Leverage 2019 Review
Leverage 2019 Review: How Not to Leverage
(Spoilers Ahead)
By Nabil Bakri (instagram: @skywalkerhunter95)
OVERTURE
“There are movies so bad it is good, there are scenes so stupid it’s funny, there are scenes so out of place it’s frustrating, there are films and series have these qualities in them and Leverage is one of them—it makes you wonder whether it tries to copy Mission Impossible but fail so hard it’s funny and heart-warming, or it tries to parody Oceans 11 and it works surprisingly well!”
This is the second Korean drama review that I made in 2020 and the second that I watched in 2020. There are certainly many other that I would like to review, but two is good for now. After I saw Rookie Historian: Goo Hae-Ryung, I wanted to see something different. I remember that I quite like the Korean drama Confession and so, I decided to look for a somewhat similar drama for this time. Confession is about crime, corruption, conspiracy, and so on, and it kept me hooked to its golden bait. I said this many times, that Confession gives me a drama in its balanced portion—it did not make me too involved to binge-watch the entire show, but at the same time keep my curiosity level up in the sky. For the first time in years, I wanted to watch a TV show one episode a day, just like how we enjoyed TV series back then and that made me feel good. As I explain in my review on Rookie Historian, I do judge the book by its cover and when I stumbled upon Leverage, the poster told me to pick it up and watch it. To be frank, it reminded me of Confessionand I do think I need to watch more varied Korean dramas. The think I like about popular Korean drama (and Asian drama in general) so far, is that they mostly aired for one season only and I am happy because I hate series with too many seasons. I finally finished Game of Thrones and I can tell you, all the wait for nearly a decade ended up worthless. Too many American TV shows suffer from this—plus many were cancelled after several seasons due to rating decline, many ended up unfinished. To this day, I think it is better to end a story where it should end and find a different story for a sequel—or plan everything from the get go, so if you want to make 3 seasons of a show, make sure you planned it for three seasons and not “planning only for one season, and if it is popular you’re gonna make a sequel”—because what happens if it turns out to be not popular anymore? The perfect example is two Terminator films. The first film ends and it can be a good standalone film without a sequel. The sequel, Terminator 2 Judgement Day takes a different story while keeping it in line with the first one. Or, try to be like Lord of the Rings Trilogy, all three movies created back-to-back, so even if the first film turned out unsuccessful, they still gonna release the second and third. The Matrix (2-3) and The Hobbit Trilogy are also created back-to-back and both suffer from low ratings, but since they were all planned to be released to begin with, the studio ended up releasing them all. Sigh.
I did not look up further about Leverage beyond the number of episodes and season (I try to avoid those more than 20 episodes and more than one season) and its basic (and I mean very-very basic) premise. It’s a single season with only 16 episodes and it talks about a group of five tangled up in secret and dangerous missions (or, basically, heists). I watched the first two or three episodes and I thought I’d never make a review out of it because it’s not as good as I thought. I found myself constantly mumbling and taking packs and packs of painkiller to ease my mind since I was so angry about the logic of Leverage. I kept comparing it to the (clearly) superior Confession and I wonder whether I was watching a show about this serious leverage or an elaborated joke. It was difficult to keep my attention on the show, but as I gradually devoured more episodes, I started to master the art of watching Leverage, that is, I must not take it too seriously the way I do with Confession. Well, based on these two paragraphs, I believe you can see that I do not really like this show and I might give it a terrible review. However, the fact that I decided to make this review shows that there is more to this show than these two paragraphs can explain. You see, I do not always review a film or a TV show that I have watched. I have seen films, Korean dramas, Japanese dramas, Anime series, and even Indian cartoon series that I never made reviews of. I only saw several (less than 10 so far) Asian dramas (Chinese and Korean, so it’s not exclusive to K-dramas) and I only made like 3 K-drama reviews and 3 Chinese drama reviews (and one is actually Taiwanese as many Taiwanese say it firmly that they are most certainly not part of China).
As I explore Leverage deeper and deeper, I think I need to expose its stupidity and explain to people how bad it is—because many reviews, I ended up look it up, are positive. Yet again, those are mostly reviews from K-drama fans. Okay, you might wonder if it really is that bad. I do not like it, but I have to stress this time and time again that I have a system in judging a film or a show. I have 15 score points in judging a film with ten points being the technical points (story logic, consistency, special effects, music, and so on) and five points being the combination of my own personal thoughts and the majority voice of critics in both review platforms and award ceremonies. So, even if I say I do not like this show, I must present to you every aspect of it and give you the entire story. Well, let’s just start now.
