Bullet Points: Tariffs-Free Edition

• Who should be the next cinematic Bond? With Daniel Craig having departed the role of James Bond following 2021’s No Time to Die, speculation on which actor might next play Ian Fleming’s famous British superspy has revolved at various times around Henry Cavill, Tom Hardy, Idris Elba, Jack Lowden, and even 21-year-old Louis Partridge. CrimeReads’ Olivia Rutigliano has her own suggestion: “Joshua Bowman, the charming English actor who played Krasko on Doctor Who, and Daniel Grayson on ABC’s Revenge.” While I’m not yet on board with Bowman as Agent 007, I heartily endorse her idea that the next movie should be set in the 1950s, pre-Sean Connery. Remember that the ending of No Time to Die makes it pretty ridiculous to resurrect that protagonist for further feats in the 2020s. So why not return Bond to his roots, at the height of the Cold War? “It could be an origination story of the character,” writes Rutigliano, “rather like how Craig’s era rebooted the franchise with Casino Royale and used the Vesper Lynd love story as a consistent anchor for Bond’s choices, across multiple films. This could do something like that, with a nostalgic temporal re-contextualization that could stand out in a franchise that has historically insisted on contemporaneity.” Hey, everyone over at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios and Amazon (which now owns the intellectual property rights to Bond), are you listening?

• Meanwhile, The Spy Command’s Bill Koenig notes that “This year marks the 60th anniversary of Thunderball, the fourth Bond film and the apex of the 1960s spy craze.” He also alerts us to a Bond fan event, Gatherall at Goldeneye, set to take place in Jamaica this coming fall, and mentions that a new, expanded edition of Joseph Darlington’s 2013 book, Being James Bond: Volume One, is coming in August—though there’s not yet an Amazon “pre-order” link to share.

• Do you know the retro film and TV Web site Modcinema? I’ve ordered low-cost, made-on-demand DVD copies of forgotten small-screen features from that enterprise before, but its latest newsletter alerts me to a wealth of new offerings. Among them: the 1972 teleflick Assignment: Munich, which spawned Robert Conrad’s short-lived show Assignment: Vienna; a three-disc set containing all five episodes of the 1978 series Richie Brockelman, Private Eye starring Dennis Dugan; three episodes (including the pilot) of Cool Million, the James Farentino series that was one spoke of the NBC Wednesday Mystery Movie “wheel series” (two additional eps can be found in this set); and Fame Is the Name of the Game, the 1966 made-for-television picture starring Tony Franciosa, which “served as the pilot episode of the subsequent series The Name of the Game.”

• As a longtime follower of Peter Falk’s NBC Mystery Movie series, I’m surprised this February release didn’t hit my radar before now: Columbo Explains the Seventies: A TV Cop’s Pop Culture Journey, by Glenn Stewart (Bonaventure Press). UPDATE: Stewart tells The Columbophile about what inspired him to write this book.

• My suspicion is there aren’t many people around these days boasting solid memories of the 1980 ABC-TV action series B.A.D. Cats. As Wikipedia recalls, that Douglas S. Cramer/Aaron Spelling production starred Asher Brauner and Steve Hanks as “two former race car drivers who joined the Los Angeles Police Department as part of the ‘B.A.D. C.A.T.’ Squad (a double acronym for ‘Burglary Auto Detail–Commercial Auto Theft’).” Then 21-year-old Michelle Pfeiffer appeared on the program too, playing Officer Samantha “Sunshine” Jensen, who “would occasionally lend a hand when a more feminine approach was called for.” B.A.D. Cats didn’t last long; it was cancelled in February 1980 after a pilot (which you can view here) and five other episodes had been broadcast. But as Vintage Everyday observes, the show was an important stepping stone on Pfeiffer’s path to Hollywood renown. A few days ago, that blog posted almost four dozen promotional photos of her from B.A.D. Cats, which it says demonstrated “Pfeiffer’s youthful charm and emerging star quality.” The actress would go on to play a different breed of bad cat in Batman Returns (1992).

• While I greatly enjoyed Netflix’s first two Enola Holmes movies (in 2020 and 2022), based on the middle-reader mysteries by Nancy Springer, I forgot there was to be another. Variety brings the news that its production is already well underway. “The third instalment,” that publication explains, “sees adventure chase Enola Holmes to Malta, where, according to the description, ‘personal and professional dreams collide on a case more tangled and treacherous than any she has faced before.’” As in the previous pictures, Millie Bobby Brown will play Sherlock Holmes’ teenage sister. There’s no release date yet.

