could have been any random brunette. It looked like a police sketch more than a professional portrait. I immediately recognized the Princesse de Broglie painting in the Hanover gallery. Did they take over a real museum or did they use a normal set filled with prints of real paintings? They also had the Anne of Cleves in the lobby which definitely looked like a fake. lol at the idea of a British museum actually giving back artifacts Billy felt like a terrible person to trust. Weaselly. I'd expect him to tell Ramsay everything as soon as he left that room. I guess we're supposed to chalk that up to Sophie knowing how to read him and knowing he was really trustworthy in the end but it felt like a writing convenience. I was surprised that Astrid didn't recognize Sophie/Charlotte. I did not predict Eliot having to deal with a REAL bomb. That was fun. The actor they got for Ramsay wasn't bad but it was difficult to have too many feelings about a Big Bad we've never actually seen on screen before. He was pretty easily conned even with all his blustering. And did the building have metal detectors? Why not bring a gun or some other weapon? Anyway, bringing back Arthur helped a little in giving us a foe we'd seen before but it lacked the drama of original show takedowns of a bad guy we'd been following for a long time, or even the evil organization RIZ last season. But as I said in the Arthur episode, that actor is boring and anonymous-looking so... meh. I did like the foot race between Parker and Astrid though it was a little anticlimactic for Astrid to not actually figure anything out and just be given a gift from Sophie. I think they found a solid actress for Astrid. I'd be happy for her to come back in a future episode.

I saw the Mary Balogh and just assumed they bought some romance novels to dress the set. And given how Hallmark movie actors already tend to look like stock models, I assumed all the movies were fake. I thought he said his "grandmama calls it The Firm" as a reference to the British monarchy. I think I've been watching too many mysteries. I was worried at first that she was only going to April so she could bring the evidence back to the bad guys. Jenna talking to April and also talking to Carol at the end read as grifter scenes so it felt a little odd coming from a completely genuine character. I could not place the voice at all. I thought it was Hardison and it was just going to be an audio cameo. I was expecting Harry to appear at the very end to do some lawyering but I guess if you set off a fire alarm, you can just have the police show up. I agree this would have been stronger. Maybe she wasn't trying to protect the assistants but she could have at least seen the error of her ways, realizing she hadn't processed her trauma. But Carol and Hank were great bad guys so I'm not too mad. They might be my favorite bad guy team of the season next to the MLM couple. Blond e-sports guy and the professor have been the best solo villains so far.

This was a cute idea for an episode. It was nice to see a civilian involved in the case who was almost competent enough to get things done on her own. Also, it gave us time to enjoy the chemistry building between Jenna and Keith rather than just watching the established chemistry of the crew. I didn't quite buy Breanna as a great singer or a music label really wanted to pick up a classic jazz act. I thought it would be a ploy for the bad boss to harass Jenna... just pretending to go along with things to get close to her. I couldn't believe he actually wanted to sign Breanna. I kind of wished they saved the roasting of romance novels/Hallmark movies for another episode. I was amused when Harry turned out to be the Flemish guy. One time when a ridiculous accent makes perfect sense. Still, as fun as this was, I wish they'd been able to spend more time on it. Maybe they'll bring that world back for another episode. I need a gif of "What? No... My secret..." I was surprised to see another case where they slipped up on using one of the team twice. Now that Leverage International has been introduced, it really doesn't make sense not to call in an assist if it's just a small thing. Jenna played along but she could have EASILY blown the case when she recognized Sophie. Also, they used Parker as the maintenance woman, the bartender, and then the safe cracker though technically she was a safe-cracking bartender in that youtube video so the last two could plausibly be the same identity.

Is anyone following Eurovision this year? I feel like it's getting close but I'm not that excited.

https://nystagereview.com/2023/03/23/bad-cinderella-a-musical-that-turns-into-a-pumpkin/

I thought this was where they were going when Eliot was driving that student in the golf cart. It would have been great if they somehow found all of the students he had stolen from to appear and throw him off his game of explaining the research (rather than just stress him out because he couldn't find a quiet, empty room). Breanna didn't acknowledge it but they found an in-between solution. Gray's downfall is not that he wasn't able to sell the research but that he was discredited in front of the dean who was forced to abandon him. There have been other jobs where they just make a mess of someone's life. Gray goes down because he loses institutional protection. Also, Breanna concedes at the end that there is something to an academic life even with all the institutional problems though they play it off as a joke about ultimate frisbee so Harry doesn't get a win. Breanna isn't wrong but the writers have fashioned her as a morally superior, uncompromising idealist.

tbh, I wasn't excited about the case when we first met Emma. But there were some advantages to the con (like being in a situation where you can't draw attention to yourself by beating people up). And I loved how Eliot making friends with Floyd the security guard actually helped with the con. I feel like a physics scientist who would go on TV and argue that kind of stuff is more likely to be employed by a think tank than a university. But I liked the actor they got. I liked that moment when Sophie clipped in those bangs. More onscreen quick changes. Hilarious that they managed to work in Hardison being in space into the con. Complete with floating orange soda. Emma magically being ready to explain her theorem to the billionaire is not how CLINICAL ANXIETY works. It takes more than a pep talk if it's really that serious. The set up was obvious but I do like that they managed to work around to Breanna deciding maybe college wouldn't be the worst thing. While I would like Hardison back more often, I'm also open to rotating members of Leverage International.