PLOT SUMMARY
Leverage tells the story of an insurance fraud investigator named Lee Tae-Joon. The series opens with a museum robbery and Tae-Joon soon arrives at the crime scene to investigate the insurance claim for damage from the museum. According to Tae-Joon, many insurance claims are basically frauds perpetrated by the owners to gain financial benefits by tampering with the legal system. The investigator finds out that the entire robbery scene is a fraud scheme as the owner of the museum has apparently hired two “criminals” to steal a valuable antique from the museum. Tae-Joon once again proves himself as a celebrated investigator and he is indeed rather famous among colleagues in the business including Korean police department and he has a lot of connections (he made quite a lot of money too). However, he is deeply concerned with the health of his son who has leukaemia or blood cancer. One day, his son’s condition suddenly worsen and the doctor says he does not have much time left. Tae-Joon asks for medical recommendation and he is willing to pay as much money required to treat his son’s leukaemia abroad. The doctor, however, discloses the fact that South Korea is the leading country for cancer treatment and there is a newly developed medicine called Asana. The drug is in its early stage and will be ready for public in three or four years—Tae-Joon’s son certainly cannot wait for that long. In desperation, Tae-Joon receives the doctor’s secret message to obtain the drug illegally.
In order to get the drug, Tae-Joon makes a deal with a devastated father who tells Tae-Joon that the drug he created is stolen by a biomedical company and he wants his research papers back. Tae-Joon is forced to perform an elaborated scam or leverage to break in the company and steal the documents. He is an experienced investigator and knows a lot about leverage. He then quits his job and asks a skilled money vault thief named Go Na-byul, a genius hacker named Jeong Eui-sung, and a failing actress (who is a pro con-artist) named Hwang Soo-kyung. Together they successfully deceive professional security-guard who is an ex-military, Roy Ryu, and obtain the Asana research documents. However, the entire break-in plan is actually a trap set by an unknown powerful director. Tae-joon is deceived as he learns that the drug belongs to the rightful owner and he is the one who steals it. His police colleagues are baffled to learn that a respectable investigator is the mastermind of an elaborated break-in. Tae-joon must go to prison, but he manages to bring the deceiver down together to the prison. The deceiver then explains to Tae-joon that they are all just pawns in the grand scheme of chess board game. During his action, however, Tae-joon lost his son.
Losing his son destroys Tae-joon’s life—he was unable to bring the Asana drug in time because he was arrested. Once Tae-joon is released and his friends help him recover from his sadness, he determined to unravel the mystery of his deceiver—who plays the chess board game using him as a mere pawn? Tae-joon gathers his team and asks Roy Ryu to join the team. The five members of the group then establish a secret chamber in an “unknown” space in a building (an unused parking space in between two building floors—elevators do not recognize the floor and a secret code is needed). Together, they deceive criminals who are directly linked to the mastermind chess player. They become similar to the legendary Robin Hood story—stealing from the filthy rich criminals (such as investor scammer, incompetent and corrupt directors of elderly home facility, and so on) and give the money back to the society—while keeping some for themselves.
Story Logic and Story Consistency
“A heist film or series is a sub-genre of crime films that mainly talks about heists or an elaborated scheme to achieve a certain goal through dangerous and often illegal paths. A movie that simply talks about robbery does not necessarily mean a heist film, but it has to use the ‘heist’ elements as its central attention—in a way, the heist itself can be treated as if it is a living-breathing character—it is the grand narrative that moves the entire story. Apparently, there is another genre in film and series that often called legal drama. It may seem quite similar to heist film especially in its tone and overall theme concerning complicated struggles tackling with criminals through legal (a contrasting point to heist film) paths. The drama Leverage is supposed to be, as many people consider, a heist drama while Confession, a further discussion will be presented shortly, is a legal drama.”
Leverage is a heist/crime drama based on the American action crime drama with the same name aired from 2008 to 2012 with total 77 episodes from 5 seasons. The pilot story of both series are basically the same. As a heist drama, there are some rules it must follow. Apparently, it is different from a legal drama like Confession, so I was wrong comparing it with Confession (or was I?). Since this is the first heist drama I have ever seen, I seek for guidance from Hollywood films namely Mission Impossible and Oceans 11. As I swallowed more and more Leverage episodes, the drama reminded me of those two films and I think it is influenced by such films. Just because Leverage is not a legal drama like Confession, does not mean it can throw away laws of both physics and legal systems to the bins. Leverage has more flexibility than Confession because it does not talk about legal systems and following the rules in the court. Everything in Confession means to bring down the enemy through legal system (fighting illegal action with legal confession) while everything in Leverage means to bring down the chess board mastermind through heist and deception (fighting illegal action with illegal action). However, does this mean Leverage has all the flexibility in the world and has no boundaries? Can it show us something so unbelievably stupid and rely almost solely on coincidences? Well, as I said before, I seek help from Mission Impossible and Oceans 11.
