Hello everyone! So, I had an idea recently that I wanted to share. So as you may know, I am a huge fan of the show “Leverage”. Well, the main idea of the show is how bad guys become the good guys. The movie “Suicide Squad” also delves into this format with the villain’s saving the day. Now, in my opinion, Suicide Squad was the bad version of this trope, Leverage is the good version of this trope. In this blog, I am going to explain why.
First, “Leverage”. So, as I’ve said on this blog before, the main idea of Leverage is a group of 5 thieves becomes Robin Hoods, stealing from the rich and powerful and giving back to the people they hurt. Now, all of these characters are “bad guys”. They all have done bad things. Hacker Alec Hardison hacked companies and stole money and ruined people. Thief Parker never hurt anyone. Grifter Sophie Deveraux stole paintings from rich guys who could afford it. Mastermind Nate Ford got items back for his insurance company. But Hitter Eliot Spencer has hurt people. Killed people in the name of his country and his greed. And he is the one who has blood in his ledger. But these people all hurt people in one way or another. And they want to change. It’s clear from the pilot episode “The Nigerian Job” that they liked working together. They want to change. Hardison wants a chance to use his skills to help people. Parker wants to learn new skills. Eliot has a need to be apart of a team and to protect Nate and the team. Nate wants to get revenge on every bad guy. Sophie wants the payoff and to work with Nate. But as the show progresses, there’s multiple times when the characters could’ve split. The ending of season 1, when they literally walk away, then stop. The ending of season 2 when Nate goes to prison. The ending of season 3 when they finally take down Damien Moreau and they are free. Ending of season 4 when they take down Latimer and Dubenich. The ending of season 5 could be considered when the team split up. But they don’t go their separate ways entirely. After completing one last big job, in fact the biggest job they’ve ever done, Nate and Sophie leave to retire after Nate proposes to Sophie. Parker, Hardison, and Eliot make promises to carry on the family business. Because that’s what they’d become. Family. In terms of character motivations, they change because of love. While the type of love varies for each relationship, and what you ship on the show, it’s obvious that they became a family and changed because they care about one another. Nate becomes less of a bastard once he realized he can love Sophie. Sophie becomes more confident in herself when she and Nate get together. Eliot becomes more vulnerable with himself and let’s go of the guilt he has from the things he did when he learns to love Hardison and Parker. Hardison becomes less cocky and more open when he loves Parker and Eliot. And Parker learns what it means to be human and to love from Eliot and Hardison. Each character has different motivations and it’s clear each character is not the same person they were in the beginning at the end. I love the show, and these characters are the best developed I’ve seen.
Now, “Suicide Squad”. Now, this move follows DC villains as they save the world from Enchantress. Each squad member is in prison, multiple life sentences. And Amanda Walker offers them really nothing that they want if I remember correctly. She doesn’t offer reduced sentences, she dangles Deadshot’s daughter as a pawn. So there’s no real reason for these characters to 1.) work together and 2.) agree to work for Walker. She basically says “you don’t cooperate, and you die”. And the only reason they decide to stop Enchantress is so they can use that to make offers. The characters don’t change, they just do this because they’re told to. To me, if you’re going to have character motivation to change, make sure they change either how they think or what they’re motivated by. Each character ends back up in prison, besides Harley, but that’s because Joker breaks her out of prison. And there’s no pay off for having these characters risk their lives. If anything, Walker is the one who comes out on top because she got her job done. Which to me that whole idea was off because why not use Batman or a number of good guys that she can rely on? She can’t trust these villains. These guys aren’t just thieves, they’re murderers.
Now to be fair, the thieves of Leverage do the first job together to get paid. That turns into this itch and they get closer to each other. They began to love. The villians in DC don’t get paid, they get threatened. Now I’m all for a redemption story. Leverage did it beautifully, and did it even better in the revival “Leverage: Redemption”. But Suicide Squad didn’t feel like a redemption story it could’ve been.
I want to point out that this is my opinion, and all opinions are valid. And I am no means a professional film critic. I am just a lover of film that analyzes the hell out of everything. Stay tuned for more and comment your ideas for more blogs!
Kaylee
Kaylee Santell's Acting Page and Blog 