Over the years, stories have made the most of criminals with good intentions. Some have undergone impressive redemption arcs, while others have always been good but worked outside the system, but it is undeniable that people flock to these stories. However, one 2008 TNT series with this concept is unfairly forgotten.Leveragetakes the Robin Hood idea and applies it to modern con artists in a five-season heist series that can be watched over and over again. Though Leverage may not have been the most popular show, it got a three-season sequel on Prime Video, Leverage: Redemption, which continues the story with a few new faces, proving that there are plenty of stories to tell about these unlikely heroes.
The original series centers on five complex and lovable characters who use their morally questionable talents for good as they defend those who are taken advantage of by the rich and powerful. Though the action sets Leverage apart, it’s the characters that are the heart of the show as they show off their skills, face their fears, and let each other in. With over 70 episodes, each featuring a different job,Leverage offers a new and exciting story with each installment, making it the perfect show to have on repeat.
What Is ‘Leverage’ About?
The point of Leverage is the central group of thieves uniting to fight for the little guy. The team is formed by former insurance investigator, Nate (Timothy Hutton), who serves as the mastermind, using his years of chasing thieves (including his eventual friends) to plan elaborate heists in near-impossible situations. The rest of the group consists of Sophie Devereaux (Gina Bellman), a grifter able to play any role, Eliot (Christian Kane), the hitter who rarely loses a fight, Hardison (Aldis Hodge), a gifted hacker, and Parker (Beth Riesgraf), a cat burglar, pickpocket, and safe-cracker. They each prefer to work on their own, but one unlikely mission proves that they make an impressive team, setting all five of them on a new path where they use detailed heists to target corruption and avenge ordinary people whom the system has failed.
Collider Exclusive · Action Hero Quiz Which Action Hero Would Be Your Perfect Partner? Rambo · James Bond · Indiana Jones · John McClane · Ethan Hunt
Five legends. Five completely different ways of getting out alive — with style, with muscle, with charm, with luck, or with a plan so intricate it probably shouldn’t work. Ten questions will reveal which action hero was built to have your back.
🎖️Rambo
🍸James Bond
🏺Indiana Jones
🔧John McClane
🎭Ethan Hunt
01
You’re dropped into a dangerous situation with no warning. What do you need most from a partner? The first few seconds tell you everything about who belongs beside you.
02
You have to get somewhere dangerous, fast. How do you travel? How you get there is half the mission.
03
You’re pinned down and outnumbered. What does your ideal partner do? This is when you find out what someone is really made of.
04
The mission is paused. You have one evening to decompress. What does your partner suggest? Who someone is when the pressure drops is who they actually are.
05
How do you prefer your partner to communicate mid-mission? Good communication is the difference between partners and a liability.
06
Your enemy is powerful, well-resourced, and has the upper hand. How should your partner approach them? The approach to the enemy defines the partnership.
07
Things go badly wrong and you’re captured. What do you trust your partner to do? Who someone is when you need them most is the only thing that matters.
08
What does your ideal partner bring to the table that you couldn’t replace? A great partner fills the gap you didn’t know you had.
09
Every partnership has a cost. Which of these can you live with? No one comes without baggage. The question is whether you can carry it together.
10
It’s the final moment. Everything is on the line. What do you need from your partner right now? The last question is the most honest one.
Your Partner Has Been Assigned Your Perfect Partner Is…
Your answers have pointed to one action hero above all others. This is the person built to have your back — for better or considerably, spectacularly worse.
Rambo
Your partner doesn’t talk much, doesn’t need to, and will have assessed every threat in your immediate environment before you’ve finished your first sentence. John Rambo is not a man of plans or politics — he is a force of nature shaped by survival, loyalty, and a capacity for endurance that goes beyond anything training can produce. He will not leave you behind. He has never left anyone behind who deserved to come home. What you get with Rambo is the most capable, most quietly ferocious partner imaginable — one who has been through things that would have broken anyone else, and who chose to keep going anyway. You’ll never need to ask if he has your back. You’ll just know.
