your psa for the week

[cerusee]

You know what's awesome? Leverage. I'm at a loss as to what I like best about it: nommable Timothy Hutton, delectable Gina Bellman, the overall awesomeness of the ensemble cast, or the fact that apparently Kari Matchett is going to turn up somewhere, playing Hutton's character's ex-wife. Matchett played a variety of roles in the A&E adaptations of Nero Wolfe mysteries, including Lily Rowan, the non-exclusive and incomparable girlfriend of Archie Goodwin; Goodwin was played brilliantly by Hutton. Matchett was fantastic in all her roles, and had strong romantic and comedic chemistry with Hutton in many of her roles, particularly as Lily. If I could, I would pay for lots of movie tickets to see Hutton and Matchett paired up in romantic comedies, so just the idea of Matchett playing Nathan Ford's ex-wife makes me foam at the mouth in a good way.

Hutton is too scruffy as Ford; I liked his smartly-groomed Archie Goodwin look better. That is my only complaint so far. Oh, and also that in Netflix's Watch Instantly set-up for Leverage, it seems to be skipping around in the episodes--either it's out of chronological order or several episodes are just not available at all; I don't know which. But that's not the show's fault, it's Netflix's, so I won't hold it against them.

Comments

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

I'm still watching Nero Wolfe (or, more accurately, Netflix hasn't sent me any new ones for about 2 weeks) and I have, sadly, already seen all of Lily Rowan's appearances. (But not, as far as I know, Kari Matchett's.) I'm amazed at how strongly developed a character she is for about 7 minutes of screen time. Though the biggest testament to her character is likely the fact that Wolfe seems to actually LIKE her. And Wolfe doesn't like anyone. Even Archie. He may like Fritz, but only because Fritz feeds him. (Actually, Wolfe's investment in Lily and Archie's relationship cracks me up.)

[cerusee.livejournal.com]

I think my favorite Kari Matchett role is as the farmer's daughter in "Murder is Corny"--that was the one I watched and then thought, good god, it doesn't matter who's playing what, these two would be fabulous playing off against each other in anything.

In the books, Wolfe's opinion of Lily varies from book to book and story to story depending on how many interactions he's had with her. She always gets on his nerves (and so does Archie), but she does a couple of big favors for him, one pertaining to food, and he develops respect for her after that. Wolfe's opinions about Archie and women are just hilarious in general.

I still haven't read the book that introduces Lily and probably does the most to establish her characterization, but I love the way she appears or is referred to in story after story--as this intelligent, spirited, independent woman that Archie often spends time with; the relationship is fun, sexy, romantic, and based on mutual respect and liking between two very strong, mature personalities. Because it's non-exclusive, jealousy rarely comes up between them, and when it does, it's pretty endearing--"Wow, I liked you even more than I realized"--instead of off-putting.

I think Wolfe likes Archie, but sort of the way you like a family member who has a very different personality from you. You love or need them more than you like them; you like them, but if it weren't for the pre-existing relationship (functional, rather than familial--Wolfe depends heavily on Archie, to the point of finding life without Archie intolerable; and both of them know this and even occasionally say so), the liking would not be enough to sustain any kind of a friendship.

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

*nod*

As you've read the books and (it seems) seen the whole series (as opposed to my roughly 2/3s of the series and no books) I suspect yours is the more accurate take. What I find interesting is how Wolfe seems to have some degree of investment in Archie's relationship with Lily.

And Lily is extremely impressive in that (in what I've seen) she has such a strongly developed pressence and personality in about 5 minutes of screentime and a few mentions.

I think the part where I really fell for Kari Matchett was when she played the crazy widow. And I agree about the farmer's daughter (which I think is the last episode I've seen).

ETA: And unrelated, but I only just realized that your icon is Daniel and Vala, not John and Aeryn. Ben Browder and Michael Shanks simultaneously look exactly and nothing alike, to me. That one line of Vala's when she meets Cameron about Earth having an interesting but limited selection of men was pretty spot on.

[cerusee.livejournal.com]

Oh yeah, the crazy widow was a good one. And heh, yeah, I know exactly what you mean. I really, REALLY like looking at Michael Shanks, and have plenty of practice at it, but I sometimes look at a picture of one or the other that doesn't have any good external cues, and have trouble figuring out whether it's Shanks or Browder. It's amazing.