Leverage (TV Series) The Long Good-bye Job (2012) User Reviews

One of the Best Series Finales Out There, BUT......

[nannyjo · 10/10 · 28 February 2018]

.... There should have been more!

Just like the "Leverage" famous 360 camera angles of the team, this episode takes us full circle in so many ways. Without spoiling the episode for anyone, there are many re-imagings of pilot episode scenes which is great to help us remember how far we have come with these people - our heroes.

We, the audience, get conned a few times, which makes it even more fun even though it is a very dramatic episode.

In the end, we get to see how much the characters have grown since we met them. Nate has a clear path for his future; Sophie gets her acting redemption- she really is good when acting is part of the con; Parker can experience and express her feelings; Sterling comes through in the end - he is the villain you just love to hate- how can anyone really hate Mark Sheppard, though? Hardison has matured and Eliot got a family to trust.

The three man team will continue on which would have been a show I would have dearly loved to see - Leverage International.

All in all it was very satisfying conclusion to a show that I still feel is one of the best of television. We know that all of our heroes will live and long and happy lives with Eliot protecting them "'Til his dying day."

A sincere "Thank You" to everyone who was involved in bringing us this wonderful series.

-nj

I don't give 10 stars. So for me, a 9 is a 10

[skay_baltimore · 9/10 · 4 May 2022]

As a series finale, this is about as good as it gets. Season 5, like the other seasons, had its hits and misses. But "The Long Good-bye Job" was a grand slam. This is one of those very few series that I'll miss now that it's over. The ensemble just works. And it works consistently and creatively. R. I. P. Leverage. (And...it was a nice touch to let the series finale include the same MacBeth role for Sophie that she had in S1E1, only this time she nailed it, and the understudy had the cringe worthy bad acting performance.)

Season 5: Falls awkwardly between sparky fun and cloying melodrama and never really does as well as it should

[bob the moo · 10 March 2013]

I have stuck with this show for the duration because my partner really enjoys it and, to be honest, when the show is on good form I also find it very enjoyable easy viewing. The fourth season in particular seemed to get the tone just right, producing caper/con plots that were fun while all the actors had a twinkle in their eyes that let us know not to take it too seriously; at the same time the script had plenty of funny and clever lines and ideas that worked very well. So, although I knew going in that the show had been cancelled, I was looking forward to the fifth season with the hope it could keep this up.

The move of the team to Portland as a base gave me hope, since it was a nice in-joke to actually put the characters in the city that the production has been filmed in for several seasons but calling it everything from New York to Dubai! This was tempered by the decision to not have a title sequence, which meant that each episode jumps right into the cloying sentimental plot device without having the sparky upbeat credit sequence to lift the mood. This doesn't sound important but it does make a difference – particularly when this season doesn't manage to have that fun spark to it as consistently as it needed to. It has its moments and in most episodes there are at least a few chuckles or good lines but generally the spark just isn't there for too much of the time. It still makes for decent light entertainment though and I quite liked the majority of the episodes but I was disappointed about how passively I was able to watch it – it was there, I was there but it didn't grab me and it didn't lift me. It is a solid season don't get me wrong, but this very "solid" delivery of a rather straightforward product is part of the reason I'm not too sad to see it conclude – it is a show that really needed to have a base of fun and wit (like Psych) but while it has moments it doesn't make it consistent.

The cast don't seem to be enjoying it as much, although perhaps this is down to the material not giving them as much to play with? As usual none of them can deal too well with the more solemn or melodramatic parts of every episode or of their own character, but all of them are better when they get some slicker and fun material. As a team I will miss them because when they had the material they were very good with it, but here they just didn't get it as much as they should have done. They do have some nice jokes but not enough. I did appreciate the sci-fi in-jokes associated with Frakes directing and I also liked that the plots seemed to occasionally be drawn from real life; so for example the episode on cheer-leading being a sport or not is a real thing and the episode featuring a Walmart-style chain is nice, but it doesn't have as much teeth as the idea suggests it will. Ironically, the final episode is the one that gets the mix right – it has a great plot, nice twists, nice humor and the sentimental parts actually work pretty well.

So the show ends with a season that is typical for it unfortunately. It is solid but not remarkable, entertaining but in a "light" way and it shows the strengths of the show without ever really making the most of them. I will miss the show for its "light" and easy entertainment value, but it is hardly something that does enough to engage me or thrill me.