Sunday, January 27, 2013

Leverage Season 5 DVD is a Go!


Good news indeed for Leverage fans! Dean found a distributor for the Season 5 DVD and this comes a great relief for every Grifter. Days after the cancellation, Dean revealed to his twitter followers that there might not be a DVD for Season 5 as the distributor backed out due to lack of sales for the Season 4 DVD. This was the second dagger to the hearts of the Grifters as our favourite show gets cancelled days before Christmas, and now it seems that we won't be able to complete our Leverage collection. 

But, yesterday gave us hope that things may still be looking good for Leverage. First, we were able to give them the People's Choice Award. Leverage became the only show in the history of PCA to win an award after being cancelled. Then, now, Dean gave us good news that the DVD will be released under Fox (thank you Fox!). I'm surely going to buy one, even if I have to order online and pay for those expensive shipping and customs rates. I have the DVDs for Seasons 1-4, but unfortunately, only Season 2 came with the extras and commentaries (dammit region 4 DVDs). I don't want to miss out the extras and commentaries for Season 5, which as of now is the last season for Leverage, so I'm willing to order it online. 

I hope the next good news we get to hear about Leverage is that we were finally able to steal a new network for Season 6! 

Thank you for not giving up Dean! And you can bet, we haven't given up on Leverage as well! Not just yet.

 

Thursday, January 24, 2013

More Ramblings About Leverage

The thing that probably frustrates me the most regarding the cancellation of Leverage is that, for the first time in so many years, a TV show that I follow gets cancelled before I get tired of it. In fact, I can't remember a show that I am still very much into, that got cancelled. Usually, the shows run for so long that I get tired of it or I lose touch with it. But not with Leverage. Yes, I lost touch in the middle of the 3rd season, but I have medical school to blame for that. I had to live in a dormitory without cable TV and when I get home during the weekends in our place with cable TV, I'm too tired to wait for the reruns at night (am I being too defensive here? Lol!) 

But anyway, as I was saying...it was pretty unusual for one of my favourite TV shows to get cancelled. I think it never happened to me before! The shows I came to love before such as Friends, Chicago Hope, Ally McBeal, ER, I believe, if my recollection is correct, had a proper farewell season where the fans were given a heads-up that this is the last season for the series. And that is why I hate the way TNT cancelled the show. To think the show gave them 5 years of great viewership (S5 may have dipped, but still respectable numbers in my opinion), they could have at least given Leverage the proper farewell season.

I know, I'm not yet over it... But with all the free time I have these days, this is the only thing that I think about. There is no F1 or Michael Schumacher to keep me busy every 2 weeks, no games for my favorite basketball, baseball or football (that's soccer) team, my work is on hiatus...

But hey, I am slowly moving on...ever so slowly, but still, taking baby steps forward. Yesterday, I was finally able to watch The Long Goodbye Job for just the 2nd time since I watched it during Christmas. I was putting it off (re-watching), because when I watched it during Christmas, my emotions were all over the place. I had to watch it alone because the people around me didn't understand why I love the show so much and how much the cancellation has affected me. And, my oh my, watching with all those emotions of excitement because I know the episode is going to be one helluva ride, sadness because I know it's the last one, fear that maybe just maybe John Rogers and the gang decided to do something drastic to our favorite band of thieves, happiness when I got my wish (and Sophie's?) that Nate finally gave in and proposed to the best Grifter, Sophie, who is the love of his life, bestfriend and his compass, and sadness again because the characters (and probably the actors themselves) are crying while saying goodbye to each other and me feeling that this is really it, and then amazement when the "kids" had their moment in the end with the most unlikely person to take the Mastermind's role (trying not to give spoilers here, except maybe for the proposal part..)----all these emotions bottled up in one episode...I tell you, it was not easy to watch episode no. 77. So, that was why I was putting it off. I usually watch an episode 2 or 3 times within a week to see what I missed. But not here. Not yet. UNTIL, yesterday, I just got the urge to watch it again. And this time, I watched it with an analytical perspective, and BOOM! I was able to finally enjoy it! Brilliant writing, really, to JR and CD. They did say, they have conned everyone except the audience. And they sure did con us. Superb episode, probably the 2nd favorite episode after the Pilot. It gave the right closure for the show and kudos to John, Dean and Chris for ending the series the right way. I didn't feel sad, but felt contented. As Parker said, "I think I'm okay with it" and so Nate answered, "That's why we can go."

But the fight for Leverage continues. Don't get me wrong. We, Grifters, are making as much noise as we can to keep others informed about the show. Because maybe, just maybe, the noise reaches the right person, and that someone out there is listening and is willing to revive this great show. 
 

Tuesday, January 22, 2013

Leverage - Season 1: "Trust"


Hey hey hey! I can't seem to stop making videos. Yep..got lots of spare time! I plan to make one video per season for Leverage focusing on the season themes that John Rogers told us before. Season 1 is all about TRUST.

