Cast Member Highlight - Beth Riesgraf

While watching "Leverage" there was one character who seemed to have a great comedic gift throughout the whole series. That character was Parker, played by Beth Riesgraf. Beth brought much needed comic relief to the show in tight situations with her great "serious" facial expressions and through acts of revealing strange little secret tidbits of knowledge her character had.

Beth is extremely new to the acting field, so unfortunately there is very little information about her around at the moment. But I could dig up that she was once engaged to Jason Lee (from My name is Earl) and had a son with him. "Leverage" was and is Beth's first real major acting role, before landing it she had only done small parts in small movies/television episodes.

Besides continuing her role in "Leverage", Beth recently finished filming a lead role in the feature film "Nobody", which comes out later this year. It will be interesting to see where this role takes her career.

Leverage nominated for 2 Saturn awards.

Recently, the Academy of Science Fiction and Horror films announced its nominees for this years 35th annual Saturn Awards. Leverage was surprisingly nominated in 2 fields, Best Syndicated / Cable Television Series, and Timothy Hutton getting a nomination in the Best Actor in Television field.

I was rather surprised to hear about these nominations since there really wern't very many nominees in each category, and there are tons of eligible tv shows out there. However, It's good that a show as new as "Leverage" is getting notice.

As far as the likeliness of winning goes, it looks pretty slim according to the article I found announcing the nominees. The HBO series "True Blood" is projected to win the best series award, but there was no mention of any win projections in the best actor category, so perhaps Mr. Hutton still has a chance.

TNT takes second place for Febuary.

I recently found an article about the ad-supported cable ratings for February. Overall, it seemed that the ratings for cable channels have gone up (many in double digit percentages) during the month as compared to January.

As far as the top performing networks go, USA placed first, getting an average of 3.41 million nightly viewers.

TNT (the one we're all interested in) placed second, with an average of 2.49 million viewers nightly. This was a 10% increase compared to last February, and a 9% increase amongst it's younger viewers (aged 18-34), putting it into 3rd place for that demographic.

An increase in ratings is always a good thing for a TV network, and I'm sure TNT is very happy about it. Although TNT has always performed pretty strong (especially since the introduction of "Closer") it's never been something younger audiences really watched. Most aren't that into Drama. But I think that the introduction of it's newer shows ("Leverage" and "Trust Me") really may have triggered it's boost in ratings for this audience. Although I've only watched "Leverage", both shows seem to have a more light-drama attitude with a good amount of comedy mixed in, making them something that could more easily appeal to younger demographics. Overall, I'm highly interested to see if TNT's ratings further increase with this demographic as they continue their plan to add new original primetime content.

Cast Member Highlight- Christian Kane

Christian Kane is probably the third most bankable actor in the "Leverage" cast (behind Gina and Timothy). His work has been primarily in television, with staring roles that have made him fairly well known in series like the WB's "Angel" and CBS' "Close to Home". However, when I first started watching Leverage I had no idea who he was because I never had watched either of those shows. I did take notice to him though, as definitely one of the casts' strongholds.

Christian was born in Dallas, Texas, but as a kid his family was constantly moving around. They finally settled down in a small town in Oklahoma. When Christian got to college, he felt that something wasn't right. He wanted to become an actor. Like many who get this "bug" he took a chance and headed out to California. Fortunately, Christian was greeted with a bit of success from this move. He landed his first acting role in 1997 for the show "Fame L.A". Since then, Christian has landed numerous television roles, and a few minor roles in movies such as "Secondhand Lions" and "Friday Night Lights".

Christian also has a band called "KANE" which frequently plays in night clubs around Los Angelos. It recently got signed to a record comany and the band is working on it's first major lable album release.

Season Finale Analysis

As anyone who has been somewhat following "Leverage" knows, the last couple weeks was the show's season 1 finale. The episode, dealt with what was definitely the Leverage team's biggest heist yet. They had to steal, and re-steal famous pieces of art multiple times.

What was interesting about this 2-part finale was the fact that it gave a lot more background information on Nate (the leader of the team/Timothy Hutton's character). This whole heist was primarily done for revenge on what someone did to his son many years back. We also meet Nate's ex-wife, a very likable character once she figures out what's really going on, and perhaps (I'm hoping) a new permanent member of the Leverage team next season.

One new thing I noticed about this episode was that during the commercials they said that the particular episode was sponsored by not only it's usual (the Hyundai Genesis and HP computer) but also by Bertolli Pasta Dishes. Since usually these sponsors are featured in the episode as product placement as well, I was constantly looking for pasta to make an appearance. However, regrettably such did not happen.

Other than that I didn't notice much difference in the advertising compared to previous episodes. They did however announce that they are moving their newish show "Trust me" (the one about the two friends running an advertising company) to "Leverage's" time slot since "Leverage" is no longer in season.

As far as Leverage's season went, I feel it was pretty solid all the way through. there were a few "dud" episodes, but I generally found most of them enjoyable. It looks as if they have already started filming for the show's next season, however the new episodes will not air until sometime this summer.

