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Fandom Heartbreak I never thought saying goodbye to a television show would be as hard as saying goodbye to an old friend. But that is what I actually felt when Leverage was cancelled after 5 seasons. Yes, we should all be thankful that the show had 77 great episodes or that the show was even thought of (by the creative minds of Dean Devlin, John Rogers and Chris Downey). This series is the only series apart from NCIS wherein I was able to watch all episodes, from pilot to series finale. I admit that I got lost in the flow somewhere in the middle of the 3rd season due to unforeseen circumstances. But luckily one day, I saw Leverage’s facebook status update and I remembered..”yeah…whatever happened to this show?” Then, I did my homework and caught up with the show and just when I got caught up with it, the show got cancelled. I, along with other devoted fans of Leverage are still fighting for the show and trying to help another network pick it up. It is a long shot but it is still worth trying. After being so emotionally invested in a show, we are not just going to throw in the towel easily. I just want to do something as long as something can still be done. If everything fails, then at least we could all tell ourselves that we all did our best.

I don’t know what Leverage has done to me but I haven’t been so dedicated to a show this way before. But I don’t regret it because the show allows me to escape from reality for 40 mins and just sit back, relax, laugh and cry (the cry part is for the epic finale). When I was doing the Leverage marathons to catch up with the show, I immediately found the reason why I loved it way back in 2009 (in my case, as I live in the Philippines) when it was first shown in our cable tv. The cast has amazing chemistry that cannot be faked because they genuinely (not generally..as Tim Hutton corrected ;) ) like each other. The writing was fresh, funny, witty and yet has the right amount of drama to hook anyone up. As the cast and crew has always said, it is a fun train and it surely was one hell of a ride. For me, I got introduced to the talented Gina Bellman, Beth Riesgraf, Christian Kane and Aldis Hodge. And as for Tim Hutton, the show allowed me to rediscover this truly amazing actor, plus I got to see Tim’s comedic side which is probably as good as his well known dramatic side. And because the Leverage Cast and crew were ever so generous to the fans by allowing us to interact with them directly thru twitter and blogs and podcasts, we all felt like we were also part of this Leverage Family.

The characters of Nate, Sophie, Parker, Eliot and Hardison became real to us like they were our friends. As we all grew up in our own lives for 5 years, these characters also grew up in the Leverage-verse and we were able to witness how they became one family from a bunch of strangers. And I was just so happy for Nate and Sophie who finally had their happy ending while the “kids”, Parker, Hardison and Eliot, got the blessing from the “parents” that they are now ready to run the crew by themselves.

That is why saying goodbye to the show was just as painful as saying goodbye to a great friend. But I guess, I would have to quote my favorite athlete who himself retired this year (which broke my heart as well). Michael Schumacher has always said during his retirement that it is better to say goodbye now, when people are still asking why and wanting for more, rather than say goodbye when people are already telling you that it is indeed time to go. For me, Leverage has become a classic series that was a fresh breath from the barrage of reality and crime shows that it was shown with. If this indeed is the end of the road, at least it went out when it was still being wanted by its fans. And the ratings for the series finale were great, enabling them to go out on a high, with their heads held up.

I’ll end this with the tweet I sent to the Leverage Family right after the cancellation news.

Thank you Dean, John, Chris, Tim, Gina, Beth, Aldis and Christian. You guys are the best. #Leverage Posted by tet at 6:26 PM