TNT cancels Leverage

[Enterprise is Great]

deadline.com

After dragging its decision for months, TNT has pulled the plug of drama Leverage four days before the series’ fifth season finale. The series executive producer. The news comes two weeks after Devlin announced in an open letter to fans that he and co-creator John Rogers decided to end the current Season 5 finale they way they envisioned the series would end — in case there was no Season 6. Leverage, which is independently produced by Devlin’s Electric Entertainment, has been on the bubble the past couple of years but has managed to secure last-minute renewals. The Season 5 finale is set for Christmas, December 25.

Total bummer even though the last 2 seasons were hit and miss I'll miss the show. At least I'll have the reruns and some novels to get by.

 

[bigdaddy]

They already planned this for the ending, it's not that big of a deal.

 

[Guy Gardener]

Curses! Foiled again!

 

[RJDiogenes]

That's a shame. I was never able to catch it very often, but it's a very good show with a really nice cast. Sort of a Mission: Impossible for the 21st century.

 

[MacLeod]

"If you've got a problem and no one else can help then maybe you can hire the A-Team."

Sorry wrong show, but it is sort of similiar to the theme of the A-Team just without the same level of violence.

But 5 years is a decent run for a show these days, though season 5 has yet to start to air in the UK.

 

[Lonemagpie]

Bollocks!

 

[MacLeod]

DOn't worry I'm sure it'll be replaced with some new high quality show, wait what am I saying it'll be replaced by some reality type show.

 

[Australis]

Damn. One of my favourite shows. Damn. It was a bit hit and miss over the last 2 seasons, but... damn.

 

[Sakrysta]

I'm just glad they planned an ending. I'm just now getting to Season 4 thru Netflix.

 

[Greg Cox]

And right before the books start coming out, damnit!

 

[Christopher]

I'm sorry to hear this. I only started watching the show when the stripped reruns began last year; the current season is the first (and I guess only) one I saw in first run. I was hoping for a longer run. Although it has been starting to show its age a bit, so maybe it's best to go out on a high note. (Plus I got to see my Star Trek novelist colleague Andy Mangels's cameo at the beginning of the Inception-ish dream episode they did a couple of weeks ago.)

Sort of a Mission: Impossible for the 21st century.

Yes, very much so. For all that Mission: Impossible (the series) was presented as a spy show, it was really a heist show at heart, about a team of grifters pulling scams or committing intricate thefts week after week. It's just that the networks wouldn't have tolerated a show whose protagonists were criminals, so they had to make them off-book intelligence agents pulling scams on foreign spies and terrorists and mobsters with the unofficial support of the US government.

Other than that, the main difference was that most of M:I (except for the first half of the first season, the entire fifth season, and the '88 revival) was essentially devoid of any real characterization of its core cast. The producers wanted them to be ciphers who were defined entirely by the roles they played. And because of that, team members were often interchangeable and the cast went through many changes, whereas Leverage has kept the same cast for its entire run (except during Gina Bellman's pregnancy when Jeri Ryan filled in) and focused heavily on the characters' personal lives. Which made for a much stronger, richer series.

 

[od0_ital]

Which character is leavin' so the team can continue in a sequel series, ala The Closer/Major Crimes?

 

[C.E. Evans]

Well...there goes the only reason I had to watch TNT.

 

[Davros]

They already planned this for the ending, it's not that big of a deal.

It is to those of us who wanted more seasons.

 

[Mistral]

This was cotton candy for the mind-and I'm going to go into sugar withdrawal.

 

[Lonemagpie]

And right before the books start coming out, damnit!

Which means there won't be any more...

 

[Guy Gardener]

Even if they sell really, really well?

 

[Davros]

And right before the books start coming out, damnit!

Which means there won't be any more...

Just like what happened with Star Trek.

 

[Greg Cox]

Even if they sell really, really well?

We can only hope.

In general, tie-in book lines tend to fade away after the original shows vanish, but there are several notable exceptions. Star Trek, of course, but also Doctor Who, Monk, and Murder She Wrote. I believe the Diagnosis: Murder books had a healthy afterlife as well.

And there were Dark Shadows, Columbo, and Rockford Files novels published long after the TV shows had gone off to TV Valhalla.

Heck, I picked up a new Kolchak:The Night Stalker novel at Barnes & Noble earlier this week--with Darren McGavin on the cover!

 

[Guy Gardener]

It all depends on how many 10s of pages the sex scenes with Parker and Hardison are.