Leverage - The Long Goodbye Job

Nate Ford (Timothy Hutton) sits battered and bruised behind a desk being interrogated about events of the last few hours... as the interviewer asks what exactly was so important that he would risk himself and his team  and what went so wrong that at least two of his team are now dead? 

Nate begins to relate his story, going back a month to the moment the doctor who tried in vain to save Nate's son's life seven years ago, explains that a highly-successful but experimental drug (that could almost eradicate a rare childhood cancer) is being kept away from view and circulation because the pharmacutecal company can't manufacture it AND make a profit. Nate - who began the Leverage team after the family tragedy - is determined to 'liberate' the drug and get it to the doctor in time to cure another boy who won't last two months without it.

But there are complications. The company's office is in a building which also houses high-security consultants and a CIA data-transfer hub. In short, the prize is sandwiched between storeys that are almost entirely inpregnable. It will take everything the grifters has got to retrieve their target... and even if they can, the team will lose people in the process...

Leverage was the Ocean's 11 of the tv schedules, every summer and winter returning to pull off heists and the wool over the eyes of some unsuspecting high-roller deserving of being brought down a peg or two by the team of grifters who used their ill-gotten gains to fund and aid the little guy, the downtrodden and the disenfrachised.  

Over the years it could be admitted that the capers began to veer from cleverly orchestrated to simply outrageously fun, requiring a suspension of disbelief that might even have challenged the delightfully anarchic Parker herself. Over those five years, especially the last couple, the cons got larger and the stakes got bigger, but perhaps at the expense of the 'howdunnit'  - the magic trick not possible to be worked out until explained on screen or with the aid of a maguffin. The show was still a must-see, not-so-guilty pleasure and it was clear that these were a group of characters and actors at home in the ensemble. This was The A-Team for the Noughties, consistently bringing an A-game energy to the screen.

Knowing that this season finale might also serve as a series finale, Dean Devlin, John Rogers and Chris Downey decided to tell a book-ending story to the one he and his team had begun in the pilot - showing how the team of disperate desperados had gone from reluctant recruits to genuine partners and friends who were prepared to die for each other and a good enough cause. There are several nod-backs to the pilot in scenes and presentation, but what makes the finale work so well is that it genuinely plays to the strengths that were evident at the beginning.  As the banking crisis, insider-trading and fiscal cliffs became the stuff of headlines, the show had more and more potential targets, but the finale is both ambitious and personal in its execution and remit.

Yes, of course, there's sleights of hand along the way, some unreliable narration as the story unfolds and we begin to see a bigger picture of the plan Nate has undertaken and some of the secrets he's even kept from his team, but look back as the credits roll one final time and most of the logic works well enough with a wink a smile and a tear. Also knowing this could be their last hurrah, Aldis Hodge's Hardison, Beth Riesgraf's Parker, Gina Bellman's Sophie and Christian Kane's Eliot all rise to the challenge. The ever-brilliant and sardonic Mark Sheppard (back as Jim Sterling) and The Shield/The Mentalist's Catherine Dent add spice to the proceedings and each of the regular cast have an individual chance to shine - though it's Timothy Hutton's rage in the interrogation scene that is perhaps the episode's highlight. 

It's a shame that the show won't continue, but a good grifter knows when to make their exit and it's arguable this was the right time for the show to bow out stage left with a glass of champagne in one hand and your wallet in the other. Few shows were as much fun and this sentimental final outing, with its moments of humour and darkness is a perfect CONvergence of CONflict, CONtraptions and CONquering heroics.

The episodes were all about cons, but the show was clearly made by Pros. 

9/10