in the open space: God & culture

In “ The Second David Job ,” Nathan Ford’s crew—a group of former criminal type folks who now use their skills to get some measure of justice for those who have suffered at the hands of the unjust—is having problems figuring out how to get into a secured location. When Nate points out a way they overlooked, the crew looks at each other amazed that they didn’t see it before. Eliot Spencer: How’d we miss that? Nathan: Grifter, hitter, hacker, thief—you were all trying to solve your version of the crime instead of just solve the crime. There’s a reason we work together. I really resonated with this scene in the season finale of Leverage (which is actually one of the shows I watch that did not recently get cancelled ), a series about a group of con artists who use their skills to right wrongs perpetrated by unjust corporations and individuals. The crew split up some time before due to a failed con (due in part to the personal flaws of some of their own members). Interestingly, they s...

In “ The Miracle Job ” episode of Leverage , Father Paul (D.B. Sweeny) is about to begin a homily for his congregation--but also aimed at his old friend, Nathan Ford (Timothy Hutton), who stopped coming to church after his young son died over two years before. Throughout the episode, the two have touched on conversations about faith and God, and Father Paul aches that his friend struggles so with his faith. Father Paul: The Lord be with you. Congregation: And also with you. Father Paul: A reading from the Gospel of According to Luke. Glory to you, Lord: A man had a fig tree in his vineyard, but it did not bear fruit. So he said to the man who took care of the vineyard, “For three years, I’ve been looking for fruit on this tree, and for three years I’ve found nothing. It’s a waste of my land. Cut it down!” “Sir,” the worker replied, “leave it alone for one more year. Let me dig around it and fertilize it. If it bears fruit next year, all is well. If not, then cut it down.” The Gospe...

I miss Hustle , the BBC drama chronicling the escapades of a crew of grifters who cleverly take down and rip off only those who deserve it. Somehow, the series got off our radar; either it disappeared off our local cable channels or we somehow missed it in our transfer in cable providers. Anyway, we haven’t seen it in a long time, and that probably contributed to my draw towards TNT’s Leverage , a kind of Americanized version of Hustle about former insurance investigator Nate Ford who assembles a crew of experts in the criminal arts and turns their expertise into the righting of wrongs. Why am I drawn to shows like these? As I watched Leverage’s second episode , it dawned on me that these kinds of shows are like “justice fantasies”—the stories we play out in our heads born out of the longing we have for the righting of a wrong, which could be anything from a personal slight we received to the defeat of injustices and sufferings of others. I must admit, I definitely have them every n...