In Mission Impossible, Tom Cruise is trapped in a mole hunt as the suspected criminal. His entire team led by John Voight is assassinated and he’s the only survivor. I observe the film firstly on its cast members and how they act as secret agents. Just like Leverage, they have a cunning leader, a professional heist pro, a professional con artist, and a professional hacker. Unlike Leverage, though, they act like professional agents. How a professional agent acts differently from regular folks like you and me, helps the character stands out yet believable as a secret agent. Even the enemies in Mission Impossible act just like how an international criminal would act. This is the boundary set by Mission Impossible, that these characters are different from us therefore, not everybody can be a secret agent—not every genius hacker can be a professional hacker working for FBI or MI-6 (at least not in the scope of its genre). But probably, Mission Impossible is a far too serious example. Now, Oceans 11 is less serious in presenting the characters and they seem to act less-strictly compared to Mission Impossible (they are, after all, criminals and not legal secret agents). However, their actions are believable and thus make Oceans 11 a true heist movie. Yes Brad Pitt makes jokes, but his overall character is believable to be part of a heist plan. If Leverage is to follow the rules of heist/crime drama, the actions of its cast members should be believable—meaning they should act like professional criminals in order to make us believe that they are indeed professional criminals (if they are not professional, it is impossible for them to succeed the missions). Being or acting professional in a heist drama does not mean the characters cannot make jokes and do stupid stuff (heck, they can even make a party like Project X), but there is a different between jokes in a heist drama and jokes in comedy or romance—heck even jokes in family comedy is different from jokes in dark comedy. This is where Leverage makes mistake: I do not believe these characters are capable of doing what they are doing, if it insists to be a heist drama. Leverage is too illogical and plain stupid to be a true heist drama—it has to be something else. But then again, Leverage is advertised to be a heist drama and a lot of people seem to consider the heist in Leverage as “brilliant”—well I came up with two assumptions: 1) they (the people) are confused about its true genre, and 2) the show itself is confused about its own genre.
Okay, so apparently, Leverage is not simply or strictly a heist/crime drama, but a comedy heist drama. So, I am not supposed to take it too seriously. And after I consider the show as a comedy, I can actually watch the show with much more enjoyment than when I considered it to be a pure heist drama (see, the power of genre is actually enormous, it can affect your attitude toward a show). However, it is this addition of comedy that makes Leverage not only genre-ly speaking illogical, but also inconsistent. You see, there are many parts of Leverage that look and feel like pure heist drama, so it is impossible not to take it seriously. On the other hand, there are also parts that just plain stupid and comical that it is too difficult to take the storyline seriously. It is this wild switch that deems this show inconsistent. If Leverage is a heist comedy, then it has to be less-serious at all times. If Leverage is a true heist drama, it has to be serious. It is difficult to take a dangerous plot to kill all the Leverage members as serious threat when you know that they may be ended up just fine because the show is basically a comedy—there will be some magic coincidences that save them all. If we take it less-seriously, however, there is a simple fact that the characters are indeed in a great danger. If Leverage is consistent, the cast members should not survive the killing plan. In the end, it is all up to the viewers to judge the show. One should just consider it a light-hearted comedy drama instead of a heist drama. I mean, I constantly screamed (in my head, that is) when the members of Tae-joon heist group fail to grasp the most basic guidelines in robbery.
It annoys me when the characters use the exact same vehicles every single time. I assume that they should change their vehicles every time they finish a heist. They could at least change the color or hey, stick some stickers. I mean, you use the car every day to go everywhere in both heist and personal activities. Some logic are also off, like they do not know how to follow a suspect—they are literally tailgating and drive suspiciously! I mean, come on! Even an average Joe can tell that he is being followed if you drive a huge black microbus a few meters away from your suspect. And the team has a master hacker that can track people’s phones, why not tracking the suspect’s phone? And modern cars have stupid complicated computers—many are traceable, you can just track the car! There are just too many logical fallacy in this show and once again, you must consider it to be a comedy instead of a heist drama. Again, I mean, if it wants to talk about heist and comedy, make it like The Man Who Knew Too Little—the movie does not make any sense, but hey, it’s a comedy! Not only that, the villain is also stupid. And the police. Well, now that I think of it, everybody in Leverage is! Should this destroy your enjoyment? Based on its rating and audience approval, no, it shouldn’t. Did I at least feel entertained watching the show? I have to say yes, this show is entertaining—if you seek none beyond ‘entertaining’. So once again, it’s all up to you to decide, what are you looking for in this show? If you just want to be entertained, then go forward. If you want something much more meaningful, you better search somewhere else.
