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20poundsofcrazy) wrote2008-09-20 03:48 pm
20poundsofcrazy) wrote2008-09-20 03:48 pm
[archive] from iFMagazine
Academy Award winner Timothy Hutton always brings something special to TNT’s hit drama series LEVERAGE. As Nate Ford, not only does he amaze with acting prowess, but he’s got a talent for creating a variety of interesting characters for the popular cons featured on the show.
On the show, Ford is the Mastermind of a group of thieves who help the helpless take down corporate scum and other high-level baddies who can't be taken out through proper legal channels. The team also consists of The Grifter Sophie Devereaux (Gina Bellman), The Hitter Eliot Spencer (Christian Kane), The Thief Parker (Beth Riesgraf) and The Hacker Alec Hardison (Aldis Hodge).
With LEVERAGE beginning its third season with a two-hour event on Sunday, June 20, 2010 at 9:00 pm PT on TNT, we bring our loyal readers the 10 things you need to know about Nate Ford (The Mastermind) that will help you going into the new season.
1) He’s the Mastermind. When it comes to putting together the capers in LEVERAGE, all of the others in his crew turn to Nate for the idea – well that is if he isn’t too drunk to pull it off. Luckily, they don’t always do everything he says and Sophie, for one, frequently tends to go off the reservation when it comes to Nate’s plans. However, Nate’s crazy, "never-think-it-will-work" cons usually end up working … unless his arch-nemesis Jim Sterling (Mark Sheppard) is in involved.
2) He’s a team player. Nate is more than willing to take one for the team regardless of what is happening or how dangerous or perilous the costs. He has grown attached to his crew and considers them his new family. And like a member of a family, he is more than willing to protect them in any way he can. So much so that he ends up taking one of the team by getting arrested at the end of Season Two.
3) He’s a drunk. When Nate’s son died, he didn’t take it well. He became an alcoholic. Now, some would say this just made him a better man when it comes to pulling off a con, but for his team, it has caused nothing but trouble. He doesn’t think right, he pulls risky moves and is altogether a danger to whatever caper they try to pull off. He got sober during the first season but fell off the wagon in the second during a con when an Irish thug threatened the bar in which they work out of and had to drink in order to convince him of his intentions (even if they were false). Nate’s drinking continued throughout Season Two and we’ll see where they take this plotline in Season Three. Maybe he sobered up in jail?
4) He’s a former insurance fraud investigator. Nate once did things on the up and up. In fact, prior to the death of his son, he fought against the very people that he joined forces with in the first episode of LEVERAGE. This has led to numerous confrontations with insurance companies all over the place and given him his arch-nemesis in Sterling (a former insurance investigator himself turned INTERPOL agent who would be viewed as the good guy in any other real-world situation). Sterling has been a thorn in the side of the LEVERAGE crew for the past two seasons and chances are we’ll see him once again in Season Three.
5) He’s from Boston. While LEVERAGE is filmed in Portland, Or., in the world of the show, everything since Season Two mostly centers around the Boston area (although the crew frequently travels to other locations and even international regions). No doubt that we will continue to find the crew here and working from the bar that they have frequented as their headquarters of initial operations.
6) Nate’s father is still alive. At some point, this is going to be a major plot point and character development for Nate. We know literally nothing about his father other than the few mentions of him here and there throughout Season Two. Obviously, this is something that the writers and creators of the series are keeping in their back pocket for a major turning point. Will we see him in Season Three? Will he come to the aid of Nate when he’s in jail? We'll have to wait and see.
7) He loves Sophie. Nate and Sophie have a history, the extent of which we don’t fully know, but there has always been some sort of sexual tension between the two from the very first time they saw each other again. We know that at some point, Nate busted Sophie for her grifting, but we aren’t sure if he let her go or something else happened that brought them close together. But after denying it himself numerous times, when Sophie left the team to “find herself”, Nate definitely missed her. Very much so and in numerous episodes we see him cooing for her and eventually expressing his feeling for her. Season Two ended with a kiss and a slap between the two - something that they will have to reconcile during the course of Season Three.
8) He’s in jail. Because of being a team player, the first episode of Season Three finds Nate in prison after getting arrested at the end of Season Two in order to protect the other four members of his crew. He did this as a sacrifice because he didn’t want anyone getting in trouble for the things they did – even if most of it involves them scamming and swindling people who really deserve it. No doubt as Season Three begins, we will see more of this and what happened during his jail time as well as its affect on him and his relationship with the crew moving forward. Will they try to break him out? Will he have served his time? Will he want to get back in the game right away? We’ll have to wait to see.
9) He thought he was the good guy. Before getting involved with the other members of the LEVERAGE crew, Nate, as mentioned before, was on the other side, busting criminals and those taking advantage of others. Sure, he takes advantage of others now, but usually they are true criminals and deserve everything they get. The interesting thing here is that Nate is the one and not the other four that straddles the line between doing what’s right and just doing what’s right to get the job done. Numerous times, he’s been willing to leave someone to squalor or not save a number of orphan kids because it would mean going out of their way beyond the call of the con. It took the other members of the crew to actually realize they had to do these things or what they were doing wasn’t enough.
10) But, he's now accepted he's a thief. While he spent two seasons convincing himself he was on the right side of the law and that he was indeed the good guy, that thin line has slowly eroded away. At one point, he thought he was above his LEVERAGE crew, but by the end of Season Two, he had to come to terms that he was a common thief, just like them. Even if he's there to help the helpless get revenge on all sorts of icky bad guys, he still breaks the law to get the job done. His acceptance of who he is now, especially that he's doing time in prison (and, with all that Catholic guilt penance that's no doubt swirling around in his head), this should be a major part of how he continues to evolve throughout Season Three.
