operahousebookworm:

This never ceases to blow me away, because it’s something Leverage does fantastically and I don’t think I’ve ever seen anyone else pull off. Usually when a character is supposed to be the best of the best, it’s hard to present them with a decent challenge. So you end up with them making stupid mistakes or self-sabotaging or getting screwed over by huge coincidences.

But Leverage goes the other direction: they’re so good at their jobs that that’s what causes problems. Their police disguise is so good that they’re given an assignment for the actual cops. Eliot is just supposed to join a baseball team and ends up becoming the star and getting recognized while in the middle of a different part of the con. Sophie’s reputation is so terrifying that Chaos tries to kill her preemptively because he knows he can’t possibly out-con her. This stuff doesn’t always drive the plot, but it allows for complications while still allowing the characters to be at the top of their field.

Yeah, I’m not the first person to point this out, and I’m pretty sure I’ve gushed about it before. But seriously, it’s one hell of a trick, and something any writer should want to study.