Leverage: The Fourth Season opens in Mount Kibari, Alaska where Nate has brought the team to find a missing man. He disappeared because he knew too much about a foreclosure company. His wife hires them, but she’s definitely not content to sit back and just wait on the team. As usual, there’s a lot more to the story than the wife or the team knows about. A man named Morris Beck is cutting corners on buildings and injuring a lot of people. The client needs the original plans for her lawsuit in a week. Stealing building plans seems pretty simple compared to some of the jobs they have taken, but this one is going to prove a lot tougher than they originally thought! After surviving the cold, they get back and find out that an old co-worker of Nate’s from when he was an art insurance investigator needs help. He shows up and tells Nate that he’s found the man who has the lost Van Gogh in WWII. He convinces Nate that he has to save him because art collectors are after him and will kill to get it. Considering they’re Eliot’s old rivals, Eliot is going to have his hands full as the muscle on this job. I really love how they film this episode and use the present team as the people from the past. It’s really neat to see them in completely different roles, especially Parker and Hardison.
One of the scariest moments in the season to me is when Hardison wakes up in a coffin buried 6 feet deep in a cemetery! The idea of that is just terrifying, not because of the closed space but because of the lack of oxygen. I guess that will happen when you are undercover to bust a funeral home that is practicing some very shady things. Hardison and Parker seem to be a focus of the season. I had to die laughing when Hardison used Microsoft Simulator X to get a plane on the ground. Hardison also uses Dance Dance Revolution pads to measure Parker’s weight distribution for a calibration. Of course, the shoes that she’s in for the system would have totally torn up the DDR pads in a matter of seconds, but that’s beside the point. He’s quite innovative! I absolutely love it when Parker gets to base jump off of the tallest building in the world in Dubai! The look on her face is priceless.
I really like the pair of episodes, "Girls’ Night Out Job" and "Boys’ Night Out Job." They start at the exact same point and yet each group ends up in the middle of a very dangerous accidental job. The ladies get to go to a swanky party at the Venezuelan consulate and the men are supposed to have a simple poker night. Nothing is ever simple with these groups! They did a really good job of making the episodes work together as you get to see Parker’s calls to Hardison in both episodes. Nate suffers a personal loss at the end of the season at the hands of an old villain, which leads into the final episode. I love the final episode. Wil Wheaton’s guest appearance as Chaos is amazing! Plus you will get to see Parker’s mentor and a second hitter with Eliot. He’s not as hot as Eliot, but he can fight almost as well. I think the final episode of the season, "The Last Dam Job" is my favorite.
There are quite a few special features available as well, most of which are highly amusing. The Gag Reel especially kept me laughing. I love that Leverage takes very serious topics and pulls off amazing action and drama, but still manages to make you laugh as well. It’s a perfect combination that you really need to watch. Leverage makes you stop and wonder about questions like "Is it wrong to con a con man?" Yes, their tactics aren’t legal by any stretch, but they’re still the good guys. The only thing that I don’t like is that the commercial break points are still obvious when you’re watching it on DVD. Granted, it makes a good spot to pause and do anything else that you need to, but it’s a bit disruptive. That is a simple fact of how they film some TV shows though and not a failing of the DVD set. If you’re looking for a great show that is wonderfully entertaining, check out Leverage: The Fourth Season. It just keeps getting better every year!
