“LEVERAGE is no ‘Oceans 11’, in fact it’s way better! Smart, slick, witty and well-written, ‘LEVERAGE’ is an entertaining, thrilling and very enjoyable drama series! The DVD release of the first season is jam packed with special features and commentary. A highly recommended release!”
© 2008 TNT Originals, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
DVD TITLE: LEVERAGE – THE 1st SEASON
DURATION: 12 Episodes – 584 Minutes
DVD INFORMATION: Dolby Digital, Color
COMPANY: Electric Entertainment/Paramount
RATED: Not Rated
RELEASE DATE:Â July 14, 2009
Directed by Dean Devlin and Jonathan Frakes
Written by Chris Downey, John Rogers, Amy Berg and Albert Kim
Executive Produced by Dean Devlin, Chris Downey, John Rogers
Co-Executive PRoducers: Kearie Peak, Marc Roskin
Produced by Phillip M. Goldfarb
Co-Produced by Amy Berg, Rachel Olschan and Paul F. Bernard
Music by Joseph LoDuca
Director of Photography: David Connell
Edited by David Siegel, Sonny Baskin, Chris A. Peterson
Casting by Scott David and April Webster
Product Design by Lauren Crasco
Art Direction by Brian Harms
Costume Design by Nadine Haders
Starring:
Timothy Hutton as Nathan Ford
Christian Kane as Eliot Spencer
Aldis Hodge as Alec Hardison
Gina Bellman as Sophie Devereaux
Beth Riesgraf as Parker
Mark Sheppard as Jim Sterling
Kari Matchett as Maggie
Insurance investigator Nate Ford (Academy Award winner Timothy Hutton) exposed scams and recovered stolen items worth millions. But his life hit the skids when his insurance company allowed his ailing 8-year-old son to die. Years later, Nate gets even as the leader of a specialized team of thieves, computer experts and con artists who right corporate and governmental injustices against honest citizens. To expose corruption, Nate will do wrong for all the right reasons – he will provide Leverage.
Steal from the rich and give back to those who deserve it, giving those who have no chance some leverage.
“LEVERAGE” is the hit TV drama series on TNT executive produced by Dean Devlin (“Godzilla”, “Independence Day” and “Universal Soldier”), Chris Downey (“The King of Queens”) and John Rogers (“Cosby”) and also to see involvement by Jonathan Frakes (“Star Trek: The Next Generation”, “Roswell”) as a director and Amy Berg (“The 4400”) as a writer/producer.
“LEVERAGE” stars Academy Award winner Timothy Hutton (“The Good Shepherd”, “Ordinary People” and “The Last Mimzy”), Christian Kane (“Angel”, “Close to Home”), Aldis Hodge (“Red Sands”, “Friday Night Lights”), Gina Bellman (“Coupling”, “Jekyll” and “Permanent Vacation”), Beth Riesgraf (“Struck”) and Mark Sheppard (“Battlestar Galactica” and “Dollhouse”).
The series would become a major hit for TNT as it became the #1 program on Tuesday nights with solid ratings for the drama series.
“LEVERAGE” revolves around former Insurance Investigator Nate Ford (Timothy Hutton) who has exposed scams and recovered stolen items worth millions for his insurance company. But when it came to getting his son’s medical treatment covered, his insurance company denied it and his son died because he was unable to get the treatment he needed.
One day, someone gives Nate a chance to get back at his insurance company, if he teams up with a group of thieves and manages them. In the process, Nate realizes the good that this group can do (and at the same time fulfilling their needs for stealing and making money) and creates a company called Leverage Consulting & Associates which was created to help those with major insurance problems and give them leverage and making sure that what happened to him, will never happen to anyone else.
Leverage Consulting & Associates consists of:
Nathan Ford (Timothy Hutton) – Because of his job as a former insurance fraud investigator for IYS insurance, Nathan is very smart when it comes to his planning and delegating jobs to the group. Unfortunately, since his son’s death, his life has led to alcoholism and a divorce from his wife but with Leverage, it has given him a renewed sense on life and to help people even if it means working with thieves. He is often referred to as “The Black King/White Knight” because his a good guy but now responsible for managing a few of the world’s top thieves.
Sophie Devereaux (Gina Bellman) – Sophie is a terrible actress on stage but she’s also an excellent con woman who specializes in art thefts. She is acquainted with Nathan as he caught her in the act of stealing a painting. There is sexual tension between her and Nathan.
Eliot Spencer (Christian Kane) – A retrieval expert but also an expert in martial arts and weapons. Knows his weapons and how to disarm the opponent. And the temperamental member of the group.
Parker (Beth Riesgraf) – Professional thief, cat burglar and explosives expert. Loves money and often the odd person of the group. Not very good around people.
Alec Hardison (Aldis Hodge) – An excellent hacker and computer/technology expert. Knows how to hack into everything, knows the hardware and knows how to fit into any surrounding to infiltrate an area.
The series also features quite a bit of talent which include Mark A. Sheppard (“Battlestar Galactica) as James Sterling, Nate’s former business partner and now rival. Kari Matchett (“24”, “Heartland” and “Invasion”) as Nate’s ex-wife Maggie, “Star Trek” talents Jonathan Frakes, Brent Spiner, Armin Shimerman. And appearances by Lauren Holly, D.B. Sweeney, Sara Rue, Jeremy Roenick and many more.
“LEVERAGE” features the following episodes on four discs:
Disc 1:
- EPISODE 1 – The Nigerian Job – The first episode that shows us how the group came together for the first time.
- EPISODE 2 – The Homecoming Job – A military reserve who was filming private military contractors are ambushed by them. The Reservist who was filming the contractors hires Leverage to get them to pay for his rehabilitation bills.
