Where Personal and Professional Life Collide...

In the past 25 hours, TWO goddamned tv shows have managed to kill me with the feels, both in utterly different ways:

Supernatural, by being the most cracktastic of crazylovestupid brilliant emotional manipulation and insane plots, tied up in a ribbon of pretty,

and Person Of Interest, for LeCarre-meets-Clancy shaken not stirred with a twist of bitter lime, and some of the most awesome female characters kicking ass and taking names (and the guys will break your heart).

The similarities? A steady hand on the writing-reins, and casts that rise to the occasion fucking brilliantly.

Anyone tries to tell me that commercial television is crap? Will be sneered at.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to go weep into my pillow for a while. And try to internalize the shit they did right, so I can use it on all of you...

Deadline.com posted the news, and John Rogers confirmed it on Twitter: after five seasons, Leverage has ended its run.

I am...of mixed feelings about it. On the one hand - this is one of my top-ten-ever favorite shows, a not-guilty pleasure and a must-see tv date. Part of me wanted it to run forever. Let's go steal us a (new) network.

But part of what made Leverage so wonderful is also what makes me able to let it go, and say "yes, this is okay." Because the characters changed. They grew. They evolved. And they were starting to reach a point where the original premise no longer worked: they weren't emotional misfits held together by the sheer will of their leader and their own surprised joy in the con-for-good. They'd become functional, responsible adults, settling into their skins and their relationships. And that was lovely to watch....

But it also took some of the joyfully chaotic energy out of their scams. And - let's face it - there's only so many times you can take down [fill in the blank] and make it seem fresh and filled with potential disaster at every turn. I've been enjoying this season, but the writer-brain was constantly seeing where the threads were beginning to tie off, closure coming up in the distance. I would have been happy for a sixth season, but I would have been worried, too.

And I'd rather they go out on a high note*.


Now. How fast can we get them all working again?



*and hey, we still have the novels to come...