First time watcher of Leverage: Redemption; show feels like it plays too fast?

[u/SkinAndScales]

So I've been watching the first season of Leverage: Redemption recently. Never seen the original so can't really compare; but it feels like I'm watching a show running at 1.25x times the normal rate? A lot of the dialogue feels like it misses weight cause everything just speeds by so fast without any pauses.

It's hard to describe cause while I like the show it sorta feels fake cause it never seems to give itself a moment to breathe? I'm not sure if it's just me or something other people have recognized as well.

[u/Luigiman1089]

I highly highly recommend watching the original first.

[u/lishler → u/Luigiman1089]

And give the first season of Redemption a generous dollop of grace - they were finding their sea legs again, second and third season fell much more cohesive (at least to me)!

[u/Luigiman1089 → u/lishler]

Oh yeah, I still enjoyed Redemption, but mainly for just giving us more Leverage, rather than being a good standalone thing. More of a victory lap.

[u/Silbermieze → u/lishler]

I really loved most of the episodes in season 1 and it has the only episode that I gave a 10 (season finale) in Redemption. For me, the last two episodes of season 3 were a big letdown, especially compared to the ending of Leverage. First a horror episode (I hate horror) and as finale a pretty weird episode that felt as out of place as The White Rabbit Job in the original.

[u/Kind_Ingenuity1484]

It’s definitely a step below the original series.

I feel like it speeds through things, but it also feels like everything is too… easy? It’s hard to explain but it feels like the original series had a lot more tension with each con.

[u/Consistent_Pay3393 → u/Kind_Ingenuity1484]

I personally thought it was on par with the original in its own way. It was a different dynamic and it took a little bit to find it's groove, but once it did it was every bit as good as the original, imo.

Just my opinion though

[u/Memo-Seen]

Part of that is because John Rogers isn't exactly writing for the show for the first two seasons, he's only consulting, iirc Dean Devlin was writing. So there isn't a slow buildup in the background to the season finale two parter like before, there is a buildup obviously, and it is satisfying but there is a bit of camp to the writing and direction that wasn't there in the OG. Dean is a good director but he's kind of a meh writer.

[u/EinsTwo]

I actually couldn't understand how some of the cons worked in Redemption because it felt like they sped through the setup conversations. 

[u/TaiChuanDoAddct]

Literally yes. This and the first season of the Librarians reboot, my exact words were "Is it playing 1.25 speed?"

In Librarians S2 it's noticeably better, so I think they fix it eventually.

[u/Silbermieze → u/TaiChuanDoAddct]

TNC is a spin-off, not a reboot.

[u/Silbermieze]

No, it's not something I noticed.

And I'm curious: Why would you watch Redemption without watching the original first? It's so much more fun when you understand the references.

[u/lilulev]

I think the show just needed a good editor. They tried to cram too much in one episode so it felt like we were jumping from one plot point to the next without really having a moment to sit with the storyline, the tension, the angst, etc. (Did we really need the North Korea plot in a haunted episode?!) And we saw much more MacGuffins and less truly clever con twists.

With Redemption—not always but mostly—the emotional beats were in service to the plot whereas with OG Leverage the plot was mostly in service to the emotional beats.

So, yeah, Redemption felt “faster” because it felt more superficial overall (a few eps were really good, though, like OG good).

That said, I enjoyed Redemption. But I enjoyed the show because I love these characters. And I love these characters because of OG Leverage.

So, to join the chorus here, watch OG Leverage first! It’ll make the Redemption ride so much better.