"Leverage" The Nigerian Job (2008)

Director:

Dean Devlin

Writers:

John Rogers (creator) &
Chris Downey (creator) ...

TV Series:

"Leverage" (2008)

Original Air Date:

7 December 2008 (Season 1, Episode 1)

Genre:

Crime | Drama | Mystery | Thriller

Plot:

When Nathan Ford, a former insurance company investigator, is approached by a man asking him to help retrieve some stolen property...

Plot Keywords:

Beautiful Woman | Alcoholism | Thief | One Word Title | Hustler

US TV Schedule:

Sat. Jan. 2

9:00 AM

TNT

The Nigerian Job

#1.1

Cast

Timothy Hutton	...	Nathan Ford
Aldis Hodge	...	Alec Hardison
Christian Kane	...	Eliot Spencer
Beth Riesgraf	...	Parker
Gina Bellman	...	Sophie Devereaux
Saul Rubinek	...	Victor Dubenich
Jamie Vann	...	Ed Helm
Andy John	...	Bartender
Ed Smaron	...	Guard #1
William Dick	...	Concierge
Ian Belknap	...	Drunk Dad
Mike Bradecich	...	Lobby Guard
Anish Jethmalani	...	Dr. Ranji
Rick Uecker	...	Deputy Burns
Cindy Gold	...	Nurse

Runtime:

Netherlands:55 min (including commercials)

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Certification:

Netherlands:12

Filming Locations:

Chicago, Illinois, USA

Company:

Electric Entertainment

Trivia:

Saul Rubinek also starred with Timothy Hutton in the "Nero Wolfe" (1981) mystery series.

Goofs:

Revealing mistakes: While watching Pierson's press conference on the CNN website, it's very obvious the web page is local mock-up instead of being from CNN.com. This is visible in the address bar of the browser.

Quotes:

Alec Hardison: Ten-digit password. I salute you, sir.

Movie Connections:

References Star Wars (1977)

The start of what looks like a very promising and highly entertaining television sitcom.

*** This review may contain spoilers ***

Our pilot kicks off with Insurance investigator Nathan Ford having a stiff drink where he is greeted by business man whose airplane designs were stolen by a rival company. Since Ford used to have a career of recovering stolen goods that are worth fortunes he seems to qualify as the best man to lead a group of thieves into breaking and entering the rival organization. Joining him are Alec Hardison( the internet/computer fraud), Elliot Spencer( the Retrival specialist) and little miss thief Parker. They get acquainted and the mission is surprisingly the mission goes according to plan. However the next morning they discover no paycheck in sight, and that was all promised with their negotiations. They are told to meet in a dumpy warehouse we're their trust in each other fades a bit until they realize they've been set up, and are now being set up to go bye bye. They immediately run out of the warehouse and...BOOM! They are knocked out for a while and wake up in a hospital room locked in handcuffs waiting for the police to show up. They get out of their situation by having Parker throw up and fake an illness, they are than able to leave and confuse the police through a little cell phone game. Are these pair of Robin Hoods down? No. Are they out? Not even close. With the suggestion from Nathan they recruit actress/Grifter Sophie Devereaux to assist in their plans. But perhaps the rival business owner is also more cleverer than he looks? Like any pilot to a series this introduces us to the characters and shows off their traits, as far as the plot sets up for. Itr also shows quick look into each of their pasts, case in point we look into a dark time in Nathan Ford's life as we see his son die in an "experiemntal" hospital operation that his employers refused to pay.

This episode was one of the most entertaining pilot I've seen in a while, it totally sucked me right into it's world and the characters got my attention. This episode is extremely witty and sometimes clever with it's humor and including it's plot development.

Overall, I am very pleased by this shows' first episode, I can't wait to see how it all goes from here. Will be there on Tuesday night.