afraschatz:

It’s been a while since I watched “The Nigerian Job” and wow, what a joy to do that again. Because there are so many things I love about it. Here are just a few: I love…

… the introduction of Nate – so much exposition is needed and that’s always difficult to deliver without it seeming clunky and, well, like exposition, but Rubinek and Hutton just DELIVER.

… Dubenic. One of my favourite villains of them all. So fucking ruthless, he makes NATE seem like a choir boy in comparison, and that’s saying something.

… Nate’s reaction to “Steal them back”. Yes, he’s interested because of the money and because of wanting to stick it to his old boss, but that look? Yeah, Nate, keep kidding yourself. You WANT to be a thief 😉

… ‘No, but Parker is in-sane.’ And Nate’s look to accompany that, hahaha. Where is the lie.

… the music of this show. The intro music but also the signature “the game is on” music. I have it as my ringtone and my alarm and really, it’s just so awesome. Because right here at the start, a very dark and gritty start, the music sets the tone and tells us: This is gonna be a clever show and a fun show and KEEP WATCHING ❤

… Hardison’s first words on the show being “No. No, no, no, no, hell no.”

… Hardison calling Nate ‘Brah’ and talking back at him right from the start

… “This is not the room you’re looking for.” – Also, I know that Hardison can’t possibly actually TELL this story to Nate and the others at this point, but we all know that he will eventually. And I LOVE that this is his mind’s go to story for being the ultimate hustler. Oh, Hardison, how I love you and your geeky priorities.

… “You can hear everything.” – “Not as useless as you look.” – Instant love. Also: HI ELIOT. And hi Eliot’s glasses. What happens to you later on? And seriously, Eliot, why did you decide to wear them for this job? I mean you clearly don’t need them, so is this a fashion choice? Where you reading while you were waiting for the others to set up?

…No but seriously, I LOVE the outfit choice for Eliot here and in the flashback. He looks like he just got up from a coffee with Sartre and Camus and I cannot stress enough how I LOVE how that (aside of course from being funny) already sets up how he is NOT just the muscle ❤

…Eliot not even putting down his mug. Yes, he is that badass

…the baseball card

… “You can have the whole box” (Flirty!Hardison – and yes, of course he is fascinated and turned on by Parker instantly, but I think what I love most is how this is different to how he sees her later; he is overall more aggressive, edgy, pushy pre-team)

… “Age of the Geek, baby. We run the world.” – “Hm. You keep telling yourself that.”

… Thief.

… Parker’s flashback being so fucking DARK, even in comparison to Eliot’s who just put down 10 thugs

… the tell-tale ages of their flashback selves – Hardison the teenager, Eliot the adult, Parker the kid. Talk about what shaped you / who you are

…Eliot and Nate being professionals vs. Parker and Hardison being the brats ❤

… Parker taking such obvious pleasure in her work

… Nate’s background images being the cold blue schematics

… Hardison being SO TURNED ON by Eliot’s speed / his efficiency / his dislike of guns (love the emptying of the magazine) / his smile

… that shared smile when the door opens. STOP IT, YOU GUYS

… Nate’s I-am-in-command-here voice. Later on he uses that to play generals and higher ups – his favoured role aside from ‘the annoying one’ – but here it’s no game, no play acting. This IS Nate right now

… technically that would be Plan G

…the OT3 working so perfectly together during the burn-scam sequence

…the almost-morning-at-the-end-of-an-obviously-fucking-cold-night atmosphere when they split. Talk about symbolism here. And lovely light

… Dubenic. Seriously. He dupes us, the viewers, fair enough. But he also does this with Nate, Parker, Eliot, AND Hardison. And can we just take a moment and appreciate that because we know how insanely smart they are. – And there is just that HINT of Dubenic playing them in the way he picks up his cup and sips, like he has no care in the world

… the way Hardison holds his gun

… the fact that Eliot hasn’t taken it away from hm yet. Because sure, he could. But he actually WANTS Hardison to BELIEVE him, doesn’t he

…Hardison and Parker having brought guns. Which makes sense. Eliot not bothering. Which also makes sense. But Nate? He just doesn’t give a fuck at this point, does he? Dangerous man, he who has nothing left to lose. And that maniac’s laughter when he figures it out? Holy shit, there is something very, very wrong with him

… Eliot helping Hardison up (already the protector <3)

… the reason why Hardison fell in the first place – looking back to check where Eliot is <3<3

…the reflection of the fireblast on Nate’s face. The whole explosion. Damn, that is some fine pyro work there.