Cast Highlight- Gina Bellman

This week, I decided to highlight the person who plays "Sophie" on Leverage, Gina Bellman. I had never heard of this actress until I started watching the show, but from the moment I first saw her, something wouldn't let me take my eyes off of her. Not only is she truly a beautiful woman, but she also has a sense of authoritativeness that lets you know she's in control whenever she's on screen (a quality that is very rare for TV actors *not that all of them suck too bad).

Gina was born in New Zealand in 1966, and moved to England when she was 11. Her career as an actress didn't really start till 1984 when she landed a role in the BBC drama "Grange Hill". Soon after, she got a part in another BBC drama "Blackeyes" which quickly made her a TV star over in the UK.

Most of Gina's work has been done over in the UK (which is why many of us probably hadn't heard of her), but she did manage to land a couple movie roles in her career, including "Sitting Ducks", "King David", and "Seven Days to Live".

Now, Gina is of course working on filming the second season of "Leverage".

The Origins of Leverage.

It's been said more than a few times, that creation of truly original content is something that just doesn't seem to happen very often anymore. Something always seems to be based off of something that's already been done, and sadly, frequently doesn't even build on it's forefather.

I mention this, because as I was looking around for new stuff to write about "Leverage" (which I of course do constantly). I stumbled upon some surprising information about the show. It's apparently not as original of a show as I thought. "Leverage" is the American version of the hit BBC show "Hustle", staring the highly famed actor, Robert Vaughn.

"Hustle" is still an extremely popular show over in the UK. It premiered its 5th season last month to an audience of 5.7 million (As I mentioned earlier "Leverage" premiered to 5.6 million), and is currently airing here in the USA on AMC. To me, It's no surprise that a successful show like "Hustle" would eventually come to the United States after seeing other UK successes do so well here (ie-The Office).

Latest Episode Recap

Last night's episode of "Leverage" was perhaps one of my favorites of the season so far, it had very little action in it but contained a well done suspenseful feud. This was the second of 2 episodes directed by famed Star Trek actor Jonathan Frakes.

Summary:

This episode, entitled "The Juror #6 Job" took the show into a courtroom. In the beginning of the episode one of the main character's got a letter notifying her that she had jury duty. When she got the the court, she couldn't help but notice something fishy was going on. Eventually she persuaded the rest of the team that they should take this trial up as a job and get to the bottom of it. It turned out, that some very powerful woman decided to hijack the entire trial to ensure that she got desired results. When the Leverage team caught on to this, they hijacked it their own way and turned the trial into a flat our feud between hijackers.

Other Noticed Things:

The commercials for this show were pretty much in line with all the previous episodes commercials, but there were a few things I noticed.

First of these, was that there seemed to be a great abundance of chocolate commercials, mostly for Hershey's, Dove, and M&M's . I'm not sure if this is because Valentines is right around the corner possibly, or perhaps the average TNT user likes chocolate a lot... I guess next week will tell since Valentines day will be over.

Next, I noticed a new commercial for another TNT original content show called "Saving Grace". This is a show that TNT has already had some success with, and I'm guessing will be taking Leverage's Tuesday-slot when it's season ends in 2 weeks.

As far as product placement goes, I didn't really notice any of it in this episode, but will continue looking for it in the future.

Cast Member Highlight- Timothy Hutton

Due to the lack of news coming out about the show "Leverage" I decided it might be fun to highlight a member of the show's cast each week with a short bio and my opinion on them.

So... Who better to start off with than the main reason I chose this show to blog on, Timothy Hutton. As I mentioned before, Mr. Hutton won an Oscar almost 30 years ago for the 1980 film Ordinary People. This also made him the youngest male actor (age 20) to win an academy award. Ordinary People is one of the 2 films I think that have had the biggest effect on me as a person. And although it's a rather depressing movie, It's something that for some reason gives me a ray of hope whenever I'm feeling down. This film, is what began Hutton's real career, as it was his first feature film role.

However, since this film, Hutton has somehow managed to stay out of the limelight. It's reported that this is something he desired, as he turned down staring roles in hit films like "Risky Business" and preferred to take lesser roles in smaller films and television shows.

Right now, besides continuing his work on "Leverage" and a few smaller roles in upcoming movie, Hutton spends his time just living with his wife, actress Aurore Giscard d'Estaing and two kids.

More News Associated with Tnt/Leverage...

I must admit, that before I started watching the show "Leverage" on TNT (and tv itself since this is absolutely the only TV I watch at the moment) I had always thought that TNT was a station that played nothing but reruns of "Charmed". I mean it seemed like every time I flipped to the station, that's what was on.
However, little did I know, that TNT actually had some extremely successful original content (Closer, the networks most popular show staring Kyra Sedgwick, was the number one show on cable last week). With the success of its original content, it seems TNT is hoping to get more.

With that being said, the renewal of "Leverage" has become TNT's latest move in what is said to be an aggressive plan to ramp up its production of original content. The network hopes to make 60% of its primtime lineup original content by the year 2010. TNT is making great progress on this, as it also recently greenlighted the production of 2 new shows: "Time Heals", a medical drama starring Jada Pinkett Smith, and a police drama called "The Line", starring Dylan McDermott.

