Leverage is an American action crime drama television series, which aired on TNT from December 7, 2008, to December 25, 2012. The series was produced by Electric Entertainment, a production company of executive producer and director Dean Devlin. Leverage follows a five-person team: a thief, a grifter, a hacker, and a retrieval specialist or "hitter", led by former insurance investigator Nathan Ford, who use their skills to carry out heists to fight corporate and governmental injustices inflicted on ordinary citizens.
Season 1 consists of 13 episodes, which writers John Rogers and Chris Downey and producer Dean Devlin intended to be a complete story should the series not be renewed. Season 2, for which production moved from Los Angeles to Portland, Oregon, ran in two parts: a nine-episode summer season that premiered on July 15, 2009, followed by a further six episodes the following winter. Leverage moved to Sunday for season 3, which began on June 20, 2010.
Leverage was renewed for a fourth season on July 30, 2010. It premiered on June 26, 2011, and ran for 18 episodes, 10 in the summer and eight in the winter. The continuation of season 4 began on Sunday, November 27, 2011, at 9 pm EST on TNT.
On August 12, 2011, Leverage was renewed for a fifth season, to be both filmed and set in Portland. Season 5 premiered July 15, 2012. Leverage was canceled on December 21, 2012, amid falling ratings. The final episode, which was produced as a possible series finale, aired on December 25, 2012. On January 9, 2013, Leverage won Favorite Cable TV Drama at the 39th People's Choice Awards.
A 16-episode revival titled Leverage: Redemption began shooting in early August 2020 in New Orleans, Louisiana, with most cast members returning. It was released on IMDb TV in July 2021 with a second season airing in 2022–23, and a third season premiered on April 17, 2025.
Series overview
Plot Opening: (Narrated by Timothy Hutton)
"The rich and powerful, they take what they want. We steal it back for you. And sometimes, bad guys make the best good guys. We provide... leverage."
Nathan "Nate" Ford is a former insurance investigator known for recovering millions of dollars in stolen property and chasing the most dangerous and elusive thieves in the world. Nate's son, who was ill, died after IYS, the insurance company he'd spent his career working for, used questionable ethics to deny coverage of a treatment necessary to save the child's life. Emotionally and financially devastated due to the expensive treatment and eventual loss of his son and marriage, Nate is approached by aerospace industrialist Victor Dubenich to recover intellectual property stolen by leading a group of thieves, all of whom Nate has previously chased. Nate initially disagrees, as the thieves all have reputations for being loners who do not cooperate with others; they include hacker Alec Hardison, 'hitter' Eliot Spencer, and a thief known only as "Parker". Dubenich eventually convinces Nate to change his mind. While the job is successful, Dubenich double-crosses them and attempts to have them killed. Instead of fleeing, Nate persuades the team to retaliate, and further recruits the assistance of Sophie Deveraux, a formidable grifter and aspiring actress who is a long-time acquaintance of Nate's, to put Dubenich out of business. Under Nate's leadership, the group coalesces into a very effective unit, succeeding in ruining Dubenich's business, clearing their names, and providing each thief with enough money to retire from crime. Realizing their potential as a team, they approach Nate to continue under his leadership. Forced to choose between being a "white knight" and the "black king," Nate accepts on one condition: they will only target the corrupt and powerful to avenge ordinary people who have no other recourse, ergo "providing leverage".
During Season 1, the team initially struggles in adjusting to Nate's leadership and his attempts to reform them. Subplots include Nate's struggle with alcoholism, his complicated relationship with Sophie, and the budding romance between Hardison and Parker. Eliot's past in the military is also a recurring theme, involving kindred soldiers who have returned from war, old enemies from his missions encountered during their jobs, and a case set in his hometown. Season 1 also establishes several running gags, including Eliot's numerous hidden talents, Hardison and Parker receiving cover IDs as FBI agents in organized crime, and Sophie's inability to act unless she's breaking the law. The team operates with impunity as "Leverage Consulting & Associates" out of Los Angeles until the season finale, in which Nate's former colleague, James Sterling, begins pursuing them on behalf of IYS. In response, they steal a collection of valuable art from Nate's former boss, Ian Blackpoole, returning it in exchange for Blackpoole being fired from his own company, and the team disbands for six months.