Casting Choice and Acting
01) Lee Dong-gun as Lee Tae-joon
He is the former insurance investigator and the “boss” to the Leverage team. As he has the most knowledge in the world of heist and scammers (he helped stop scammers from manipulating insurance claims), he is the mastermind behind the team—the one who comes up with “brilliant” ideas in scamming scammers. I do not have problems with Lee Dong-gun as the actor, I think his appearance and acting suitable for this role. However, I have tons of complaints for the writing of his character. He is supposed to be this kind, sharp, yet charismatic person who can judge a situation objectively and smartly, but in many cases, he is just too dumb or too fragile to be the head of the team. He jeopardizes the missions more than once for letting his personal feelings to take in. I mean, I understand his sorrow for losing his son, but whenever his feeling comes out in the middle of a mission, he seems to forget the goal of the mission—it is okay to feel deeply sad in the moment because you know you will redeem the feeling later when it all comes down to the end and you solve the problem. The mission is started by his sorrow, and in order to face his sorrow, he must finish the mission. Do you remember the scene from Harry Potter and The Half-Blood Prince? When Dumbledore wants to obtain a horcrux, he must drink the water that will make him suffer and beg for his death. However, he tells Harry Potter not to stop giving him the water because he knows it is necessary and it all will go away after he drinks all the water. Dumbledore has feelings, but he does not let his feelings confront his actions because he is, above all, a leader. Do you know that the White House was trying so hard to hide the fact that President Roosevelt was in a wheelchair? As a leader, not only you must show good example, but you also have to “look” strong—that’s important for the psychology of your entire team. I was a team leader in a university project once, I was trembling to perform before tons of audience, and my friends were telling me that they are afraid because I looked afraid. So, I smiled, and I danced like crazy, I tried so hard to show them that I am not afraid. Deep down, I am, but I must not show that to others. That, my friend, is the biggest burden of being a leader and it is super difficult. I don’t know why many people want to be a leader, it’s difficult, I’d rather be a leader’s advisor than being the leader.
02) Jeon Hye-bin as Hwang Soo-kyung
She is a failing actress. She is unable to mesmerize the juries of character castings and yet she wants to be a professional Broadway actress. She is very good at scamming people, though, so she is a brilliant ‘con artist’ and since the juries would not give her the part, she buys the entire theatre hall and performs her own show with only two or three audience. Again, I do not have complaints for Jeon Hye-bin as Soo-kyung, she is good at acting. However, her character simply does not make any sense. A great con artist that is bad at acting? Give me a break! Soong-kyung manages to manipulate people in real life and yet she is unable to act on stage? And it’s not her cover-up, but she really is bad at acting! She is the one who manipulates the best con artist in the world and yet she is bad at acting? Clark Kent is not strong and he’s not the bravest person on earth, but that’s all acting, that’s all cover-up to keep his true identity a secret. He deliberately acts as a weak nerd-reporter. That is understandable. Soo-kyung, however, is really bad at acting! It’s like Clark Kent is actually weak, and if Clark Kent is weak, Super Man should also be weak! This kind of conflicting characterization happens so many times throughout Leverage. And of course, this adds to the list of inconsistencies in this show.
03) Kim Sae-ron as Go Na-byul
Perhaps the most consistent character in Leverage. Just like the previous two characters, I do not have complains for Kim Sae-ron, but unlike the previous two, I praise the writing of her character. She is a professional thief and does everything for the sake of money. Even when Tae-joon handles a “non-profit” mission, Na-byul still tries to find a way to make the mission profitable. There’s a little bit inconsistency, though, when she wants to help her senior (who once taught her the arts of robbery) from an elderly Alzheimer-retirement centre. In this special and very personal case, she is so worried about her senior and it is her who drags the team to investigate the centre to begin with. However, during the most crucial moment of the mission, she has the time to think about profit! Unbelievable! Usually, they plan to steal the money, but they do not plan it this time. In the end, she gives the money to take care of her senior, but again, it’s inconsistent because she initially wanted the money for herself (that’s why Tae-joon specifically forbids her for stealing money from the centre) but suddenly wants to give it away. Did I miss something? If you want to give it away, just tell Tae-joon. You know he has a soft heart, he will understand and help you all the way.