- EPISODE 3 – The Wedding Job – An innocent man died for a mafia boss and the wife of the man wants the money promised to them and hires Leverage for their help.
Disc 2:
- EPISODE 4 – The Snow Job – A National Guardsman hires Leverage to find justice on the construction firm that foreclosed on his home.
- EPISODE 5 – The Mile High Job – A young girl has died due to what may be because of toxic fertilizer. But because the corporation behind the fertilizer is covering things up, Leverage is brought in to give the girl’s family some leverage.
- EPISODE 6 – The Miracle Job – Nate’s friend and former priest has his church about to be razed by a real estate developer, can Leverage help this church in need?
DISC 3:
- EPISODE 7 – The Two-Horse Job – A Wall Street broker burns down his stable of under performing racehorses in order to get money, meanwhile the trainer suspects foul play and hires Leverage.
- EPISODE 8 – The Bank Shot Job – While investigating a corrupt judge, Nate and Sophie get caught up and become hostages in a bank robbery.
- EPISODE 9 – The Stork Job – The Leverage group go after a Serbian adoption agency that are scamming desperate American couples looking to adopt war orphans.
- EPISODE 10 – The Juror #6 Job – Parker attends jury duty and notices something strange at the trial.
DISC 4:
- EPISODE 11: The 12-Step Job – The team investigate an investment broker who has swindled a charity.
- EPISODE 12: The First David Job – Nate targets the CEO of his former Insurance company and try to steal his prized Michelangelo Maquette.
- EPISODE 13: The Second David Job – After the events of the last job, the team has been fractured. Will Nate be able to bring everyone together?
VIDEO & AUDIO:
Overall, “LEVERAGE” looks very good for a television drama. Featured in Widescreen, a lot of scenes are done in the indoors and outdoors and you get many colorful scenes. Like most drama series on DVD, it’s when you get into low light situations and you do see artifacting. But overall, for a drama series on DVD, “LEVERAGE” is stylishly cool in terms of visual appeal.
As for audio, the series is presented in Dolby Digital English 5.1 Surround and definitely utilizes the front channels for its explosions and rear surrounds take advantage of action sequences. I discovered use of LFE as well and overall, for a drama series on DVD, “LEVERAGE” sounds great. Dialog is easy to understand and more than enough action sequences on each episode.
Personally, I really hope that Paramount considers a Blu-ray release of “LEVERAGE”. There are some really awesome visuals in this series and I can imagine how detailed and excellent this series would benefit from a High Definition transfer. In fact, I hope Paramount considers it because this series is slick and I can imagine how awesome it would be on HD. Overall, for a DVD release, audio and picture quality is slightly better than many series on DVD and the fact that there is three episodes instead of the typical four per DVD is a plus on the video end.
SPECIAL FEATURES:
“LEVERAGE” features many special features as each disc has audio commentary for every episode which is magnificent.  The fourth disc is where the majority of the special features are located. Included on the fourth disc are:
- Leverage: Behind the Scenes – (12:40) Dean Devlin shows us behind-the-scenes of the making of “LEVERAGE”. Interviews with the talents and crew about their characters and the series.
- Anatomy of a Stunt Fight – (3:23) How a stunt scene is rehearsed which includes a fight scene with Christian Kane’s character Eliot and Christian discussing his fight scene and preparing for it.
- The Cameras of Leverage – (2:14) A featurette primarily on the many cameras used for the filming “LEVERAGE”. I don’t think I have ever seen a featurette focused on the cameras but film fans, especially those interested in the technical parts of filming will definitely enjoy this feature.
- Leverage gets renewed – (2:52) Every talent and crew member gathers for a meeting with Dean Devlin and those who are not present are featured via webcam and placed between each seat of the actors. Very fun featurette as everyone awaits the big news from TNT, TBS and Turner Classic Movies Executive Vice President Michael Wright.
- Beth Riesgraf’s Crazy Actress Spoof – (5:02) Beth Riesgraf vs. the Writers of Leverage. An interesting spoof starring Beth Riesgraf (who plays Parker) who is a diva actress not so happy that her character has to deliver a zombie baby and taking out her anger at employees. Very humorous and enjoyable!
- Deleted Scenes – The series features two deleted scenes from “The 12-Step Job” (3:30) and “The Second David Job” (:31).
From the first episode, I was sold. I absolutely enjoyed “LEVERAGE” and forget about “Ocean’s 11”, this drama series features very cool characters, well-written, great locations for filming, witty, smart, stylish and overall, just cool!
I was very impressed with the first season and each talent really brings their A game to the series. Timothy Hutton plays a convincing role as the mastermind of the group; Gina Bellman brings that sexiness that she had in BBC’s “Coupling” to the series but added depth as a true-to-art con artist; It’s great to see Christian Kane again kicking butt since his years on “Angel” and also to see the two talents Beth Riesgraf and Aldis Hodge definitely shine in this series. The characters are well, cast, well-planned, well integrated into the series and I really enjoyed the amount of character development we see in each episode. Despite being thieves, they are all likeable in their own way.
It’s one thing to have the typical series special features but “LEVERAGE” really goes all out with commentary for each episode and also, the special features that are on this DVD are probably a first (a featurette about the series getting renewed and a featurette on the cameras used on the series) and were quite enjoyable. Again, I really wish Paramount considers a Blu-ray release of this series. With its slick production and overall action sequences, I would love to watch it on High Definition.
I was pretty surprised to see the amount of technology used in the series but how slick the production is. All characters are used effectively and each episode was just fun, smart and just enjoyable. I was very impressed.
Overall, this DVD release and the complete series is magnificent and is highly recommended!