'Leverage' Premieres Tonight on TNT - Review

"Leverage", TNT's newest series, premieres tonight, without commercial interruption (thanks, TNT!) at 10pm eastern.  I got a chance to preview it and I gotta say, I'm pleasantly surprised.

Yes, tonight's episode is definitely a pilot.  Some odd camera choices (like a particularly jumpy hand held scene that is so jittery it looks like they shook it on purpose) and the obvious meet-the-characters business you'd except from a first episode. However, aside from the getting-to-know-you awkwardness, it's a pretty decent set up. 

The episode was chock full of twists and turns that even had me surprised and the back story is interesting enough to make me want to learn more about the characters.

The gist of it: Timothy Hutton plays Nathan Ford, an ex-insurance investigator who recovered millions of dollars in stolen goods for his employer.  However, when the insurance company he worked for didn't pull through on his son's insurance claims, allowing him to die, Ford quit...naturally.

Known as an honest man, Nathan is hired by an aeronautics exec to watch over some hired thieves who are to recover the exec's designs that were stolen by a rival.  Of course, this is when we meet our team, each with a short little flashback into their story.

There's Parker (Beth Riesgraf) who is a master of escape, hiding and theft.  Alec Hardison (Aldis Hodge) who is the uber-geek of the group. A master hacker and tech wizard, you can guess what he does.   Eliot Spencer (Christian Kane) is quite clearly the muscle but his secret skill is how fast he can take out an entire gang.  And last there's Sophie Devereaux (Gina Bellman), a grifter and master of taking on any role necessary for the job.  Oh, and it's pretty clear she's going to be the love interest with Nathan.

As soon as I check out episode 2, I'll let you know if the piloty awkwardness gets cleared up, but just incase, I would suggest you check out episode one tonight.  You wouldn't want to be left behind on a potentially great new series, would you?