Season 2 begins in Boston, Nate's hometown. The team reunites and resumes their activities, now operating out of Nate's apartment and a local bar. Nate struggles with his recent sobriety while Sophie goes on a journey of self-discovery following an attempt on her life. While she is away, she sends her friend and fellow grifter, Tara Cole, to assist the team and keep tabs on Nate. After assisting Sterling on a job that gets him invited to join Interpol, the team soon run afoul of him when they stumble onto one of his cases. In exchange for letting the team go free, Nate surrenders to his former friend, admitting to Sterling and himself that he is now a thief.
As Season 3 begins, Nate is in a Supermax prison and the team attempts to free him, until a mysterious Italian woman blackmails them into taking down the untouchable criminal Damien Moreau in exchange for the expungement of Nate's criminal record. The team spends several jobs targeting known associates of Moreau in an effort to get closer to him before learning that Eliot worked for him as an assassin. At season's end, Moreau is imprisoned in San Lorenzo, a fictional nation formerly under his control.
Season 4 opens days after the team's return from San Lorenzo, when they discover that someone has been bugging their headquarters. The culprit is later identified as the wealthy businessman Jack Latimer, who has been profiting off their victories and now offers information on the evildoings of other major corporations, in exchange for profit on each company's downfall. Nate refuses the offer, and his father is killed. Nate deduces that Latimer is working with Victor Dubenich (the team's first victim) to anticipate their movements, and the team must use proxies in the season finale to take them both down.
Season 5 opens with Nate having moved the team to Portland and setting up shop in a microbrewery (Bridgeport Brew Pub), but the season premiere ends with the revelation that Nate is working with Hardison on a secret project unknown to the others. After a series of extremely intricate confidence tricks, the secret project is revealed and carried out, despite the recurrent Sterling. The series finale, broadcast on Christmas Day 2012, also reveals drastic changes in the lives and dynamics of the team, but assures the audience of their continuity.
Setup Most episodes follow a set story structure: After meeting the client, the Leverage team researches the villains to find a weakness to exploit. Each con, either as originally planned or as complications develop, typically requires the specialized skills of all the members of the group. Towards the end of each episode, the villains seem to get the upper hand, only to be outwitted by the team. Because most of the narrative has seemed to follow the team's point of view, the audience is momentarily uninformed as to exactly how they have succeeded in their con. A flashback then reveals how a seeming complication was either anticipated by the Leverage team, or used in a clever improvisation. These flashbacks, which are featured in most episodes, sometimes reveal only in retrospect that an earlier scene was actually a clue to the Leverage team's plan. More often, the flashbacks reveal new information to which the viewer has not been privy. This formula is followed by every episode in seasons one, two, and three. With the exception of the final season, each season ends with a two-part finale which involves a two-part, multi-stage con designed to bring down a major adversary, such as an international crime financier in season three, with an ending that advances the team's story into the new season.
Cast and characters
Main cast
Timothy Hutton as Nathan "Nate" Ford, called "The Mastermind" or, in the opening credits of later seasons, "The Brain": A former insurance fraud investigator for IYS Insurance, operated by Ian Blackpoole, and the team's mastermind. The son of South Boston numbers runner Jimmy Ford, Nate originally intended to become a Catholic priest prior to becoming an insurance investigator. While Ford was working for IYS, Blackpoole implemented a policy of denying all claims and forcing a lengthy appeals process before anyone can get paid. (Blackpoole claimed the policy was implemented to cut costs, but in fact, it was so that his company would be able to turn a bigger profit.) When Nate's young son Sam became terminally ill, IYS refused to pay for a potentially life-saving procedure, claiming it was experimental, resulting in his death. The aftermath led to Nate's divorce from his wife Maggie, his subsequent dismissal from the company, and his descent into alcoholism. At this low point, Nate was hired to lead a group of thieves to retrieve stolen documents. After meeting the team for the first time and running a con against their employer, who double-crossed them, Nate is asked to continue working with them and is given the privilege of leading the team and selecting what clients the team will help. A skilled planner and chess player, Nate draws on his experience as an insurance investigator to anticipate the moves of his team's marks. Nate is affable, but is unwilling to discuss his own problems with friends or others. His tendency to change objectives in the middle of a job, his alcoholism, and his often-tenuous relationship with his team has, on occasion, put the client and the team at risk. Nate's struggle to battle his demons is a major theme of the series, and it is not till the series finale that he is finally able to walk away and find peace.