• This item comes from In Reference to Murder:

Wallander, the globally acclaimed Swedish detective drama, is getting “a modernized and reimagined reboot” with Gustaf Skarsgård (Oppenheimer, Vikings) playing the iconic role. The first season of the new Swedish-language adaptation will comprise three 90-minute films and will see Kurt Wallander, now 42, recently separated, after two decades of marriage, and estranged from his daughter. On the edge as his life seemingly unravels, Wallander drinks too much, sleeps too little, and carries the weight of every unsolved case.

Penned by bestselling author Henning Mankell, the Wallander novels have sold over 40 million copies and been translated into more than 40 languages. The original Swedish series and film adaptations, which aired between 1994 and 2013, garnered wide international success and were followed by a British mini-series adaptation starring Kenneth Branagh that earned him a BAFTA for his portrayal of the detective.

• Sunday, June 15, will bring the return of Grantchester to PBS-TV’s Masterpiece Mystery! timeslot. Mystery Fanfare has the trailer for Season 10 of that historical whodunit.

• As Saturday Evening Post columnist Bob Sassone writes, “Dragnet’s Officer Bill Gannon (Harry Morgan) was known for the food he ate, which often confused and worried his partner Joe Friday (Jack Webb). Barry Enderwick of the terrific Sandwiches of History decided to try it, at the suggestion of many of his fans.” Watch the video here.

• The small-screen period crime drama Peaky Blinders is coming back! So are the rebooted Bergerac and the Death in Paradise spin-off Return to Paradise (even though I haven’t seen either of their opening seasons yet). And Acorn TV has scheduled the two-episode premiere, on Monday, June 9, of Art Detectives, which “revolves around the Heritage Crime Unit, a [UK] police department hired to solve murders connected to the world of art and antiques.”

• I was a huge fan of Leverage, the 2008-2012 TNT-TV crime caper series starring Timothy Hutton, Gina Bellman, Aldis Hodge, Christian Kane, and Beth Riesgraf. I must have watched every episode four times or more! Yet when that show was revived in 2021 as Leverage: Redemption, with Noah Wyle replacing Hutton, I hesitated tuning in, partly because I wasn’t sure I could believe the “gang” being a decade older and still as active. I think I’ve seen only two episodes of Redemption, and I completely missed the news that it had been renewed for a third season. The first three of 10 new installments aired on April 17, with more to come every Thursday through June 5. I guess it’s time I started catching up! See the trailer below.



• The Web site Geek Girl Authority (yeah, I’d never heard of it until today either) features a review of Leverage: Redemption, Season 3, plus this tribute to my favorite Leverage team member, Riesgraf’s prodigiously eccentric Parker, “truly the world’s greatest thief.”

• Speaking of TV trailers, CrimeReads has posted one for Season 2 of Poker Face, the crime comedy-drama starring Natasha Lyonne as Charlie Cale, “a casino worker on the run who entangles herself into several mysterious deaths of strangers along the way.” That show will return to the streaming service Peacock on Thursday, May 8, with 12 new episodes (two more than were broadcast in 2023).

• And while you are at CrimeReads, enjoy these three other posts that went up there recently: Patrick Sauer’s salute to Tony Rome, the South Florida gumshoe introduced in 1960’s Miami Mayhem by Marvin H. Albert, and a character Frank Sinatra played in a couple of “groovy” films; Christopher Chambers’ case for reading F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby (which celebrated its 100th anniversary earlier this month) as noir; and Scott Montgomery’s look back at the first quarter-century of Stark House Press’ efforts to return to print many hard-boiled authors and novels from the 1950s and ’60s.

• Thomas Pynchon has a new private-eye novel coming in October!

• National Public Radio weekend host Scott Simon interviews film historian Jason Bailey about his brand-new biography, Gandolfini: Jim, Tony and the Life of a Legend (Abrams Press). That book is being promoted as “a detailed and nuanced appraisal of an enduring artist,” Jim Gandolfini, who was apparently quite different from the New Jersey Mafia boss he played on HBO’s The Sopranos.

• Why can’t the United States have nice things like this? The British Writers’ Association and the Reading Agency, a UK charity, have jointly organized National Crime Reading Month (NCRM) in June. “This year,” says a press release, “it opens with an exclusive online panel, The Lives of Crime, featuring bestselling crime authors. On 4 June at 6 p.m., the CWA chair and bestselling author, Vaseem Khan, will host authors Fiona Cummins, Adele Parks, and Penny Batchelor in the free online panel event.” They’ll be talking about “the genre’s universal appeal—from psychological thrillers to cozy mysteries—and how it creates accessible pathways to reading for audiences who might otherwise never discover the joy of books.” (Click here to register.) Beyond that presentation, NCRM will offer “over a hundred local author events and talks that run throughout June across the UK and Ireland, which take place in libraries, theatres, bookshops and online.” A page devoted to keeping track of NCRM events is available at this link.

