You know how generally some shows aspire to greatness or at least very goodness, and other shows are kind of bad and have trouble pulling it together, and some shows are in the middle -- as good as they need to be for casual entertainment?

I keep thinking that Leverage should sit squarely in the middle, and from the episodes that I've seen, sometimes it does. But much too often, it slips into bad -- or falls distractingly short of good enough -- where it really doesn't need to. It's frustrating, because it feels so close to "as good as it needs to be" but can't quite consistently get there.

I might have mentioned this before, but while I'm at it -- I love Aldis Hodge's Hardison, but I vaguely wish he were on one of those first category shows that have higher aspirations. Because as long as he's on Leverage, he can pretty much coast on his charm and charisma in the role. And Gina Bellman, who was so great in Jekyll, really needs better material than she's been getting here as Sophie.