#tink talks

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Mondays are the best because 911, but Mondays are also the worst because 911.

[tinypickledplum]

Honestly one of the best things the show Hilda has done for me is introduce me to Kishibashi and Walter Martin!

Their music is so good!! I have been listening to Arts & Leisure on repeat!

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I’m kind of in denial / haven’t really thought about the fact that it’s the cliffhanger finale in 3 days leading us into hellatus but right now I’m kinda thinking this is gonna be my immediate reaction...

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Ah Monday, my beloathed.

Sure, they're gonna tease us to within an inch of our sanity with previews and interviews and sneak peeks and snippets, but next week we'll have to do it all again on less-one-hour of sleep.

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Do I need to be live-blogging my thoughts to Leverage: Redemption episodes as I watch them? No.

Am I doing it anyways? Unfortunately for you all, yes.

The Tower Job thoughts, with spoilers, below:

Ok, first up, Parker speaking Klingon? And Eliot understanding it? And agreeing with the sentiment? And "Hardison bet me that I couldn't learn the language. He lost." "Did he?" Ohmigosh, I cackled! I loved the "Even numbers only, baby. Why do I even know that?" in The Too Many Rembrandts Job, and I like that they're running with the gag that Eliot has become a Star Trek fan against his will because of Hardison. I wonder what other geek knowledge he knows?

I'm pretty sure the meditation tape Mr. Baddie was listening to in the car is one of the same ones they used for Alex on Almost Paradise...

Speaking of running gags, Harry trying to figure out how the "Let's go steal a..." goes is hilarious, and I hope no one ever explains it to him. It would ruin the magic.

I like the emotional journey for Harry in this episode. He's got skeletons in his closet, they all do, but his are all very haunting to him since he's just recently crossed sides of the table. He struggling to admit to himself some of the horrible things he's done, let alone reveal them to his new team.

I like the heart-to-heart's Harry has with Sophie and Eliot. Sophie is more the voice of reason, trying to calm him and get him in the right head space before the con, and duly berating him after he blows it in a moment of self pity. Eliot is the one to relate to him and give him hope that not all his skeletons will haunt him forever. And I really like that Eliot shares what he does- he's done arguably the worst things out of any of them, and has spent the last 13 years trying to atone for it. I wonder if he still sees himself as irredeemable, or if Parker and Hardison have helped him believe he might one day be capable of forgiving himself...

Also, kudos to Noah Wyle for directing this episode. I've never directed anything, but I imagine it's not easy to direct something you're also staring in, let alone when you're playing a character so new to you, opposite very established characters played by actors that know their roles well, and have your character take such an emotional arc in the episode.

Sophie took more of a leadership role in this one, but I don't think Harry's dressing down would've been the same if delivered by Parker. It would've been interesting to see how they'd have done it, but ultimately I'm not disappointed with what they gave us. I did really love that they took a vote initially on whether or not to keep him on the con. I liked the answers- Breanna wanting him around to make her look better, Eliot believing in Harry's redemption, and Parker allowing it so long as she got to throw him off the roof if he messed up again. (And hey, he threw himself off the roof in the end anyways.)

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Oh my gosh! That was too good!

Thoughts on The Paranormal Hacktivity Job (with major spoilers) below:

The opening felt like an episode of Supernatural, until the two guys walked away- then it was all Buffy. And then Sophie said "real estate scam" and it was Scooby Doo. Then we got an assassin? And I don't know what it was after that, besides AWESOME!

(Also though, what kind of person goes to bed after the power goes out without trying to fix it first?)

Ladies night on Halloween is awesome. I love the looks- Sophie's leatherette skirt in her first outfit, her whole red robe look (especially her necklace), Breanna's matching sweats, Parker's hair and make up, and leatherette pants. They all look so fierce!

Breanna is too cute! All excited for Halloween- I LOVE the decorations in the lair. And then her stealing Parker and Sophie's thunder with "Let's go con ourselves a conman!" and trying to walk off- just too cute! She's got some great screen time showing off her skills too. Running all the technical from behind the scenes is my kind of competence porn.

I am LOVING the set! It's beautiful and old and creepy and cool. I would live there.

Parker was great in this episode. She had more of the leadership role, while Sophie "over-acted magnificently." The two of them calling each other out on engaging in "criminal behavior" (without the boys home) was funny. And Parker knows about the saints- I figure Hardison's been teaching her a few things... Her flipping around and fighting the bad guy before she tases him (so cool)- Eliot's been teaching her a few things too. I like how she blended his fighting with her thieving flexibility skills, and still used her taser.

My first thought wasn't "they killed Sophie!" It was "how'd they flip the kid so quickly?" I may watch too many of this exact kind of show... But I like that they redeemed one of the baddies.

I love Eliot being so proud of Breanna for taking down the assassin using a haunted house! I want more mentor/mentee between the two of them. We've had great bits between her and the rest of the crew, I need Eliot to take her under his wing and teach her something. (Though, the kibitzing she laid on him when he was trying to fight the bodyguard in The Tower Job was really cute.)

And, of course, the ladies trying to scare the men at the end was just perfection. *chef's kiss*

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Ok, my thoughts after the first two Leverage: Redemption episodes:

(Spoilers after the cut)

I'm kinda ok that they killed Nate. I liked his character, but they weren't ever gonna bring him back, and they made the dissolution of his character respectful. It also became the perfect way to get the gang back together again- it provided a reason for Eliot, Hardison, and Parker to see Sophie, a reason for her to need a pick-me-up distraction, which introduced Harry's character well. And it didn't disparage anything that came before- Nate wasn't secretly a horrible cad the whole time we knew him and now we have to dislike him, he's just gone.