• I am way behind in reading Paperback Warrior’s occasional “primers” on vintage crime novelists and pulp-fiction characters. The latest entry in that series recalls Kendell Foster Crossen (1910-1981), who “wrote crime-fiction novels under the name of M.E. Chaber, a pseudonym he used to construct the wildly successful Milo March series from the mid-1950s through the 1970s.” Fun stuff! UPDATE: Another such primer has just “gone live,” this one relating the background of Charles Williams, who “authored 22 books and was one of the best-selling writers in the Fawcett Gold Medal stable.”

• Historical mystery novelist Jeri Westerson used to produce a blog called Getting Medieval, offering interviews and articles—only to suddenly delete that journal from the Web, leaving links at other sites broken. She says now that “it was too much work and social media was rising.” Recently, though, Westerson decided to return to blogging. She has subsequently posted several author exchanges of interest. Gary Phillips, James R. Benn, and Rebecca Cantrell have all fielded questions from her. I hesitate slightly to link to these conversations, leery of their also disappearing someday, but transience is unfortunately a Web foible.

• Is this creative or creepy? From The Hollywood Reporter:

BBC Studios, the commercial arm of British broadcaster BBC, and the Agatha Christie estate have teamed up to launch a writing course on education-focused streaming service BBC Maestro taught by Christie herself. Well, to be precise, it is taught by the queen of crime, brought to life by actress Vivien Keene and AI, using the author’s own words.

“In a world first, Agatha Christie—best-selling novelist of all time—will be offering aspiring writers an unparalleled opportunity to learn the secrets behind her writing, in her own words,’ the partners said. ‘Using meticulously restored archival interviews, private letters and writings researched by a team of Christie experts, this pioneering course reconstructs Christie’s own voice and insights, guiding you through the art of suspense, plot twists and unforgettable characters.”

James Prichard, Christie’s great-grandson and the CEO of Agatha Christie Limited, is quoted in The Guardian as saying that the educators and researchers behind this subscription-based video series “extracted from a number of her writings an extraordinary array of her views and opinions on how to write. Through this course, you truly will receive a lesson in crafting a masterful mystery, in Agatha’s very own words.” OK, maybe it’s creative, after all.

• I have given precisely zero thought to what might be the “best crime novels of 2025 … so far.” However, both The Times of London and The Week have already shared their favorites.

• Over at my Killer Covers blog, I’ve written a great deal about the American artist Robert McGinnis this year, both prior to his demise in March (at age 99!), and after. But author Max Allan Collins had his own memories to share, in this post that talks about how he scored an unusual number of McGinnis’ paintings for use on his novels about the hired killer known only as Quarry.

• Can we ever get enough of Belgian author Georges Simenon’s Jules Maigret mysteries? Penguin Books has been publishing paperback versions of them over the last decade, and has brand-new editions set to become available beginning in July. And now the U.S. imprint Picador is joining in the game, launching its own Maigret lineup this month. Over the next three years, Picador says, it too will reissue all 75 Maigrets, plus “thirty of his darker standalone ‘romans durs’ beginning March 2026.” Pietr the Latvian will reach stores on May 6, together with The Late Monsieur Gallet and The Hanged Man of Saint-Pholien, all of which originally saw print back in 1931. It may be time to clear some space on your bookshelves!

• This is a terrible loss—at least from my perspective. The annual Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest, which celebrated appallingly bad initial sentences to (fortunately) never-to-be-completed books, is no more. Scott Rice, who, as an English professor at California’s San Jose State University, founded the competition in 1982, says he finds it “becoming increasingly burdensome and [I] would like to put myself out to pasture while I still have some vim and vigor!” The Rap Sheet has posted many of the winners over time, and we’re sorry not to be able to keep up that tradition for decades more to come.

• California author J. Sydney Jones produced half a dozen books in his Viennese Mysteries series, beginning with The Empty Mirror (2008) and ending—it was presumed—with The Third Place (2015). They were complicated and propulsive stories of crime in the Austrian capital that took place during the very early 20th century, had as their leads lawyer Karl Werthen and real-life criminologist Doktor Hanns Gross, and seemed to fare well in the marketplace. However, Jones writes in his blog, “The original series stopped after book six. I had originally planned it for another three to four installments. But other projects came up, other publishers.” The author nonetheless returned to that series during the COVID-19 pandemic, penning a “capstone” titled Lilacs of the Dead Land, which he published in February of this year—a novel that somehow managed to avoid my radar. He calls it “a stirring historical thriller set in Austria shortly after the German annexation, or Anschluss, of March 1938.” As one who very much appreciated his Viennese Mysteries, I’ll want to find a copy soon.

• It should be mentioned that one of those “other projects” Jones embarked upon was a new crime series, set on California’s central coast during World War II and adopting as its protagonist a wounded former New York City police detective, Max Byrns. The second Byrns book, Play It in Between (Werthen Press), debuted in April.

