Thoughts on The Big Bang Job
SPOILERS if you haven’t seen the show that aired ten years ago! Probably vague, context-less details spoilers, but still.
I KNOW stuff is going to go down in these last two episodes. I have read enough fanfic to have a general idea. But that doesn’t actually reduce the suspense any….
Nate being a non-sleazy character to con a mark? And not goofy (see, e.g., German schoolmaster, Italian fashion designer)? This is a first.
WHY couldn’t Eliot have told Hardison his plan? If he has a plan? At least the amount of the plan that involved walking right in and introducing himself?? (Well. Okay. I get it. Feelings hard. Also Hardison would freak out and Eliot can’t handle that right now, because . . . feelings hard.) But not even “look, just trust me and when you get a chance do X”? Or “don’t panic, play along”? Or--???
Nah. I get it. He trusts him and this would probably work best. It’s still not kind to surprise poor Hardison....
Why is the super secret evil sleazeball club meeting in the pool instead of a plush conference room or something? (hot tub with girls in bikinis in the background) Ah. --It would be very entertaining if some other hotel guest wandered in there in a swimsuit and flip-flops, though. “I’m gonna swim a few laps, you just hang out with your…suits…. Which are going to smell like chlorine now.”
There is some good stuff happening here with framing and shot composition. I don’t know enough to know exactly what it is, but man is it dramatic and effective.
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I also can’t specify why I feel this, but I know there are a fair number of Leverage/MCU crossovers, and something about this DOD lab makes me feel right at home suspecting Hydra. This Atherton guy or whatever his name is would probably be on Pierce’s list of middle-tier minions, knowingly or not.
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“I like this one”—shut up, evil dude, I was just thinking that. You’re not allowed to like Hardison for being unflappable and sticking to the bit. You’re evil. Get away from him. You are not allowed to taint him with your liking.
“We learned the hard way that we have to be straight with each other”—yeah, Sophie can say that, and she’s the only one who can. Gah, this conversation is so good. Really, really hard and really good.
“If you asked me, I’d tell you. So please, don’t ask.” Eliot spells it out for Parker, even though it’s hard for him, because she needs it and he knows that. (Also he said please. Has he ever said that non-sarcastically in this show before? I seriously doubt it. Stop doing this to my heart, Leverage.) I don’t know a thing about acting, but this is impressive—doing impassive and lots of restrained emotions all at once.
....This is also really powerful shot composition. Cinema studies major side of Tumblr, tell me what’s happening here. I can pick out rule of thirds, symmetry (ish), and if there’s a fancy term for everyone’s sightlines and the other lines in the shot (the tree in the middle there) all kind of converging, there’s that too. What else?
“Then that’s what we do.” Wow, Nate is ruthless.
*two scenes later* –OK, not that ruthless. But “there’s a perfectly workable version of the plan where you die” . . . . OK, maybe Nate is that ruthless vis a vis corrupt generals, and he just didn’t want Eliot to have to kill a dude.
….Which, then, the warehouse scene . . . .
Holy shit, man. Holy shit.
There’s probably a complicated word in German or something for “this is tragic, and I feel for this character, but also this is very cool. In fact, I suspect I’m a bit of a bad person for finding it kinda hot. And also very cool. And partly the cool is from the angst as well as the badassery.” *
@librarian-amy, I get what you mean about Bucky parallels now. Hoo boy.
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And we cut from a shootout to running along the roof of the train. Feeling Western-trope-y today, Leverage writers?
“...and we go down in history as the worst terrorists ever, but we’ll be dead too, so not our problem.” “Well, there’s that.”
How did they get to the outside of the train so fast? Didn’t they have to climb back up through the roof?
“You know what I’m in the mood for? Pretzels.” So that’s what it takes to woo Parker. (Almost dying, jumping onto a moving train, disarming a bomb, all of the above?) And yet it makes perfect sense.
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Oohhhhh, they’re gonna get this sonofabitch.
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* Something like “das emotional!whumpmeetscompetencekinken” plus whatever the German for “slow-mo Matrix style fighting and explosions” is smushed in there somewhere. That’s how German words work, right? Just stick more words in the words so you can compound noun while you compound noun? (That meme probably ages me. Oh well.)
