Cross My Heart

I am in full NBA playoff mode (two games EVERY night!) but after the games on TNT I have had the pleasure of catching reruns of some of TNTs welcome characters (the night before I saw my first ever episode of Franklin and Bash and I gotta know, is there some new trend where every television law firm is run by an Afro-American MILF - Garcelle Beauvais on Bash and Gina Torres on Suits?).

Late last night I saw the best episode of Leverage I have ever seen.  I am up and down with this series.  Some episodes wow me while others leave me indifferent but last night's "Cross My Heart" episode from season four was great.  Everything from the cold start during a layover at the Cincinnati Airport to the two lives hanging in the balance drama - with several Sting-like twists in between - left me unable to go to bed (although it was already one am and I had to go to work in the morning)and showed Leverage's tight ensemble group at their best.

~rave!

Leverage and the paradigm of the black technology geek

I just saw my first episode of Timothy Hutton's new TNT series Leverage. Leverage is what you would get if you artificially inseminated Mission:Impossible! with Oceans Eleven. I like it and have scheduled my DVR to record future episodes but I feel compelled to mention that the lone black regular character, Alec Hardison (Aldis Hodge), like IM's Barney Collier (Gregg Morris)and Luther Stickell (Ving Rhames)- heck, like Hogan Heroe Sgt. James 'Kinch' Kinchloe (the late great Ivan Dixon), both completes and depletes me.

On one hand, all are self-contained, obviously well educated, articulate electronics experts. On the other hand, all are given precious little to do. While the other, primarily white cast mates get to cavort about wearing masks and assuming other identities, the lone black technology geek is tethered to his computers and his listening devices. More often than not their electronic wizardry saves the day but they rarely get any of the glory.

In short, our hero gets to witness the pageantry but rarely gets to participate in it. While there is plenty of interaction between most of the white characters, our hero is literally a "black hole" into which camera light goes but nothing - no personality, no back story, no nothing - escapes.

And, as such, he is the ultimate Invisible Man.