• April 17 brought the presentation, at New York City’s New School, of the 37th annual Publishing Triangle Awards celebrating “LGBTQ+ literary excellence.” During that event, Massachusetts author and creative writing professor Margot Douaihy was given the Joseph Hansen Award for LGBTQ+ Crime Writing for her second Sister Holiday novel, 2024’s Blessed Water (Zando/Gillian Flynn Books). Hansen, you will remember, penned a dozen novels in the late 20th century starring gay death claims investigator Dave Brandstetter.

• Just as “authors hitting the best seller list are approaching gender equality for the first time,” a new independent press in Great Britain proposes to center its business on male writers. Reporting on this development, Lit Hub’s James Folta acknowledges that “female authorship is on the rise, especially recently,” but he adds, “to conclude that men therefore need an urgent champion seems naïve and near-sighted. To look at this trend or, perhaps more accurately, to feel the vibes and conclude that male authors are in danger is pushing it. Male authors going from 80% to 50% of the market is far from a crisis in need of another intervening corrective.”

• And here’s one more instance of a blog rising from the dead. The Stiletto Gumshoe debuted back in November 2018, focusing on crime and mystery fiction and the artwork associated with same. But it went dormant just two years later, with its author, C.J. Thomas, apologizing that “some troubling ‘real-life’ issues need to be wrestled with right now, so there’ll be a break from blogging here for a while. Hope to be back soon …” Soon was not soon at all. When The Stiletto Gumshoe finally disappeared altogether from the Internet (forcing me to substitute links to its posts from The Wayback Machine), I struck it from this page’s lengthy blogroll, too. Then, just as abruptly as it was gone, Thomas’ creation returned! This last April 23, Thomas put up a tribute to Sergeant DeeDee McCall, the role Stepfanie Kramer played in the 1980s TV crime drama Hunter. He has followed that with posts about the 1950 film noir Where Danger Lives, J. Robert Lennon’s new Buzz Kill, French 1980s print ads from DIM Paris, and much more. Welcome back, C.J., I hope you can stick around this time.

Scouting About

• Florida journalist Craig Pittman passes along word that Tom Corcoran, who penned almost a dozen mystery novels featuring Key West freelance photographer/amateur sleuth Alex Rutledge (most recently, 2022’s A Step Beyond Chaos), died at his home in Lakeland, Florida, on January 16, after a lengthy battle with cancer. A recent, paywall-protected obituary in the Lakeland Ledger explains that Corcoran came originally from Ohio, and “after a period in the U.S. Navy, … moved to Florida in 1970 and lived for more than 15 years in the Lower Keys … He worked as a disc jockey, taco vendor, bartender, travel counselor, screenwriter, freelance photographer and graphic artist, and for six years he edited the magazine Mustang Monthly.” He took up mystery writing in his 50s, and saw his first novel, a Rutledge adventure titled The Mango Opera, published in 1998. The Key West Citizen adds in its own obit that “While in Key West, Corcoran befriended literary greats such as Thomas McGaune and Hunter S. Thompson and was a sailing buddy and friend of musician Jimmy Buffett. Corcoran’s photographs were used as the covers for several Buffett albums, and the author penned the book Jimmy Buffett: The Key West Years in 2006. Corcoran is also credited with contributing to such Buffett hits as ‘Fins’ and ‘Cuban Crime of Passion.’” In collaboration with Thompson, he worked on a never-finished screenplay for “a tragicomedy about marijuana smugglers in the Keys.” Corcoran was reportedly in his late 70s at the time of his demise.

• Gone now, too, is Annie Wersching, a St. Louis, Missouri-born actress who played an FBI agent on 24, a rookie cop and love interest on Bosch, and the Borg queen in Season 2 of Star Trek: Picard. She was just 45 years old when she died from cancer on January 29.

• Submissions are currently being accepted for the 10th annual Eleanor Taylor Bland Crime Fiction Writers of Color Award, given to as-yet-unpublished works. This year’s winner—“an emerging writer of color”—will receive a $2,000 grant to be put toward “crime fiction writing and career development activities.” Candidates need to apply by March 31, with the winner to be announced later in the spring. Submission requirements can be found here. This prize is of course named in honor of African-American novelist Eleanor Taylor Bland, who produced more than a dozen police procedurals before passing away in 2010. Last year’s recipient was Shizuka Otake.

• Wouldn’t you know it? Just as I was preparing to cancel my subscription to the BritBox streaming service, at least temporarily, up pop the first two Season 12 episodes of Death in Paradise, a formulaic but still delightful series that helped my wife and me through the COVID-19 lockdown. Wikipedia says there will be a eight episodes in this latest run of the British–French comedy-drama, which finally sees Detective Inspector Neville Parker (Ralf Little) finding a girlfriend.

