Reviewed: Leverage Season 5 (DVD)

By the time Leverage was entering its fifth and final season, it had established itself as  more than a guilty pleasure, carving its own niche amongst television dramas. It was wholesome enough for all the family  to watch without fear, but knowing enough  for the older demographic to enjoy. Yes, there were guns and nefarious plans - and sometimes there was even blood - but in age where television  tilts towards darker windmills,  this felt like well-honed nostalgia… a series that in all the best ways could have been reinvented for each passing decade. 

The press release describes Leverage as 'Hustle meets Ocean’s Eleven meets The A-Team', but the truth of the matter is that while the series, co-created by Independence Day’s Dean Devlin, definitely has all the caper hallmarks of those well-known  criminals-as-heroes formats, its success is just as much down to the solid central casting  of its group of pro-active cons, its sense of mischievous but righteous indignation and the way that we always want to cheer for the underdog.

The opening story of the fifth season, 'The (Very) Big Bird Job', demonstrates both the huge strengths of the show and why the fifth season was probably a good time for the show to head off into the sunset. The episode has all the excellent trademark banter and character quirks that made fans fall in love with the show. The over-all show was at its best with the character interplay - for example Parker's kooky edge and devil-may-care antics, Eliot's rough-diamond hard-man - and here we see not only how these characters work so well together but why. 

However, the dynamics of the con itself (this time involving pretending to steal the Spruce Goose)  are a little too elaborate and unlikely to pull off... a few moments that work as great on-screen visuals but with the nagging sensation that they'd probably not work half so well or conveniently in practise. 

But that's a quibble. Perhaps UK shows like Hustle more carefully dissected the internal dynamics of the con and practical sleights of hand, but Leverage's strength was rather in the fun-factor and in that department it held the flourish and prestige. Having said that, the subject-matter for each story could often be ripped from the headlines - since the crash of 2008 there was no shortage of immoral opportunists and fatuous fat-cats in real-life and Leverage had a strong track-record for spotting a way to satiate the audience's need to see such real criminals taken down a peg or two, even if it was in the form of fiction. Add to that the continuous reverential nods to Doctor Who and what more could you ask? 

All fifteen episodes of the final season are collected here, along with some deleted scenes and a gag-reel... though at least on the review copies sent to  us, there was no sign of the episode-by-episode commentaries that were so welcome on the US versions that were released at the end of last year.

For those who have been with Leverage since it began - and its fan base were  large in number and passionate in their support, it’s clear that the very final episode is meant to sign off in a purposefully book-ended style and not without serious implications and likely changes of cast had a sixth season materialised.  Though fans would be disappointed in its ending, it’s doubtful that they’ll find much wrong with the sign-off itself...

Leverage: The Complete Season Five is released by Icon Home Entertainment on 14th April.  Priced £29.99.