James Bond
Your partner will arrive perfectly dressed, perfectly briefed, and with a cover story so convincing it’ll take you a moment to remember what’s actually true. James Bond is the most professionally dangerous person in any room he enters — and the most disarmingly charming, which is the point. He operates in a world of layers, where nothing is what it appears and every advantage is used without apology. You’ll never be bored. You’ll occasionally be furious. But when it matters — when the mission is genuinely on the line and the margin for error has collapsed to nothing — Bond is exactly the partner you want. He has survived things that have no business being survivable. He does it with style. That is not nothing.
Indiana Jones
Your partner will know the history, the language, the cultural context, and exactly why the thing everyone else is ignoring is actually the most important thing in the room. Indiana Jones is brilliant, reckless, and occasionally impossible — but he is also one of the most resourceful, most genuinely knowledgeable partners you could find yourself beside. He approaches every situation with a scholar’s eye and a brawler’s instinct, which is an unusual combination and a remarkably effective one. He hates snakes and gets personally attached to objects of historical significance, both of which will slow you down at least once. It doesn’t matter. What Indy brings is irreplaceable — and the adventures you’ll have together will be the kind people write books about. Assuming you survive them.
John McClane
Your partner was not supposed to be here. He does not have the right equipment, the right information, or anything approaching the right odds. He has a sarcastic remark and an absolute refusal to accept that the situation is as bad as it looks. John McClane is the greatest accidental hero in the history of action cinema — a man whose superpower is stubbornness, whose contingency plan is improvisation, and whose capacity to absorb punishment and keep moving would be alarming if it weren’t so useful. He will complain the entire time. He will make it significantly more chaotic than it needed to be. And he will absolutely, unconditionally, without question come through when it counts. Yippee-ki-yay.
Ethan Hunt
Your partner has already run seventeen scenarios by the time you’ve finished reading the briefing, and the plan he’s settled on involves at least two things that should be physically impossible. Ethan Hunt operates at the absolute edge of human capability — technically, physically, and intellectually — and he brings the same relentless precision to protecting his partners that he brings to dismantling organisations that shouldn’t exist. He is not easy to know and he will never fully tell you everything. But he will carry the weight of the mission so completely, so absolutely, that your job is simply to trust him — and the remarkable thing is that trusting him always turns out to be the right call. The mission will be impossible. He will complete it anyway.
Leverage‘s episodic format allows each story to stand on its own, but the characters all have their own journeys. Nate has perhaps the most unique story as he goes from a respected investigator to a criminal, but his journey isn’t black and white. Nate loses his career long before the events of the series, as the loss of his son and subsequent divorce ruined him both emotionally and financially. This newfound passion helps Nate heal while the rest begin to reform as they steal to help others and form a strange found family, especially as they learn more about each other. While the heist action is new every episode, the characters’ personal storylines develop slowly, making a compelling rewatch, especially considering it’s impossible to remember the details of every mission.
It’s a crime that these shows aren’t better known today.
The Characters Are ‘Leverage’s Highlight
While the concept is exciting in itself, the characters make Leverage that much better. The main group doesn’t initially fit together, but they end up being exactly what the others need. While they all quickly choose to help others, it is a slow process of growth, and throughout the series, each one is haunted by their past. This allows all five heroes to grow throughout the series, proving that redemption isn’t something that happens immediately. Each character gets episodes to explore their growth as they return home to help their family or face their personal trauma. With the constant development, it’s hard not to get attached to these characters.
It’s a strange support group, but they are always there for each other, and with two slow-burning romances (one between Nate and Sophie and another between Parker and Hardison), the show keeps changing the dynamic. But one thing always remains: the humor. Though there are often dark realities that the characters face, Leverage never misses an opportunity to lighten the mood. With relentless gags, constant banter between Elliot and Hardison, Parker’s socially awkward personality, and shocking talents that come to light, the show offers plenty of laughs in the midst of the drama. While sorely underrated, Leverage is the perfect new comfort series where the heroes outmaneuver the bad guys in increasingly unexpected ways.