I thought they were going to jump to the daughter being Miranda but evidently that's too simple. If they're really introducing a character like that, I hope they were smart about the casting. I can't imagine Sophie's daughter won't be a recurring character if she exists. Yeah, that seems like too sophisticated of a misdirect for a TV show like this.

Virginia Williams and Christopher Gorham were great guest stars. The MLM scheme was one of the more realistically written evil organizations this season. I almost hope they find a way for those two actors to come back in different schemes. Or at least her. Why shouldn't Debra level up to a different sort of evil organization? The lighting was not great but otherwise, this was one of the better episodes. The costumes weren't distractingly bad, the acting was good, the writing was solid. I don't know if it fully supported 3 plotlines (Harry's con and Sophie's backstory got a little lost in the shuffle). I understand why it doesn't come up every episode but I liked Harry's earpiece falling out. Glad things are working out for Ronald and his jazz trumpet dreams.

Assuming McShane is new to the show, I think this is just a hint that they're tackling other cases around New Orleans that don't get covered in one of the episodes. Honestly, the Leverage crew should be more recognizable around town but they are traveling around a bit. I feel like Redemption does "ripped from the headlines" a lot. I'm assuming the hot sauce thing is a reference to sriracha factory from 10 years ago.

Strong episode. Loved having Sarah come back. They've been really good about recurring characters. I do feel like the bad guys in the original show had a bit more finesse. Maybe they feel like they have to make the crimes obvious for the audience. The female cop was obvious in planting the evidence but through the rest of the episode she seemed a little smarter and more grounded. Yeah, I continue to be uncomfortable by them insisting on Sophie's "ethnic ambiguity." They don't do this with the other characters. They made some smart choices this episode with the limited budget. Lots of nighttime sequences, keeping to a simple con in terms of the characters, etc. Breanna finding the real stash house for Romero was a nice twist.

Another change in the new series is that the cons feel more purely altruistic. I remember in the original series there were enough episodes where you remembered they were all thieves because they would get a cut of the con they were pulling. The girlbossing seems a little out of date but I guess there were always be hustle types on social media. The siblings were cartoon villains like out of a TV movie for children but I can buy them as slightly exaggerated versions of actual nepo kids. Janice balanced them out. Jamie and Jamie were goofy but I liked Eliot's and Sophie's contributions to this episode. This episode didn't have the best writing but the truck stunt was solid and there were a lot of callbacks. Solid B. I did find it funny that Sophie's sparkly green bag didn't look all that different from Paige's pleather bags. Um... costumes and props? Might want to work on that before calling out fast fashion.

So cute. Just tell me when I have to resubscribe to Hulu.

Keith David! I did NOT see him being Eliot's father. I was thinking old football coach and then Eliot's father would be the B or C plot. They did find someone with an iconic deep, gravelly voice. Honestly, I do not remember enough about Eliot's backstory to know if all the Oklahoma stuff fits. For some reason, I thought the implication on the original show was that he had a bad home life and enlisted to escape it. I'm betting there's some fuzzy continuity though you'd think they'd consult a show bible before writing something big like this. "Welcome to the cookout. You in the family." lol, what was that voice for Aubrey? Sophie sounded like the Theranos woman. The way Billy walked into to see all the screens and threw his hands up and walked out again was very Eliot. I hope they bring Keith David back. He really elevated this episode with his acting. The two big emotional scenes (the backyard and the goodbye) were fantastic. I feel like they're leaving some room for Breanna to be written out or for the actress to at least take a break. Assuming any of the actors had other projects, it would be good to establish sooner rather than later the possibility of other members of the international Leverage crew swapping in.

The Orpheus Grove set was weirdly racially diverse for a secret society of rich people wearing white robes partying on a former plantation. I thought they went soft making it more like the Elks Lodge (which also apparently has a racist history) and going very goofy on the Blackwater guy. Yeah, he kept pulling out a gun, but I would almost say Fury (the e-sports guy) was more intimidating. I didn't see Dr. Paul faking his death coming at all. It just felt like one of those Elliot plotlines and I've stopped nitpicking explosions on lower budget TV shows. Anyway, he was a good guest actor. The writing was solid this episode. They found good ways to weave him in and out of the story and involve him in the resolution rather than just relying on the con/robbery. Finally, a mark being able to identify someone on the team they've seen twice. It did feel sloppy to use Sophie twice in such obvious roles so I'm glad it was acknowledged within the episode. I know Sophie is the grifter but it's a little weird she still gets to play every ethnicity in this iteration of the show. Harry doing his best impression of Elliot was funny. Basically the Christian Bale Batman voice. The safe was pretty low-tech for Parker but it posed a different kind of challenge.

