Christmas With Dave Foley #9: Leverage "The Ho Ho Ho Job"

Dave guest-starred on a lot of TV, so it's not much of a surprise when he pops up during the most wonderful time of the year. This is a Christmas episode of Leverage, a show I've seen most of and enjoyed.

This one sees the team helping out a mall Santa who's been framed, and fired from his beloved job. Turns out the mall is hemorrhaging money, and the manager has brought in new, thuggish Santas to rob the joint on Christmas Eve. (Willie Soke would be so proud.)

Dave is that manager, and while the team races to foil the evil plan, they realize an old nemesis (hi, Wil Wheaton!) is behind the grinchy plot. Dave spends most of the episode in a nice character turn, whacked out on morphine and determined to redeem himself.

While Eliot gets a lot of time undercover as Santa (the whole episode builds up to a big five-way Santa fight), this episode belongs to Parker. I've forgotten how much I enjoyed her character in particular. She dances, speaks in an elf voice, and decorates the office Christmas tree with millions of dollars in stolen jewelry. (Plus, I love the idea that Hardison might actually have hacked the weather so she can get her snow.)

This episode also makes a handful of jolly references: Die Hard, Kill Bill, Back To The Future, and the writers even named Dave's character Eben (Santa suspects it's short for "Ebenezer").

Sometimes it's a bad idea to watch too much Christmas TV -- I'm reminded of how much I enjoyed certain shows, and want to see more again. But I'm so behind, and I've still got four more Dave Foley days to go (and big plans for January). I liked Leverage: it was mostly good fun, a light-touch wish-fulfillment show with heist-con elements. It hit a lot of my favorite entertainment buttons.

As a Christmas episode, I rate this 9/10: All the characters, and the plot, are motivated by Christmas. Sometimes a Christmas episode doesn't have much Christmas in it, but this one is wall-to-wall merry. The gift exchange at the end is a series of perfect character moments.
As an episode of Leverage, I rate this 7/10: I recall episodes I enjoyed more, with stories that reached higher levels of genre fun. But the whole team is in good form, and Parker was always my favorite character.
As a spotlight for Dave, I rate this 7/10. His character journey may not be new or innovative, but I think I mentioned how fun it is to see him enjoying so much morphine.