Thoughts on LEVERAGE

So I started watching LEVERAGE (thank you streaming Netflix). It's not my type of show, but I see why it's caught on with fandom, because the cast and characters are winning enough. Well, sort of; I quite like Hardison, Parker, and Eliot, and would happily watch their show, but could care less about Nate and Sophie, despite quite liking Gina Bellman. The show feels too much like TV to me -- too stagey, too formulaic, too smug and sure of itself. It doesn't have a sense of tension, which is sad because the terrific pilot did. Seriously, I know it's hard to do plots and cons and switchbacks on a weekly basis, but the pilot really felt like its own nifty animal, while the series feels like the inevitable TV knockoff. I think Livia nailed it ages ago when she said that it felt like the show jumped to happy and shiny too soon; the characters don't feel like real individuals so much as they feel like individuals whose first obligation is insuring the perpetuation of the TV series. Which, of course, they are, but it shouldn't be so transparent.