Plaintext through The Ho Ho Ho Job

So, I didn't find Gone Fishin' funny, but I laughed clear through The Rashomon Job and The Ho Ho Ho Job. I'm glad there was some distance between them, though, because for how in sync Parker and Nate seemed to be in Rashomon, I spent a fair chunk of Ho Ho Ho worried that he was going to snap at her and be mean over her Christmas joy.

And even though I kinda feel like this season has been infantilizing Parker a little more than the previous two, and I don't care for that, NOBODY better take her Christmas joy. But this episode sent me looking for Leverage Christmas fic, and I found two I really liked.

Keeping Up Appearances: Parker and Hardison go to the FBI Christmas party as Agents Hagan and Thomas. Just 'cause.

He'll Hit You If You Tell Him Santa Was Here: The team is celebrating Christmas, and there's absolutely no context for why Eliot is suddenly a kid. It's not an AU where he's always been a kid; Eliot is just somehow turned into a kid with his adult mind but a few childlike tendencies. I WISH there were more context, but even without it, its still a ridiculously sweet story.

Season 2
I thought season 2 was great, even though it was super uncomfortable watching Nate go off the rails. I thought I wasn't going to care about Tara, because it seemed like she was replacing Sophie, but it didn't take long to completely buy into her.

Season 3
Much like...pretty much all the new seasons of a different show briefly featuring Aldis Hodge that Mark has watched -- there are some things I just have to accept and get past. In this case, it's HOW IS NATE NOT BEING HUNTED BY THE POLICE?! HOW IS HE TAKING JOBS?!! Sure, I read some comment threads that mentioned some commentary but it was awful weak reasoning. But, once I move past it, season three's been pretty good.

There's a theme I noticed popping up in 3.4 (Shcerherazade Job) through 3.6 (Studio Job) that didn't get much mention in review or comments. In 3.4, we get allusions to Nate's prison education. In 3.5, he busts some moves (twice) when he thinks people are about to stab him with a syringe o'death. In 3.6 he (off-screen) takes out two enormous dudes and then sits down in his chair ready to quip seemingly no worse for wear in the slightest.

Did Nate learn to kick ass in prison, and can we see more of that, please?! Even though our view of Nate's prison life didn't really seem to lend itself to turning him into a hardened fighter dude, twice now there's been talk about how prison changed him, I'd like to see that go beyond "sometimes Nate's a jerk to his team."

3.7 GONE FISHIN'
Am I the only one who didn't really think this was a funny episode? Sure, there were a couple funny moments from Eliot and Alec Bickerson but certailny not enough to sing its praises about how funny half of it is.

FANFIC
Hit me with the best fic. Gen is great, and I'm cool with Nate/Sophie and Parker/Hardison but I'm just not into shipping Eliot for some reason, which means the juggernaut Eliot/Hardison/Parker holds no interest for me. I love it when Nate works with kids (and I've read that AU where he stumbles upon kid versions of Parker and Hardison)...really, I'm just a big ol' Nate fan, so any good, in-character Nate stuff you can throw my way is appreciated.

Leverage Thread

Part of why I haven't been around lately is because I'm so far behind on TNG (my last was Unification Part One). I'm behind on TNG lately because I've finally started getting caught up on Leverage.

Plaintext talk of episodes pre-Three Card Monte Job in replies.

There are a lot of great episodes of Star Trek, but this is my favorite episode of all time. OF ALL TIME.

Picard: "I WANT TO SEE MY FATHER! TAKE ME TO SEE MY FATHER! NOW NOW NOW NOW NOW! NOW!!! -- DAD!"

Riker: **oh, what the holy shit...**

Oh, and for as much as I love it, somehow I never realized that Rene and Young Picard were played by the same person. Probably because when I had my first exposure to Family, I only wanted space-faring and adventures and had no patience for boring Picard in France stories. I have since grown.

The only thing I don't like about this episode is that horribly uncomfortable moment with O'Brien and Keiko. Not because it wasn't a great scene very befitting of what was going on, but because it was just SO UNCOMFORTABLE.

Bless these gifs. Just, bless them.

LRF, Enfpnyf. Gurer ner whfg srj guvatf shaavre gb zr guna Cvpneq'f "V jnag gb frr zl sngure! Abj, abj, abj, ABJ!!!" gnagehz sbyybjrq ol Evxre'f JGS-snpr naq njshy "Qba'g uheg zl fba!" npgvat.

V pna'g jnvg.

As expected, I haven't been able to keep up with TNG (still in early season 5 here), but there's an episode in this batch that I've been waiting for since Mark started, and I will totally jump out of order for. So excite.

Massive upvotes to your "Cas has done nothing but be penitent since releasing the Leviathans" point.

The show is the story, and this is the story they're telling. To drastically change it, is to change this season of the show, which if that's what you want to see happen after one episode, great. Glad we cleared that up, because it's not how I read your first post.

But beyond that, no. I'm not going to feed "You're trying to tell me what I"m allowed to do/think/feel!" accusations.

So, basically "don't be the show it is." Got it.