I like how they're balancing Parker having been the lead on cons for the past 8 years with Sophie having more experience and being the potential leader. Parker is nudging Sophie to take on a slight leadership role in certain things (getting her to say the "Let's go steal..." lines) as a way to help her out of her funk. It shows that Parker's still the one running things. I also love that Parker is showing emotional sensitivity and maturity, without it being out-of-character. The writers did a fantastic job of showing character growth for her.

I like how they're giving Hardison his "out" for explaining Aldis' limited appearances in season one. It's noble and altruistic and good. And I love that they're giving him such a good reason to be away. We, like Parker, can be sad, but can't hate him or fault him for not being there.

I'm really loving Breanna's character! Her intro was hilarious, her fly-by-the-seat-of-her-pants skills were impressive (I did not expect her to spin around in her chair and present herself as her own boss, but it was amazing and I loved it!), and I love that she ran away to her big brother (and his family) for guidance (and protection). And Parker not wanting Hardison to leave Breanna with her is cute and funny, and I can't wait to see how their relationship dynamic developes.

I don't have a lot of notes on Eliot yet, beyond loving him as always. He got a lot of good fight scenes in the first two episodes! I love the "vent practice" and the three of them cross-training each other in their skills- it speaks to their devotion to one another. I'm interested to see where it goes with RIZ, and if their knowledge of Eliot (still unclear if they know about the rest of the team) comes back to bite. I'm assuming yes.

Oh! Did anyone else notice that Eliot said "baby" to Hardison like every chance he got? Because they were being obvious with Parker and Hardison being a couple still, but they weren't being exactly subtle with throwing Eliot in with them... (I'm sure someone else has already gif-ed and analyzed all the moments and family-ness between them.)

And I'm liking Harry. I wasn't sure how they were going to introduce a new male lead without making him an overt leader, but they managed it well in my opinion. He's got good ideas, but suggests them to the group rather than taking over. And when he's got a good idea they run with it. The writers are being really respectful of the characters thus far and are doing a fantastic job of introducing new characters into a well oiled machine without stopping up the works. And that's not an easy thing to do. A lot of shows fail when their leads leave them, or flounder after a cast shuffle- how do you present new lead characters in an appropriately junior roll to the originals, especially when they are bigger or more seasoned actors coming on? But I feel like they kept a really good balance between classic and new, and paying homage to the original and everything it accomplished without stepping all over it, and updating things in a fresh, new, respectful way.

Overall I'm loving it so far!

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And so we've come to the end (for now...)

I was slower watching these new episodes than I thought I'd be, but I got to really enjoy them and let them percolate in my brain. Thanks to everyone who read my rambling, half-formed thoughts, and didn't immediately vote me off the island for being a little insane around the edges.

Thoughts on The Mastermind Job, with ever-present spoilers, below:

This was so sweet and fun and exciting! I loved it! It was a great mix of the feel and spirit of the original show, and the characters and relationships of the new show. I never would have come up with the idea to have an old lackey coworker of Nate's "borrow" his stories and try to publish a book with all the team's secrets, but wow does it work really well. (It felt very 'Ember Island Players' to me, and it made me giddy.)

The team is really sweet in the beginning, trying to rally around Sophie and help keep her spirits up on her and Nate's anniversary. But I appreciate her calling them on their coddling behavior. ("You can't con a conman.") She even called Parker out on letting her run the jobs and cons. I hope that means we'll get more Parker leadership, or at least equal representation, in the back half. Our girl has so much to offer, and so much knowledge to show off.

Fake mastermind guy is just... meh. I mean, that's kinda the point, especially with his "superpower" of putting people to sleep, but still. Meh. He's as bland as some of the characters Nate used to play, and now I'm wondering if Nate didn't borrow inspiration for some of his grifter identities from certain accountants he knew.

For some reason, Harry trying to figure out how to sit casually and hide the taser after Parker tied him back up is really funny to me. (If I knew how to gif things, I'd gif that moment.) He was slightly more background/comic relief here again, and it's still great. His grand solution to distract his guard was to literally be himself. But hey, it worked.

Breanna is also a little more background, but her valley-girl PA character in the beginning is so good. She's hilarious, and I love her.

We get Russian and German Parker, and southern Sophie, and valley-girl Breanna, all in this episode! I love it. All the accents! All the grifts! I'm betting Eliot is the one who taught Parker that yelling at someone is a good way to get them to go away and let you do your thing. It probably works much better for her than trying to use Sophie's jedi mind tricks to convince people they want to do what she's making them do.

Eliot really made that woman fall in love with him in less than two minutes, and I for one admire him for that. I feel like that's what Christian does with the fandom. I'd trust him to protect me any day.

I really love how the episode mostly focused on Sophie, Parker, and Eliot- our full-time original cast members. (I miss Hardison! But he got so many mentions in this one!) The story really honored the original show, what the characters built, and how and why they came together. It's really nice for the fans of the original. And this ep was written by Kate Rorick! She's the new show runner for Leverage: Redemption, and one of the executive producers! Knowing that she's the mastermind behind this wonderful episode makes me feel certain that the show is in good hands, and will hopefully continue to go in a direction that allows for growth, but not at the expense of the past.

I'm sad that I've run out of the new episodes already, but that just means I'll have to watch them all again! (And go even deeper in my meta-analysis of it all...)