Closing Time with Leverage

One of my favorite parts about most events around Los Angeles centers on the fact that the creative teams stick around to talk if you show interest in what they’re talking about. Panels are great, but personal conversations add something else to the experience all together.

Monday night, I went with one friend to see today’s second season premiere of Leverage at Cinespace in Hollywood. Unlike some of the other events TNT has been sponsoring around the country, those lucky enough to be in LA were graced with the pleasure of the writer staff, including executive producers Dean Devlin, Chris Downey and John Rogers, who answered some questions after the episode aired. (BethAnne’s post mentioned a Skype conversation, but I think live is better.)

The questions ranged from the more technical to the more entertaining. The first question talked about the technical advisor, and how well he’s taught the cast to pull off picking pockets. John Rodgers proudly talked about Beth Riesgraf’s pulling out a 300 page-document from an episode last season. This season we’re also going to see the crew work with magic, which was also advised by their technical advisor.

Geeky questions immerged after those two questions, with one fan asking about Will Wheaton’s appearance this season (the seventh episode), which devolved into a story about how Dean Devlin was chastised by the producers of Star Trek: The Next Generation after Will was hit in the face with a hockey puck when the two of them played together in the 1990s. I managed to get in one question, asking about the Doctor Who references in the show. While answering the question, Rogers went on to say that Hardison (played by Aldis Hodge) might make a few Torchwood references this season.

All of those geeky references played in later, as my friend and I had a sort of extended conversation with Rogers about the upcoming season of Torchwood, which lead to the two of us talking to co-producer Amy Berg about some more Who-related things. Eventually John came over too, and we kept a conversation going for another hour, while also meeting some of the TNT executives.

The writers were truly engaging, and we had wide ranging conversations (including Virtuality, how amazing Jane Lynch is) and others. Because I know John has a Google alert set up, I’ll say “Hello” again, and thanks for a wonderful evening. It was truly fun to close out the Cinespace with you all.

One last thing, because I know Dean would love this, please remember to both watch Leverage tonight at 9 PM Eastern, 8 PM Central, and don’t forget the season one DVDs are available now.