• Another show I’ve rediscovered recently (on Amazon Prime) is Leverage, the 2008-2012 TNT-TV crime drama about a group of thieves—led by formerly successful insurance investigator Nathan Ford (Timothy Hutton)—who “target the corrupt and powerful to avenge ordinary people who have no other recourse.” I had forgotten how much out-and-out fun this series is, with its elaborate con jobs and never-ending selections of Plan Bs. Hutton (the son of Jim Hutton, star of Ellery Queen) does an excellent job as a “white knight” and struggling alcoholic propelled into a life of crime following the death of his young son. But the other members of his quirky team are no less captivating, especially young burglar/pickpocket/safecracker Parker (Beth Riesgraf) and computer hacker Alec Hardison (Aldis Hodge). This show was revived in 2021 as Leverage: Redemption, with Noah Wyle (of ER fame) joining the group as Harry Wilson, an ex-lawyer who hopes to get back at the sorts of corrupt businesspeople he previously defended in court. (Sadly, Hutton—who faced a rape allegation in 2020 that led to a criminal complaint of extortion—is no longer part of the cast.) Leverage: Redemption, now in its second season, can be seen on Amazon’s ad-supported streaming service Freevee. I’ll definitely watch that, after I finish my rewatch of the original’s five seasons.

• Lastly, the longlists of nominees for this year’s Ockham New Zealand Book Awards include Better the Blood (Simon & Schuster), the 2022 detective novel by Michael Bennett, a writer and film/TV director of Māori descent. Shortlisted contenders will be declared on March 8.

The Last Con Job

This is unfortunate news, to be sure. And delivered at Christmastime, no less! The U.S. TV network TNT has cancelled the long-running and well-regarded con-artist series Leverage. The final episode, appropriately titled “The Long Goodbye,” will air tomorrow at 9 p.m.

Co-creator and executive producer Dean Devlin is quoted as saying:

Leverage has thrilled audiences with its delightfully intricate plots, its “stand up for the little guy” attitude and its terrific performances from stars Timothy Hutton, Gina Bellman, Christian Kane, Beth Riesgraf and Aldis Hodge. But after five wonderful years, it’s time to say goodbye.

Although I have probably missed seeing a few episodes along the way, I count myself as a Leverage fan. The show brought good humor and plenty of heart to the broadcast airwaves, along with some delightful storytelling moments. I particularly remember an episode from last year, “The 10 Li’l Grifters Job,” in which Timothy Hutton, playing former insurance investigator Nathan Ford, attended a masquerade/murder mystery party dressed--complete with crushable hat--as Ellery Queen, the classic amateur sleuth portrayed by his late father, Jim Hutton, in a charming 1970s NBC-TV series.

So count me among those viewers who will miss Leverage, and who will be sure to tune in “The Long Goodbye.”

READ MORE: “TNT Cancels Leverage,” by Gerald So
(My Life Called So).

Thieves Like Them

(Left to right) Christian Kane, Gina Bellman, Timothy Hutton,
Beth Riesgraf, and Aldis Hodge of Leverage.

Leverage came along at the perfect time.

By late 2008, Enron had fucked with Americans. WorldCom had fucked with Americans. Bernie Madoff had fucked with Americans in staggeringly evil ways. Telecommunications companies had fucked with our freedoms and sold us out to the Bush administration in the name of “national security.” The Republican presidential and vice-presidential candidates both had ethics problems, and voters worried about how they might fuck things up too; go ahead and Google John McCain’s notorious Keating Five scandal, or the scads of ethics violations lodged against Sarah “Bible Spice” Palin. Finally, Bush and Co. fucked the economy up the butt so hard that it shuddered and went into a coma, the worst that history has ever seen. People had lost their houses, their banks were saying, “Oops! We don’t have your savings anymore,” and it seemed as if only the white-collar criminals profiteering off Bush’s Iraq war and the miseries of the world were doing OK.

Excuse me for using such harsh language, but there’s a point to it: these violations of the public’s trust were monumental in proportion, and their fallout isn’t likely to be fixed anytime soon. Barack Obama’s mandate-producing election as U.S. president last November was just one way Americans said, “We’ve had enough.” But Obama’s no superman; he is just a better, smarter, and more elegant man behind whom we can stand. He’s no hero. The age of heroes has passed. Now if only the Republicans would let the president do his job ...

Amid all of last year’s bad news and building frustrations, though, screenwriters-producers John Rogers and Chris Downey created Leverage. Those two guys seemed to be just like the rest of us--angry. And while they weren’t able to save Americans from the greed around them, they could at least give us the visceral, if fictional, opportunity to strike back at the bad guys. “Big time,” as Dick Cheney used to say.

