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Dec. 26th, 2012 09:32 pmI spent the last week having a remarkably largely painfree recovery from having my wisdom teeth extracted and chasing my nephews. (Worst pain was when my 3 year old nephew accidentally headbutted me in one of the extraction sites in the middle of an overly energetic goodbye hug.) When I wasn't having legal drug induced naps and chasing nephews, I was rewatching Miyazaki movies (a wise choice) reading the first 7 volumes of the Story of Saiunkoku manga (more like watching the anime than I expected, though not quite as in depth with the politics. I shall continue reading, and really wish the light novels were licensed. Or the second season of the anime. Anyone know if the fantranlations on the novels can be formatted for kindle?), reading Seanan McGuire's October Daye novels (excellent urban fantasy that isn't really like any other UF I've read in a lot of ways. More coming once I've run out of books) and watching the first season of Hustle, which is the main reason I'm posting.
Hustle is a British series that I believe aired its eighth and final season this year, and is about a group of con artists. They don't con For Great Justice or to help people out, but since we're meant to root for them, most of their targets are terrible human beings. The comparisons to Leverage, which came out a few years later, are inevitable, and a few of Leverage's character dynamics seem to be somewhat influenced by Hustle. Based only on the first seasons (and keeping in mind that Leverage had approximately double the screen time) Hustle's plot are a but more intricate and clever, but Leverage does a better job of focusing on all the characters and their relationships with each other, and giving all the team a chance to shine, whereas Hustle primarily focuses on the team leader, Mickey, and "the new kid," Danny, while the other three team members seem to more circle in their orbit at times. Most of Hustle team has also known each other for years and frequently worked together, so a lot of the relationships are settled by the time we meet them. (I understand the team makeup changes throughout the series, so I assume that won't always be the case.) My big hangup is that Stacie, the only female member of the team, spends a lot of time either wishing Mickey would liiiiike her more (in That way)/open up to her more, or exhibiting some internalized misogyny any time the subject of other women comes up in relation to him. I know some people had problems in the first season of Leverage with Sophie spending a lot of time worrying about Nate/trying to get him to open up, but then and now, I read that as romantic interest being secondary to Sophie's concerns about Nate's well-being, and how his mental state could affect the rest of the team, whereas Stacie seems purely motivated by jealousy/romantic frustrations.
But it's definately a lot of fun if you like heist/caper shows, and some of the plans managed to throw me for a bit of a loop with their last-second developments, and the characters are enjoyable and there are nice team/"team is family" dynamics. Also, if you are like me (and many of you are) you will frequently be distracted by Adrian Lester's amazing skin and pretty face.
Hustle is a British series that I believe aired its eighth and final season this year, and is about a group of con artists. They don't con For Great Justice or to help people out, but since we're meant to root for them, most of their targets are terrible human beings. The comparisons to Leverage, which came out a few years later, are inevitable, and a few of Leverage's character dynamics seem to be somewhat influenced by Hustle. Based only on the first seasons (and keeping in mind that Leverage had approximately double the screen time) Hustle's plot are a but more intricate and clever, but Leverage does a better job of focusing on all the characters and their relationships with each other, and giving all the team a chance to shine, whereas Hustle primarily focuses on the team leader, Mickey, and "the new kid," Danny, while the other three team members seem to more circle in their orbit at times. Most of Hustle team has also known each other for years and frequently worked together, so a lot of the relationships are settled by the time we meet them. (I understand the team makeup changes throughout the series, so I assume that won't always be the case.) My big hangup is that Stacie, the only female member of the team, spends a lot of time either wishing Mickey would liiiiike her more (in That way)/open up to her more, or exhibiting some internalized misogyny any time the subject of other women comes up in relation to him. I know some people had problems in the first season of Leverage with Sophie spending a lot of time worrying about Nate/trying to get him to open up, but then and now, I read that as romantic interest being secondary to Sophie's concerns about Nate's well-being, and how his mental state could affect the rest of the team, whereas Stacie seems purely motivated by jealousy/romantic frustrations.
But it's definately a lot of fun if you like heist/caper shows, and some of the plans managed to throw me for a bit of a loop with their last-second developments, and the characters are enjoyable and there are nice team/"team is family" dynamics. Also, if you are like me (and many of you are) you will frequently be distracted by Adrian Lester's amazing skin and pretty face.