Wednesday, January 16, 2013

Weebly Website

Well, with too much time in my hands nowadays, I got into the trap of creating my own website. I don't know what came into me...I'm not selling anything, I'm not a good blogger, but hey..I have my own website! Heck, it was just for the fun of it. I'm probably the only one who visits it! I just like everything to be in one place that I can easily access anytime, my photos, my videos, my tumblr and my blog. 

I really should get a job now..and a life! 

http://oldnate.weebly.com/ 

Thursday, January 10, 2013

The People's Choice Favorite Cable TV Drama - LEVERAGE


The endless hours of clicking, voting, retweeting, tweeting to give Leverage the People's Choice Award for Favorite Cable TV Drama paid off today. Every Grifters' effort was rewarded with a simple but powerful line in the People's Choice List of Winners for 2013. 

The feeling was amazing. It was elation. It was happiness and joy. It was relief. It was invigorating to the fighting spirit of the Grifters that maybe, just maybe, we can still save this great show.

Some may say it is just a People's Choice Award. It is not an Emmy nor a Golden Globe. But I will take it anyway. An award is an award. A Grifter mentioned how ironic it is that this PCA enabled us to give Leverage some leverage, as we try to help look for networks or whatever ways to bring the show back on air. Apart from this, I also view this award as the fans way of giving thanks to the wonderful cast and crew of Leverage for giving us 5 amazing years. It is a joy to be part of this Leverage family and I am proud to be called a Grifter. 

The way this award made Dean Devlin, John Rogers, Chris Downey, Tim Hutton, Gina Bellman, Beth Riesgraf, Christian Kane, Aldis Hodge and all other people involved with the show so happy made all voting efforts worth it. 







Monday, January 7, 2013

Fandom Heartbreak


I never thought saying goodbye to a television show would be as hard as saying goodbye to an old friend. But that is what I actually felt when Leverage was cancelled after 5 seasons. Yes, we should all be thankful that the show had 77 great episodes or that the show was even thought of (by the creative minds of Dean Devlin, John Rogers and Chris Downey). This series is the only series apart from NCIS wherein I was able to watch all episodes, from pilot to series finale. I admit that I got lost in the flow somewhere in the middle of the 3rd season due to unforeseen circumstances. But luckily one day, I saw Leverage’s facebook status update and I remembered..”yeah…whatever happened to this show?” Then, I did my homework and caught up with the show and just when I got caught up with it, the show got cancelled. I, along with other devoted fans of Leverage are still fighting for the show and trying to help another network pick it up. It is a long shot but it is still worth trying. After being so emotionally invested in a show, we are not just going to throw in the towel easily. I just want to do something as long as something can still be done. If everything fails, then at least we could all tell ourselves that we all did our best.

I don’t know what Leverage has done to me but I haven’t been so dedicated to a show this way before. But I don’t regret it because the show allows me to escape from reality for 40 mins and just sit back, relax, laugh and cry (the cry part is for the epic finale). When I was doing the Leverage marathons to catch up with the show, I immediately found the reason why I loved it way back in 2009 (in my case, as I live in the Philippines) when it was first shown in our cable tv. The cast has amazing chemistry that cannot be faked because they genuinely (not generally..as Tim Hutton corrected ;) ) like each other. The writing was fresh, funny, witty and yet has the right amount of drama to hook anyone up. As the cast and crew has always said, it is a fun train and it surely was one hell of a ride. For me, I got introduced to the talented Gina Bellman, Beth Riesgraf, Christian Kane and Aldis Hodge. And as for Tim Hutton, the show allowed me to rediscover this truly amazing actor, plus I got to see Tim’s comedic side which is probably as good as his well known dramatic side. And because the Leverage Cast and crew were ever so generous to the fans by allowing us to interact with them directly thru twitter and blogs and podcasts, we all felt like we were also part of this Leverage Family.

The characters of Nate, Sophie, Parker, Eliot and Hardison became real to us like they were our friends. As we all grew up in our own lives for 5 years, these characters also grew up in the Leverage-verse and we were able to witness how they became one family from a bunch of strangers. And I was just so happy for Nate and Sophie who finally had their happy ending while the “kids”, Parker, Hardison and Eliot, got the blessing from the “parents” that they are now ready to run the crew by themselves.

That is why saying goodbye to the show was just as painful as saying goodbye to a great friend. But I guess, I would have to quote my favorite athlete who himself retired this year (which broke my heart as well). Michael Schumacher has always said during his retirement that it is better to say goodbye now, when people are still asking why and wanting for more, rather than say goodbye when people are already telling you that it is indeed time to go. For me, Leverage has become a classic series that was a fresh breath from the barrage of reality and crime shows that it was shown with. If this indeed is the end of the road, at least it went out when it was still being wanted by its fans. And the ratings for the series finale were great, enabling them to go out on a high, with their heads held up.

I’ll end this with the tweet I sent to the Leverage Family right after the cancellation news.

Thank you Dean, John, Chris, Tim, Gina, Beth, Aldis and Christian. You guys are the best. #Leverage




Nate/Sophie - Science and Faith, Rule the World


Yes, I'm a Nate/Sophie shipper. I love their love story and I'm glad it ended happily. Enjoy!