Leverage, which begins its second season tonight on U.S. cable channel TNT (9 p.m. ET/PST), is a classy and stylish show, taking the best of the new TV and movie school (Burn Notice, Life, Steven Soderbergh’s Ocean’s 11) and pairing it with the old school (It Takes a Thief and Mission: Impossible, with a little bit of The Rockford Files and Mannix to add spice). Headlining the series is Academy Award winner Timothy Hutton, and it is crucial that someone like him be the star. He adds an element of sophistication to the operation, and his involvement makes more people sit up and take notice of the show. Hutton has a wonderful humanity about him; he can look like a schlub in one scene, and the badass in charge in the next. Watch his face, his eyes--in any given scene, you can practically see the wheels turning, the keen intelligence behind his performance choices. It’s what makes Hutton such a wonderful character actor.

Hutton’s character in Leverage, Nathan Ford, used to be an insurance investigator--a good one, hunting professional thieves. But then his son got sick, and the only real chance the boy had to live was to take an experimental drug test. The problem was that Ford’s employer, Ian Blackpoole (played by Kevin Tighe, who was featured in the pilot and the last two episodes of Season 1), refused to pay for that treatment, citing company policy. Ford quite literally watched his son die before his eyes. Then he quit his company, took up drinking ... and one night was approached by a man who wanted him to steal something for him. After assembling a team of thieves he had personally hunted down over the years, Ford took on the job. It went, as they say, not well. Yet, by the end of last December’s pilot episode, those thieves and Ford had together set up shop as modern-day Robin Hoods.

Crime dramas--the good ones, at least--live or die on the strength of their characters. Rogers and Downey have assembled a terrific cast for Leverage. In addition to Hutton, we’re given Gina Bellman, who plays Sophie Devereaux, a really terrible actress but a brilliant con artist. There’s also Beth Riesgraf, who plays the cheerfully loony explosives expert and burglar, Parker. (Yes, she’s named after the protagonist in Donald E. Westlake’s “Richard Stark” Parker novels. To emphasize the Westlake connection, there was even an episode last season called “The Bank Shot Job,” which also referenced Elmore Leonard.) Adding to the cast is Christian Kane, playing Eliot Spencer, a skilled martial artist who serves as this team’s muscle and security expert. And then there’s Aldis Hodge, who plays Alec Hardison, my favorite character. Computer expert and gadget geek Hardison really keeps things running at the Leverage “firm,” and he has all the best toys for the team to use. He’s funny and charming, but sometimes painfully nerdy, and his flirting with Parker is beyond cute. Like Hutton, all of these other performers are talented character actors.

The Leverage plots are great too, just simple enough that you can relax and be entertained, but complex enough that you can’t zone out for long. I have railed before against television shows and movies that require no intellectual attachment. I like my brain. I like to be engaged by entertainment. I don’t care about a film like Transformers, which made a lot of money and received the thumbs-up from audiences primarily because it had lots of big, loud explosions. However, I love Leverage because it rewards people like me who demand some substance in their TV viewing, and prefer that if there is a big, loud explosion, there be some reason for it, other than just to keep audience members from falling asleep.

In advance of tonight’s Season 2 Leverage debut, I had a chance to speak with executive producer John Rogers about the origins of his series, how the characters have evolved over time, the process of writing new episodes, and what we can expect from the show during this new season.

Cameron Hughes: Talk to me about the genesis of Leverage.

John Rogers: Chris Downey and I were drinking in my garage--it’s not as sad as it sounds, it was a very nice garage--and talking about the recent failures of serialized heist shows. We landed on the idea that for heist and con shows, we want our candy. We want to see how the trick is done every week. We were also craving the light, fun style of the ’60's and ’70s crime shows like It Takes a Thief and The Rockford Files. I mean, for God’s sake, have you seen those [modern police] procedurals? They’re an unremitting parade of suburban nightmares made flesh.

At the same time, TNT had asked [screenwriter-director] Dean [Devlin] to do a TV show. He wanted to do a team show. Out of pure coincidence, Dean and I had lunch that week, and realized we were both creating the same show. We joined forces, whipped it together, and sold it to TNT in a week.

CH: How do members of the Leverage team stay flush? I remember that Hardison did some wizardry to get them a nice nest egg in the pilot, but how long can that realistically last, given all their expenses?

JR: They grift a little off the top of their cons, although to tell you the truth, most of their tech is readily available and pretty cheap. I once got a note from TNT, saying, “The mini-credit card reader in that episode feels a little unbelievable.” I called back: “Unbelievable? The real one is smaller, and sitting on my desk.”

CH: I like that Nate is kind of a jerk and still won’t admit that he’s a thief like the other people on his team. He’s Robin Hood, but they’re thieves. Was the character always intended to be like that?