Latest Episode Viewing

Unfortunately, there has been little news coming out about the show "Leverage" since it got picked up for it's second season last week. But.. there was a show this past week, which means I owe you all at least one update today.

Brief Summary:

Last weeks show was interesting because it stepped aside from the typical action/suspense plot that the show normally had and took a more dramatic route, focusing greatly on different personal problems the main characters have developed over the course of the show's season. In this episode, the main characters all went to rehab in order to con a man into telling them where some missing money was. This whole set up, was the perfect opportunity for the main character, played by Timothy Hutton to face his alcohol problem that has been driving the rest of the team nuts in the past few episodes.

The episode was open-ended as to whether this problem was resolved or not, so I guess we'll have to wait till the next episode to find out...

Interesting things I noticed:

The commercials during this episode were in general the same as the commercials for all the previous episodes that I've watched. Mostly just the network self-promoting it's other original content. However, I did also notice it promoting reruns of the show "bones" which it must have bought.

However, the most interesting thing I noticed in this episode that I failed to notice in any other previous episodes was product placement. There were a couple commercials during the show that said "this episode of leverage is brought to you by... (Hyundai Genesis being one and a touch screen computer being the other)" Both of these products were featured in the show itself almost immediately after the commercial aired with big logo's so that you for sure knew what that product was.

I'll be back later with more news when I can find it~

Picked up For New Season

On Monday (yesterday) it was announced that "Leverage" will be picked up for a second season, and 15 new episodes were ordered to be made and put on air later this year. In an article I found that included the announcement, there were also many statistics stating how the show has been doing ratings wise. I was very surprised to see that it has been doing so good.

Supposedly, "Leverage" has constantly been ranked as pay-cable's number 1 program during its time slot on Tuesdays. It's December premiere, as I mentioned in an early post captured an audience of 5.6 million viewers, while the rest of the seasons episodes have averaged 3.2 million viewers each so far.

According to Beth Riesgraf, an actress on the show, the show's incredible success may be due to the fact that "it's a fun show that really anybody can watch; it makes people think about [the corporate malfeasance] happening in the world today, and there's something satisfying about seeing the bad guys get messed with while the good guys are helped for once."

For more information on the renewal of the show, and the complete article listing it's statistics you can go Here

Latest Episode Chit Chat

While the most recently aired episode of "Leverage" aired almost a week ago, it has still be fresh on my mind since seeing it. This time I actually got to watch it when it aired.

Besides the show itself, I noticed many different things going on while watching. Many of the commercials seemed to be promotions for 2 other shows on the network in particular. One, a new show called "Trust Me" which seems to be about two friends who work together as creative partners at a top-ranked Chicago ad agency (something that might be interesting to watch as pertaining to programming). And the other, TnT's hit drama (going on it's fourth season), The Closer. One thing I found interesting about this show's information was the fact that it's season finale this past September drew in 10 million viewers, supposedly a new cable record?
Other than the promotion of these new shows, the majority of the other advertisements were for Hyundai cars, and some different insurance providers.

The show itself, I seem to have taken a liking to, after watching this past episode I decided to download and watch all the previous episodes I had missed (I think it was about 8).

Show Choice- Tnt's "Leverage"

After thinking for awhile about a good show I'd like to follow for the rest of the quarter, I finally decided on the new Tnt networked show "Leverage". I had seen advertisements for this show on sites like IMDB.com and couldn't help but notice that it started the actor Timothy Hutton. Now, most people really haven't heard of this actor, but I've always had an incredible respect for him as he was the star of, and won an oscar for one of my all time favorite movies , "Ordinary People"(1980). With that being said, my respect for such a great performance convinced me to pick "Leverage" as my Choice. As far as I can tell right now, Tnt seems to be having pretty decent luck with the show. According to an article I found (here) the show "scored TNT’s best delivery ever of adults 18-49 for an original series telecast during the broadcast season". I Will continue to post more information about the show's ratings as I find it throughout the season. Unfortunately, I did not get to watch this past weeks episode when it aired live due to being very ill at the time it aired, however I did manage to download a copy of it. The only bad part about this is that I did not get to pay attention to the types of advertising the show aired.
Overall, I enjoyed the episode of the show very much (even though it was TV, ugh...) It had a very well constructed plot and good pace for something that was only ~45 minutes long.
Check back soon for more updates!

Blog one, Welcome

Hello, and welcome to my blog!

Here you will eventually find my in-depth analysis of a TV show of my choice. Throughout the next couple months I will be following a TV show and be posting here about every possible thing there is to know about this certain show, including ratings, competition, quality, news, and even analyze the commercial spots contained during the shows run.
I know, You're all excited and wondering why I can't just start doing this right now...Well, first I must find a TV show that I'm willing to watch every week (which is a hard thing to do for someone who touches a TV about as often as I eat Brussels sprouts). But rest in peace, I shall find something soon and will begin posting as soon as I do.

Bye,

Chris