‘Leverage’ season 5: Christmas episode may serve as series finale

When it comes to making sure that your fans get the proper conclusion they so deserve, we have to give a lot of credit at the very moment to “Leverage” co-creators Dana Devlin and John Rogers. After all, these two could have easily decided to just sit around and wait to figure out whether or not TNT was going to pick up their show for a sixth season; however, they instead seemed to have seen some sort of writing on the wall, and opted instead to set up their season 5 finale as though it will be the last of the show’s run. (This episode airs on Christmas Day, which is a pretty rare move for American TV shows to do given that many people are often with friends and families.)

The showrunners first confirmed this news in an open letter to fans, where they did their best to explain the circumstances surrounding their decision at the moment, along with their desire to give the series a proper end if TNT decides not to order any more:

“As of the writing of this letter, we still do not know if there will be a season six of our show. Just as we didn’t know when we created the last three episodes which are about to air. Because of this uncertainty, John Rogers and I decided to end this season with the episode we had planned to make to end the series, way back when we shot the pilot. So, the episode that will air on Christmas is, in fact, the series finale we had always envisioned.

“This is not to say we would not do a season six should we get the opportunity. Everyone involved with the show, from the cast, the crew, the writers and producers, would like nothing more than that.”

Of course, the unfortunately part about this letter is that the “Leverage” team has lost their leverage now in getting another season to air, which is a move in opposition to what such shows like “Chuck” have done or “Community” season 4 is planning to do, where they create such a massive cliffhanger that it almost forces the network to renew or face a huge backlash from fans. (Granted, they may have known their renewal odds were slim in this situation.)

If you want to see what TNT has down the pipeline that could doom the future of this show, you can check it out over at the link here.

Photo: TNT