JR: Yes, and that’s really the theme of Season 2. Without the excuse of his grief and his alcoholism, how does he deal with the fact that at heart, he’s bent? The fact we got Tim Hutton, who manages to walk that line--disapproving of his team and loving them at the same time--well, that’s just damn luck on our part.

CH: How did Hutton get involved in this series? He adds a lot of class to the role that other actors wouldn’t have given it.

JR: We kept tossing casting ideas around, and saying, “You know, like Tim Hutton.” I was a big fan of his Nero Wolfe series, and knew he could bring the funny along with the class. Finally somebody said, “Hey, why don’'t we just send it to Hutton?” We did, Tim read it, and on page three he decided he was in.

CH: Was he also responsible for having Kari Matchett [who had regular, though non-recurring roles on Nero Wolfe] cast as his ex-wife?

JR: Kari actually has a great rep down here in L.A., so she would have been on our list anyway. But yeah, that was a happy combination. Tim suggested her; we already liked her, boom boom, she’s in.

CH: The interesting thing to me about Nate Ford’s replacement at the insurance company, and now his rival, insurance investigator James Sterling [Mark A. Sheppard], and Sterling’s own team is that they never consider themselves “in the wrong.” There’s a moral ambiguity about each team you give us in this show. Was that a conscious thing you did in creating their conflict?

JR: Yes. Mark Sheppard is very proud of the fact that on every version of this show on every other network, he’s the good guy. Although we fall soundly on the idea that [Ford’s] team is a necessary evil in an unjust world, we do try to play out the idea that they are, in the end, rationalizing. They’re wolves who just happen to hunt other wolves.

CH: It is no coincidence that your crazy thief character is named Parker, and that your bank robbery episode last season was partially named after Westlake’s second John Dortmunder novel, Bank Shot (1972). Are you a big crime-fiction fan?

JR: I’m more of a sci-fi geek than a mystery geek, but I had my classic mystery education. Weird blend of Ellery Queen and the pulps. But yeah, of course Parker is named after Westlake’s character. Hell, her name’s not even really Parker. I leave it to you whether she chose the name, or even if in “Leverage world,” thieves give that nickname as a sign of respect.

CH: I appreciate that Hardison isn’t the stereotypical nerd television loves to show. Not only is he black, but he’s funny and charming. However, he seems uncomfortable when he’s away from his beloved technology for too long. Hardison is a lot more like most nerds I know. Was he created with this in mind, or did Aldis Hodge put the spin on it?

JR: Hardison was actually more of the latter; that is, [he’s] comfortable with technology, but Aldis is so damn charming we just wound up putting him in more and more cons. I mean, the character is still true to his roots--you never see Hardison doing a long con; he’s too undisciplined--but he’s definitely Aldis Hodge’s Hardison now.

CH: It seems to me that Eliot Spencer is the hardest character to write for. Thieves and con men want situations that won’t include violence, so Eliot has the least reason out of all of them to be there. Can you talk about him and actor Christian Kane?

JR: Actually, Eliot has the most reason to be there, since he sees himself as a negotiator who occasionally has to break the law, as opposed to being a full-on thief. He’s a guy with a skill set who’s found his niche, and his niche happens to occur in a lawless context. He’s OK with that.

As a matter of fact, if you watch Chris’ fights, he always disarms every gun as he goes. The point of his fights is to end the fights as quickly as possible. The character is frankly disappointed when violence occurs, and working with someone like Nate tends to take variables out, variables which might otherwise lead to conflict.

(Right) Beth Riesgraf plays burglar/safecracker Parker.

I always shorthand Eliot as being a negotiator who understands that there are times when the correct negotiating technique is a precise, controlled application of force.

CH: Now that the team realizes they can’t trust each other fully, after one of their number conned the others in the first season finale, I feel like there will be a lot more feuding and in-fighting. Will that continue into this new season?

JR: There will always be personality conflicts, and they’re only going to grow as Nate tries to hack out who he is, now that he’s not driven by his vengeance. Although we ended [last season] on a conciliatory note, you’ll see the Sophie/Eliot relationship go through its paces.

CH: Of course, there’s a small matter that the legal authorities now know who they are, and whatever their coverage story for the Leverage firm is blown.

JR: They're lifelong professional outlaws. That was a total burn-off. They are perhaps slightly more wanted than they normally have been for the last 10 years of their lives.

CH: Will actor Kevin Tighe be coming back? A man like Ian Blackpoole doesn’t go down easy, and holds a grudge.

JR: We’ll see. Blackpoole was tied to a specific stage in Nate’s life. On the other hand, Saul Rubinek [who plays the man responsible for bringing Nate Ford’s team together] keeps calling and pitching me the “Brotherhood of Evil” Leverage episode, where all the old bad guys unite. We may see him again.

CH: A show like this represents a great opportunity for character actors, doesn’t it? Is there anyone you would love to have guest-starring in the future?