…Parker switching so effortlessly between razor-sharp logic and crazy aloofness

…the ever changing dynamic during that conversation in Hardison’s flat. Like, Hardison keeping Eliot from finally losing it and taking it on with Nate and all the other little shifts and changes. Like, Nate already knowing Eliot’s and Parker’s different priorities (Payback and Money / Money and Payback); Parker and Hardison being hooked straight away, Eliot being the cautious one

…Eliot’s FACE during Sophie’s acting

…Nate being so FASCINATED by Sophie

… that flashback – Nate, like the OT, has a very… interesting way of remembering things

…Parker’s super aggressive popcorn reading

… Eliot’s continued ‘Parker is crazy. CRAZY. Am I the only one seeing that?!’ Possibly, yes, Eliot

…Nigerians. I mean, not only is that THE con. But it’s also the con that works because it targets people too stupid to not know better. The fact that Nate uses that on Dubenic. Because they were double-crossed and now HE gets double-crossed with a con that he SHOULD have seen coming because no one in their right mind would buy Nate Ford trying to pull of the ACTUAL Nigerian Scam

…Sophie just walking out on Dubenic

…Eliot’s outfit as an IT expert. That is so offensive, Eliot, even BEFORE the Klingon. I love you. Also? I love the reaction of the secretary as he walks in. Like, damn, he’s fine. She’s not wrong

… the bridge in the background of Sophie’s and Dubenic’s scene outside. God, that is SUCH a perfect metaphor and so pretty

… “I take it to Pierson.” – Sophie is not just a great actress, this little decision here already shows how she will have no problem taking over from Nate when he is in prison

… the Eliot/Nate conversation at the pool table. Easily my favourite scene of the whole episode. I wrote about how I love all the characters’ relationships in an earlier entry (http://afraschatz.tumblr.com/post/175521619189/afraschatz-i-think-the-reason-why-i-love), but Eliot’s and Nate’s is one of my favourites. And this scene breaks my fucking heart EVERY time. I want to be angry at Nate for being so harsh to Eliot reaching out and I want to weep for him at the same time. And Eliot. Oh, Eliot. All of the others so wrapped up in the current con (and Nate in his pain) that they can’t see what he can already sense and what he already sees and understands. Why else would the hitter, the “I work alone” man, Moreau’s former right hand man reach out like that? This isn’t the hitter checking whether the insurance man might turn on him /them; this isn’t even the man set out for revenge trying to make sure that the mastermind behind the plan can focus properly. This already is Eliot caring. And Nate being unable to accept that at this point. Ah, I love them so much

… the hospital flashback. Oh Tim Hutton <3…

… Sophie and the earpiece. Sure, Sophie, you need help. Sure.

… locked up comedy frame. Hardison hahahaha. Love that chair-roll

… Dubenic’s smug expression in the elevator

… “I can take your underpants”

… “This particular project has a different revenue stream” – Ah, eloquent!smug!Nate

…Sophie’s reaction to the HUGE cheque. Like, WHAT?!

…Hardison starting to explain what he did – I kinda wanted him to continue explaining that to me because a. maybe he could actually shed some light on some stock stuff that I really don’t get and b. competence porn

…Eliot wanting to kiss Hardison 🙂

…the slow round-and-round of the camera during the team’s talk outside. I need to write a separate LONG post about how great the camera work on this show is

… Eliot looking at Hardison while Hardison waits for Nate to suggest that they should do that again, then, when Nate doesn’t, immediately trying to get his defences back up and his hopes down. Oh, Eliot ❤

… Black king, white knight. Aside from me being very much in love with Sophie’s SHAMELESS flirting (and Nate’s reaction to that), this is such a pretty description and fits him so well

… that last scene and the way they stand / sit. I mean, man, thank you, Sophie, for being kind to the victims while the rest of your team plays a very weird mashup of Reservoir Dogs and Godfather in the background

… NATE, YOU ARE SO CREEPY, I LOVE YOU.

