Leverage: Redemption moves to Prime Video for its leanest season yet

Leverage rules. That might not be the most in-depth assessment or critical analysis of the five-season TNT series, but that doesn’t make it any less true or valid. As one of the most sacred “procedurals that fuck,” sometimes there’s really nothing more to add. And, for the record, the continuation series Leverage: Redemption (which, honestly, is just Leverage with a colon in the title) also rules. It really is as simple as that.

In terms of what Leverage and Leverage: Redemption ruling means in a larger sense, though, the return of the latter—which is now, much like Bosch: Legacy, a true-blue Prime Video show and no longer under the defunct Freevee banner—for its third season is as good a place as any to unpack that. Essentially the eighth season of Leverage altogether, Leverage: Redemption benefits from, unfortunately, the world being a pretty terrible place. The series has yet to run out of steam when it comes to the rich and powerful cretins that the OG Leverage crew takes down. And this season, it does so with a number of actors who surprisingly didn’t guest star in the original run of the series (such as Rachael Harris, Sam Witwer, and Cedric Yarbrough, to name a few). From cryonics frauds to Tinder swindlers, Leverage: Redemption still has plenty of terrible people to con and plenty of time to allow the audience to enjoy it.

With Leverage co-creator John Rogers returning to the helm of the franchise as showrunner (having served as consulting producer for the first two seasons of Leverage: Redemption), familiarity continues to be the name of the game here. Leverage faithful always know what they’re going to get when Sophie the grifter (Gina Bellman), Hardison the hacker (Aldis Hodge), Eliot the hitter (Christian Kane), and Parker the thief (Beth Riesgraf) get together. And since the inception of Leverage: Redemption, the same goes for the inclusion of  Harry the fixer (Noah Wyle) and Breonna the maker (Aleyse Shannon).

Seemingly for that very reason—and the fact that, at 10 episodes, this is the shortest season so far—this third batch of Leverage: Redemption doesn’t get too into the nitty gritty with the individual characters as much as it did before. It’s more of an all killer, no filler season. (There’s still room for fan-favorite references and returns though.) Eliot reconnecting with his father (played by the great Keith David) is discussed throughout the season but not followed up on directly, and the same goes for Breonna’s consideration of college. The biggest continued character threads this time around, instead, come from Sophie and Parker. On Sophie’s end, there’s her renewed relationship with her INTERPOL agent step-daughter, Astrid (Alexandra Park), as well as her (and Harry’s) attempts to start dating again. As for Parker, as the character who struggles the most with change and emotional stuff, she has to come to terms with the fact that she’s in a romantic relationship with Hardison, who is very much about change.