04) Yeo Hoe-hyun as Jeong Eui-sung
Eui-sung is the master hacker in the team. He hacked sophisticated government system when he was 15 and he manages to hack almost everything from almost everywhere. A hacker does not need fit physical performance and does not have to look in a certain specific way, he can look like a soldier, he can look like a boy band member, he can be an old guy or a young man, no matter—especially these days with our technology. Therefore, Yeo Hoe-hyun is a good choice. Even though his look does not important, his attitude is. And this character’s attitude makes it impossible to believe that he is a master hacker. Is he a master hacker or a comic relief? I’m sorry I did not get that, tell me once more.
05) Kim Kwon as Roy Ryu
He is the ‘muscle’ of the team. With his expertise in security and military, he helps with physically challenging aspects of a mission. He is the one who beat up guards, chase people with cars, stab people, and so on. As usual, no complains for Kim’s acting. His character, though, suffers the same inconsistencies as other characters. He is supposed to be the expert in security, but many times he fails to follow certain rules in security—he fails to follow a car as he fails to keep “normal” distance, he fails to remind his comrades to switch cars every time they finish a heist, he even fails to change his own car making it easier for his enemies to find and follow him! It seems that the problem with characters in Leverage is not in the casting choices, but in writing. I cannot say that these actors are bad at acting because they are not, but the script make them look bad because their characters are inconsistent.
Special Effects, Cinematography, Set and Costume
Since Leverage is set in the current time (2019), I don’t think it’s that difficult to find matching outfits for the characters. They all have basically similar outfits as regular people (plus the fact that they are not secret agents but criminals) and that makes them look natural and relatable. I have no problems with the special effects, cinematography, and costume, but I do have problems with the set. First, it is once again about the cars. They need to change the cars more often and especially the secret micro-bus. I don’t know a microbus can be so spacious and comfortable for five-six people alongside giant computer screens. At certain points I do not even believe they are inside a real microbus but inside an indoor set. Second, they could touch up the secret lair so it can look far more advanced—these people have millions of dollars, they certainly can afford a much better lair. In the end, their lair is destroyed by a mysterious group—something I don’t think should happen if they are “that good” and if they have a better lair. They also bring outsider to their lair and I think that’s just stupid. They should have like more than one facility so depending on their guest, they can take them to different facilities. For example, a not-trustworthy guest should be taken to their least secret facility, the one that they can take any guest they want. A more important guest should then be taken to a different facility in which they planted sophisticated security system. And finally, a lair only for the five members and nobody else can come in. I am not a secret agent, but if I can come up with such a simple idea, they should be able to think about that too!
Music
There is nothing special nor annoying about the music from Leverage. There is certainly no music that gets me up from my seat, press the volume button up, and enjoy the music—the music from Leverage is not really memorable. However, the fact whether the music is memorable or not should not affect the quality of the entire show and I am certainly not qualified to judge music. Still, I and all of you guys can sense something off when an improper music is added to a show. Imagine if John Williams added Gangnam Style to Jurassic Park, we can certainly tell that the music is inappropriate and that is way more dangerous than a non-memorable music. As long as the music suits the show or at least does not destroy the entire “feel” of the show, I am okay with it. And so, I have nothing against the music composer or writer or editor in Leverage.
CODA
Based on this review, I should be angry about this show and despise this show, but I don’t—at least not until the final episode (I’ll tell you the reason later). Even though the story is illogical and inconsistent, after I let my expectation go downhill and just chill (think of it as a comedy), I actually enjoyed the show. There are of course plain sweet and funny moments that I like. I also appreciate the show for being just a 16-episodes show and for not dragging the story. I like how they unveil the villain early and unveil the confrontation between the hero and the villain several episodes before the final. Therefore, the hero can take his time to defeat the villain. Usually, they put all the heavy duty on the very last or the last two episodes and that is just too much and often feel too rushed. In Leverage, they really take their time in defeating the villain so it does not feel rushed. Though the villain is a let-down, that’s not a big problem for me. The biggest problem is the last episode, the teaser for a second season. I do not like that. I prefer the show to just end after the team defeats the villain. If they want to make a sequel, just make it, but do not tease me in the first season, don’t be like Americans, please. I need a closure and Leverage had a chance to do that—yes, finally, it comes to an end, finally I can lean back and move on to another show or film—but no, you had to tease me with a possible sequel. If you really want to do that, you can copy DisneyPixar The Incredibles. In the end of the movie, there’s a new villain named The Underminer. We don’t get to see the battle, and we don’t need to. We already know the outcome. I want that from Leverage, perhaps show me a new case, but something that I don’t need to see. Surprise me in the second sequel, don’t surprise me now. Well, I think that’s all. I am tired. Bye!
***
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