listen. there’s nothing “boring” about ships that are stable and built on mutual trust and respect. there can be angst and drama and all those juicy bits without the characters being absolutely abysmal to each other all the damn time
concept: a TV show runs for a decent number of years. More than four. The characterizations stay consistent. The writers don’t do anything wildly inappropriate like excuse rape or abuse. No one you’ve invested hours upon hours of your life into has their story reduced to a “shocking” death scene that has no meaning beyond that shock value. The quality of the storylines don’t take a sudden, strange spiral downward. When it ends, you leave it feeling bittersweet. Sad that it’s over, but glad you got to experience it and take a journey with some people who you came to care about.
Leverage.
You are thinking of the show Leverage.
Concept: four criminals (hacker, hitter, grifter, thief) and an honest man (an ex-insurance investigator, and the mastermind of the group) band together and pull Robin Hood-esque cons on rich people and corporations who take advantage of middle and lower class people.
Run time: five seasons.
Gorgeous development of the five main characters, two women and three men. One of the women is in her forties and acknowledged as crushingly beautiful by literally everyone and brilliant with people. The other one is in her twenties and Word of God (the creators) says that she’s on the autism spectrum and she’s insanely talented and you will adore her because she is adorable. One of the men is an ex-military ‘retrieval specialist’ who low-key just wants to cook and protect his people and will honestly murder you if you hurt a kid. The resident computer genius is, direct quote, “a 24-year-old with a smartphone and a problem with authority.” Also he’s black and the racism issue is brought up when their marks are rude to him. He’s literally a tol puppy who just wants to play with his toys and his friends. The dude in charge is just flat-out brilliant and kind of an asshole and kind of a mess and it’s hard not to like him.
Anyone who tries any shit with the women pays immediately and dramatically–one dude straight gets stabbed with a fork when he comes onto the younger one (Parker), and she vaults out a window. She’s my hero. One of the men, Eliot, is an acknowledged womanizer and he treats every woman he sleeps with like a queen and is ready to fuck you up if you even kind of insult any of them. Also, he is canonically great in bed and all of the women are totally good with the one-night-stand thing. The other woman, Sophie, uses her sexuality like a finely-tuned instrument when she’s conning people, and she’s never judged for it.
All of the main characters are treated amazingly well. Parker’s backstory is acknowledged to include child abuse in foster homes, and she’s never treated as broken or crazy (the closest anyone comes is that two of the others affectionately call her crazy when she does death-defying stunts). The mastermind–Nate–got into this shit after his son was diagnosed with cancer and his very wealthy insurance refused to pay for his treatment, leading to the son’s death. His grief, and the alcoholism he fell into as a result, is handled with a grace and gentleness that breaks my heart every time. All of them have complex backstories and relationships and identities–Sophie, who uses about a billion aliases, has a whole plot about having to figure out who she is under all her fake identities.
The stories are as glorious and thrilling in the fifth season as they are in the first–in fact, I would say the fifth season might actually be the best. There are two interracial relationships canonically onscreen for quite some time (Sophie/Nate, Parker/Hardison), and Word of God states that the popular OT3 Parker/Hardison/Eliot is confirmed by the events of the final episode.
The only complaint I have about this show is that it’s not longer.
concept: a TV show runs for a decent number of years. More than four. The characterizations stay consistent. The writers don’t do anything wildly inappropriate like excuse rape or abuse. No one you’ve invested hours upon hours of your life into has their story reduced to a “shocking” death scene that has no meaning beyond that shock value. The quality of the storylines don’t take a sudden, strange spiral downward. When it ends, you leave it feeling bittersweet. Sad that it’s over, but glad you got to experience it and take a journey with some people who you came to care about.
Crowley: Aziraphale, I have to say – of all the deceitful, unprincipled, corrupt things I’ve done in my entire life, nothing is as bad as… Aziraphale: Politics. Crowley: I can’t even say it.
I always love that Eliot is like, “Listen Nate, this is a shit idea. It’s going to go horribly wrong. We’re all going to end up in jail or dead. But if you’re really set on doing this then I’ve got your back because that’s my job.”
it just gives me warm fuzzy feelings whenever Eliot is protective of his crew, even when they’re making potentially shit decisions (which is usually just Nate tbh)
Would the chicken be the leader or the violent loose cannon who wants to be the leader but grudgingly knows goat is better suited to the role
Bull is a gentle giant who will kick the ass of anyone who endangers their friends, alpaca is wise and has many stories to share
In a great twist, the sheep is actually the leader.
They look like a very commanding sheep…
I would definitely agree that the sheep is the leader. The chicken is mostly there to cook up crazy distractions. The bull is the quiet one who just gets stuff done. Goat’s dragged into chicken’s antics, and acts like he hates that when really he loves chicken’s crazy schemes. Alpaca is the group’s conscience.