I have to agree with this. I don't know the freevee vibe. We have had romantic sideplots for Breanna and Elliot, but maybe freevee is going for a more family friendly vibe that only alludes to intimacy. "Layers." I do think it's a little weird. I liked that Hardison and Parker were more playful this episode because they felt more like their old characters. But even the way they danced down the hallway could have been hotter if they'd choreographed something for the actors. The date night on the roof also lacked romance and intimacy. The direction doesn't help. The camera work isn't doing anything sexy.

Justin was IMMEDIATELY suspicious from the first scene in the car. No mystery there. The collusion with Farmingworth made it a little more interesting. I don't think Aldis and Beth quite have the chemistry they used to (it might be the writing as well) but I loved seeing an episode where they tried their best to recapture the magic. It was worth the attempt for the moments that worked. Parker's outfit looked a little too much like knockoff Fashion Nova to pass at a society event. I'm less harsh on the extras but there have been some really awful costumes across the board this season. "I'm proud of me. That's all that matters." I agree that Mason looked very young for 13. Even for a guy who stays short, he was pretty little. The focus on Mason made it feel more like an episode from the original series. Glad to get an update on Emily. Best episode of season 2 so far.

I think TV shows tend to undersell how much force and blunt force trauma is needed to actually kill someone with one blow. Also, I appreciate that while no one died, we had a gun last episode and the champagne bottle this episode. Some stakes! I am young enough to have not wanted to watch ER while it was on but old enough to remember appointment TV. I like to be able to binge-watch because I don't think most shows are great at planning out a season so this way I can push through the weak filler episodes until I hit a better one rather than getting discouraged from finishing a season after some boring episodes.

Visually, the bad guy in this one was cartoonishly evil. Almost like that character on The Boys. Maybe I'm out of the loop, but I didn't think e-sports had these issues. They seemed to be conflating it with youtubers and twitch streamers a bit. The parts about fame and psychological manipulation felt more in line with that. There was some alpha/hustle culture stuff in there too. I feel like they piled on the racism and hair-sniffing to make him more hate-worthy and distract from whether this set up made all that much sense. I think this is how they would have written an old episode about traditional sports with steroid use and a coach/team owner who was a failed jock. It doesn't quite map correctly with all this new context. Basically, I don't think the writers understood the world. Tam was also giving me echoes of Bao in The Golf Job. The Hardison references were cute in this episode. "I'm going to be ThiefPuppy21. No! ChihuahuaBandit17!" Giving Elliot a proper opponent was fun even though there wasn't a lot of interesting fight choreography. Even though I didn't think the writers grasped the context of the subculture, I do think the overall structure and the evolution of the con worked better. They had a mark who was actually getting around their tricks, we had sufficient focus on who was being hurt, and the stakes were at an appropriate level. Also, a bad guy monologuing always means it's going to get caught on tape. There was also a good payoff for things like the ninja run and the t-shirt cannon.

I feel like Breanna's uncompromising soapboxing felt true to the character, though I think it would have suited a younger character even better. She's just on the line for Gen Z. It's an industry/government regulation issue and not an individual consumer issue so reprimanding Harry seems like the behavior of a young fanatic. The guy playing Wilde has a truly nondescript, anonymous face so I had to check if he was on the original series. Harry was fun as the greaseball with the toothpick. Another episode where the accents were all over the place. I did kind of like having a more brutish mark. I feel like the episodes are too neatly plotted now. I mean, they're convoluted. But they've lost the sense of things really closing in on the mark. I realized it when Wilde was telling Hammond it was all a con. Those scenes played differently in the original series. Now it's expected that as convoluted as the plots are, it will be something that Sophie planned in advance. Zero concern when Wilde was shot. I thought bullet proof vest since blanks can still hurt at close range but I knew it was something. Co-signing interest in the Sophie backstory. I hope they're going somewhere with this. Also, please continue avoiding a romantic relationship between Harry and Sophie.

The accents were ALL over the place this episode. If you're going to make me choose between Breanna and Hardison, Breanna will lose every time. "The plan is I'm a Swiss banker with narcolepsy." Sophie being the muse of an aging rockstar was a fun way to work Brian May and the London basement thing I know the budget isn't high but that "debut" being a dinner party at home was lame. The $5000 dress was also cheap as hell. They did better going minimalistic with Sophie though I can still tell how cheap all the costumes are. The Tohd jokes got very silly. OK, episode. I feel like they forgot about Bradley for much of it to focus on the jokes. There wasn't a lot of actual conning.

https://www.broadwayworld.com/article/Final-Sondheim-Musical-HERE-WE-ARE-Will-Get-World-Premiere-This-Fall-20230316