We provide a little....Leverage

It's officially summer so I have officially started my summer tv homework (detailed here). First up: Leverage. Despite having a bunch of friends who sing its praises, I've never seen it before. Chalk it up to airing on TNT, looking like an Oceans 11 rip-off, or because of Christian Kane's bad hair, but I just never summoned the motivation to watch it before now.

But good news: I like it!

I'd describe it as The A-Team meets Ocean's 11: it's a team of people working together on cons and heists, but instead of stealing stuff for themselves, they have clients on whose behalf they seek revenge for wrongs committed by corporations and greedy rich white guys. At least, that seems to be the pattern so far.

I'm about halfway through the first season, and so far each episode has been a stand-alone: the team performs one independent job an episode. I'm wondering if every season is going to follow the same format, or if later they'll introduce some kind of season long plot arc. While each episode is definitely plot driven (and sometimes a bit convoluted), I guess they are going more for overall character arcs. But there doesn't seem to be much to that other than Timothy Hutton's alcoholism, attraction to Sophie, and semi-mysterious past with the loss of his family.

But it's summer, so who cares! We all like to turn our brains off when watching television, and Leverage is fitting the bill. We've got a team of misfit thieves working for poor common shmoes amid a twisty turny plot. Works for me! Actually, there is one thing I would change:

Seriously, Christian. Cut your damn hair. It's not hot. It's stupid.