JR: Now that we’re in the second season, it’s nice to see the attention we’re getting from agents who want to transition their clients into TV, not to mention actors like Michael O’Neill who want to vary up their résumé with our juicy villain parts. Nobody in particular springs to mind, but we’ve got a wish list, and we’ll see what we get.

CH: The show doesn’t have long-running plot lines, yet it has a pretty tight continuity. Sort of like USA’s Psych. Was that intended to catch the casual viewers, while not boring weekly watchers?

JR: I like to use [comic-book illustrator-writer] Keith Giffen’s rule: “Consistency, not continuity.” You can drop in on any episode except the last two [from last season], have the person sitting on the couch next to you explain, “They’re high-tech Robin Hoods,” and you’re in. If you watch regularly you get more out of it, sure. But it’s a crowded media market out there, and I want people to be able to drop in without feeling like they have to do homework.

CH: You’ve written comic books and been involved with other writers in that field. Is there any chance of guys like Brian Azzarello, Ed Brubaker, Brian K. Vaughn, or others writing Leverage episodes?

JR: Hell, Vaughn’s on Lost. I’m not sure I could get him on the phone. I’d love [Greg] Rucka or Ed Brubaker or any of those guys to take a swing, if they want. It’s a tricky bastard--a con movie a week, very few recurring sets, no continuous plot lines--so right now we’re concentrating on just getting the next batch up, and then I’ll try to bring on some freelancers.

CH: Talk me through the writing process for Leverage. For a confidence-game drama, plotting would seem to be pretty important.

JR: Usually, the writers come in with either a bad guy or a setting/high concept. We then reach into the Big Bag of Cons and Crimes we’ve accumulated over our research, and start matching up the puzzle pieces. Always keeping in mind, of course, a character story to thread through the episode.

Everybody has a different process. I like to lay out the beats of the crime story, and then find the cons to fit. Chris Downey likes to figure out the characters he wants the team to play in a high-concept con, and then we back into the bad guy. [Co-producer] Amy Berg likes tight, controlled geographical settings. She then digs into the nooks and crannies for plot complications.

Apollo Robbins, our crime consultant, watched us [developing] a late-season episode and said, “You realize the writing staff is now a fully functional crime crew.” We had a mark, we looked at his weaknesses, we matched them against our team’s strengths and known cons, and took off from there. One of the proudest moments of my career, I think.

CH: How much have the actors changed your impressions of the characters you created? What has the evolution been like?

JR: It happens on every show, and we’re very blessed to have five great actors--no weak hand, nobody we go light on--you know, the usual TV trap. So Tim’s love of playing quirky characters has turned Nate from “hang out in the command center strategy guy” into a character with a playful--and plainly vicious--sense of humor going up against marks. There’s a lot more shit-kicker in Eliot since Chris defined him, and we already discussed Aldis taking over Hardison. Parker was always meant to be a little cooler, more emotionally distant, but Beth Riesgraf, well, people just like her. They just do. I’ve never seen a fandom spring up around a non-genre character this fast. She made Parker warmer and quirkier than we imagined. When you get lucky like that, you ride it out. I think Sophie’s the closest to the original intent, but seeing as it was written with Gina Bellman in mind, that’s not surprising.

CH: I imagine a lot of research is done with a show like this. Does the technology the team uses or faces really exist?

JR: Eight of 10 things on every show exist. Everything else--well, I like to say we’re as accurate with tech on this show as House is with medicine. Take from that what you will.

CH: OK, I’m allowed one Catwoman question: How much of your work actually made it into the script for that 2004 film?

JR: Precisely one scene. Kind of. After two years worth of work. There were four writers on after me, and maybe four or five on before me. I think they gave me the credit because I was the one to get it at least shootable. Before they fired me for not ... well, let’s just say my version did not have the final fight sequence in a summer tent-pole movie be Halle Berry beating the shit out of a 50-year-old woman in a pantsuit. In an attic.

CH: You didn’t know if Leverage would have a second season, so it feels like you crammed as much as possible into your first season, hence the horse race episode and the bank robbery episode. What do you have in mind for this new season?

JR: Man, the great thing is, you open the paper these days, and our villains--the rich and the powerful--they just tumble out. So we’ve got a mix of new Madoff-like bad guys with some classic old cons we didn’t do last year--a train robbery, corporate kidnappings, an auction heist, some bigger Mission: Impossible-type cons. We’re doing 15 [episodes] this year, and I don’t anticipate any problem filling them.

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If you haven’t been watching Leverage up to this point (shame on you!), and would like a simple summation of its players and plot lines, check out this Season 2 preview video.



READ MORE: “Timothy Hutton Evens the Score with Leverage,” by Brian Gallagher (MovieWeb).