On the show, Ford is the Mastermind of a group of thieves who help the helpless take down corporate scum and other high-level baddies who can't be taken out through proper legal channels. The team also consists of The Grifter Sophie Devereaux (Gina Bellman), The Hitter Eliot Spencer (Christian Kane), The Thief Parker (Beth Riesgraf) and The Hacker Alec Hardison (Aldis Hodge).
With LEVERAGE beginning its third season with a two-hour event on Sunday, June 20, 2010 at 9:00 pm PT on TNT, we bring our loyal readers the 10 things you need to know about Nate Ford (The Mastermind) that will help you going into the new season.
1) He’s the Mastermind. When it comes to putting together the capers in LEVERAGE, all of the others in his crew turn to Nate for the idea – well that is if he isn’t too drunk to pull it off. Luckily, they don’t always do everything he says and Sophie, for one, frequently tends to go off the reservation when it comes to Nate’s plans. However, Nate’s crazy, "never-think-it-will-work" cons usually end up working … unless his arch-nemesis Jim Sterling (Mark Sheppard) is in involved.
2) He’s a team player. Nate is more than willing to take one for the team regardless of what is happening or how dangerous or perilous the costs. He has grown attached to his crew and considers them his new family. And like a member of a family, he is more than willing to protect them in any way he can. So much so that he ends up taking one of the team by getting arrested at the end of Season Two.
3) He’s a drunk. When Nate’s son died, he didn’t take it well. He became an alcoholic. Now, some would say this just made him a better man when it comes to pulling off a con, but for his team, it has caused nothing but trouble. He doesn’t think right, he pulls risky moves and is altogether a danger to whatever caper they try to pull off. He got sober during the first season but fell off the wagon in the second during a con when an Irish thug threatened the bar in which they work out of and had to drink in order to convince him of his intentions (even if they were false). Nate’s drinking continued throughout Season Two and we’ll see where they take this plotline in Season Three. Maybe he sobered up in jail?
4) He’s a former insurance fraud investigator. Nate once did things on the up and up. In fact, prior to the death of his son, he fought against the very people that he joined forces with in the first episode of LEVERAGE. This has led to numerous confrontations with insurance companies all over the place and given him his arch-nemesis in Sterling (a former insurance investigator himself turned INTERPOL agent who would be viewed as the good guy in any other real-world situation). Sterling has been a thorn in the side of the LEVERAGE crew for the past two seasons and chances are we’ll see him once again in Season Three.
5) He’s from Boston. While LEVERAGE is filmed in Portland, Or., in the world of the show, everything since Season Two mostly centers around the Boston area (although the crew frequently travels to other locations and even international regions). No doubt that we will continue to find the crew here and working from the bar that they have frequented as their headquarters of initial operations.
6) Nate’s father is still alive. At some point, this is going to be a major plot point and character development for Nate. We know literally nothing about his father other than the few mentions of him here and there throughout Season Two. Obviously, this is something that the writers and creators of the series are keeping in their back pocket for a major turning point. Will we see him in Season Three? Will he come to the aid of Nate when he’s in jail? We'll have to wait and see.
7) He loves Sophie. Nate and Sophie have a history, the extent of which we don’t fully know, but there has always been some sort of sexual tension between the two from the very first time they saw each other again. We know that at some point, Nate busted Sophie for her grifting, but we aren’t sure if he let her go or something else happened that brought them close together. But after denying it himself numerous times, when Sophie left the team to “find herself”, Nate definitely missed her. Very much so and in numerous episodes we see him cooing for her and eventually expressing his feeling for her. Season Two ended with a kiss and a slap between the two - something that they will have to reconcile during the course of Season Three.
8) He’s in jail. Because of being a team player, the first episode of Season Three finds Nate in prison after getting arrested at the end of Season Two in order to protect the other four members of his crew. He did this as a sacrifice because he didn’t want anyone getting in trouble for the things they did – even if most of it involves them scamming and swindling people who really deserve it. No doubt as Season Three begins, we will see more of this and what happened during his jail time as well as its affect on him and his relationship with the crew moving forward. Will they try to break him out? Will he have served his time? Will he want to get back in the game right away? We’ll have to wait to see.
9) He thought he was the good guy. Before getting involved with the other members of the LEVERAGE crew, Nate, as mentioned before, was on the other side, busting criminals and those taking advantage of others. Sure, he takes advantage of others now, but usually they are true criminals and deserve everything they get. The interesting thing here is that Nate is the one and not the other four that straddles the line between doing what’s right and just doing what’s right to get the job done. Numerous times, he’s been willing to leave someone to squalor or not save a number of orphan kids because it would mean going out of their way beyond the call of the con. It took the other members of the crew to actually realize they had to do these things or what they were doing wasn’t enough.
10) But, he's now accepted he's a thief. While he spent two seasons convincing himself he was on the right side of the law and that he was indeed the good guy, that thin line has slowly eroded away. At one point, he thought he was above his LEVERAGE crew, but by the end of Season Two, he had to come to terms that he was a common thief, just like them. Even if he's there to help the helpless get revenge on all sorts of icky bad guys, he still breaks the law to get the job done. His acceptance of who he is now, especially that he's doing time in prison (and, with all that Catholic guilt penance that's no doubt swirling around in his head), this should be a major part of how he continues to evolve throughout Season Three.