notalwaysweak:

naamahdarling:

wowowow

okay can we talk for a minute about Leverage and how Nate and Maggie are estranged at the beginning of the show

but there is just so little hostility and instead a lot of confusion and regret

but they wind up in a much better, closer place at the end

even get a little closure over the death of their son

BUT

them getting back together isn’t a plot thing at all

jealousy between her and Sophie is not an issue

Nate is never forced to choose between them

there is no regretful “i will miss you but i see how happy you are with her/him” scene at the end

the whole team rallies to save her butt when she’s framed for stealing that Faberge egg without question

instead of being bitter and trying to get in the way of the team, she helps the team out not just on the job that will allow her to get revenge on the guy whose policies led to their son’s death, but on a totally unrelated, earlier job

the script was so good and the character stuff so good we don’t feel like Maggie got shafted and Nate “got the girl”

i mean, unless i am forgetting about scenes or something, there’s all these really frustrating things they COULD have done, and they just didn’t

and the whole show was like that

it openly acknowledged the attractiveness of ALL their leads (Nate was a bit of a mess, but that’s Nate) and Eliot and Hardison (in that order) were the most casually sexualized (Sophie pretty much sexualized herseif, and it was almost always done as part of a con, on her own terms); Parker was not really sexualized at all, despite being cute as hell and even taking her top off in front of the boys – we believed she was sexy, we didn’t have our nose rubbed in it

the suffering of women was never depicted in a sexual way, in any way that made it look attractive

female incompetence was never a theme

“natural” female superiority was not a theme (those

”haha silly men can’t do anything right” sorts of depictions often come from a place of male insecurity, not female empowerment)

the boys on the team showed complete respect for Sophie, even though she was the “sexy one”

as the boys on the team came to understand how broken Parker really sorta was and how “odd” even aside from that, they rallied to supporther, not fix or take advantage of her, and they accepted her oddness even though it often aggravated them and sometimes led them to gloss over what she was saying as Parker weirdness (the jury episode where she tries to tell them that something is fishy and they dismiss her – actually very realistic but not done too painfully) Parker was never shown in a light that made her look inadequate because of her “shortcomings” which were really just the facts of her existence

the whole premise of the show revolved around righting the wrongs created by capitalism, even if not every episode explicitly went there

and the characters oh god my heart

every one of them was a treasure, someone i could fall in love with

Eliot was an Okie from a blue-collar background, and was a rough guy, but was never shown to be sexist in any way despite how attached sexism is to the trope of the tough southern dude who loves horses and beer and country music; he was violent, but his arc was not to unrealistically eschew that violence … rather, he channeled it into protecting, not destroying; he had very real feelings, not just caricatured reactions to things

Parker was not involved in a romantic tug-of-war between other teammates, she was never a narrative device to create romantic tension within the team; she arguably was the glue that stuck Eliot (protective big brother) and Hardison (darling loving cinnamon roll) together in that OT3 relationship that pretty much everyone who watched the show realized existed

Sophie was incredibly sexy and manipulative and this was never thrown in her face via slut-shaming or making her out to be an awful person or turning her into any of the unflattering stereotypes that sort of character often gets turned into; also, there was no running gag where she slept with every member of the team (no that it would have been bad if she had, just that sort of thing tends to get handled really badly)

Hardison, our beloved incredibly multi-talented genius with a heart of gold, was Black, but they didn’t write him like a white character or have him speak like a white character; he was also the most stable and gentle and soft-spoken member of the team, IMO, which is not how you would expect a show to depict the sole Black teammate

Nate was an alcoholic whose addiction was treated realistically and with respect, was not over-dramatized, was not magically “cured”, was acknowledged by the team without there being a major intervention plotline, didn’t function as a real liability team-wise, and was never played as a device to keep him away from Sophie by having her deliver an ultimatum he couldn’t meet; it was a part of his personality, not all of his personality, and while addiction recovery narratives are important, not everything about an addict has to be about that, any more than all gay love stories have to end in tragedy

it was just a really, really good show, you guys, grounded in real feelings and issues without being too dark, hilarious without being mean, and feelsy without being saccharine

i love it so much and sometimes i just have to gush about it

BB if you’re going to talk about Leverage like this you can always talk for way, way more than just a minute.