Matchett Matches Hutton Happily

By Josh Lasser on February 26, 2009 • ( 3 )

Listen, don't tell anyone this, I certainly don't want the news to get around, but I am perfectly capable of feeling sentiment. No, seriously, I am.

You see, the past two weeks, Kari Matchett was guest starring on Leverage, and it made me happy. Oh come on, don't act like you don't know why it made me happy (and, no, the answer is not that Kari Matchett is attractive — she may be, but that's neither here nor there). Wait, really, you don't know why Kari Matchett being on Leverage made me happy?

You must be new here, but don't worry, you'll catch on soon enough.

Kari Matchett being on Leverage made me happy because it represented a reunion between her and her Nero Wolfe co-star, Timothy Hutton, who of course produced Nero Wolfe, directed some of the episodes, and generally entranced this viewer with his brilliant Archie Goodwin.

As was the case due to the repertory nature of the cast on Nero Wolfe, Matchett played many a role on the show. One of them, however, will stick with me forever. In the season two premiere, “Death of a Doxy,” she played a showgirl. At one moment in the episode she comes over to Wolfe's brownstone (Wolfe does not enjoy visitors, particularly boisterously over the top ones) and has one of the most incredible entrances I've ever witnessed on television. She is loud and effervescent and her giddiness is infectious. It is a show-stopping performance and one that instantly made me into a Kari Matchett fan, so much so that I kept watching Invasion no matter how bad it got.

So, when two of my favorite actors who starred in one of my favorite shows reunite, I pay attention. Since Nero Wolfe, they both appeared in the miniseries 5ive Days To Midnight, but that was over four years ago, so if you ask me, it was time for them to get back together and do it again.

The two play against each other wonderfully, and Matchett has the ability to make all her characters pop off the television screen and into one's living room. Between that and Hutton's knack for making me love every character he puts on screen, I was just completely hooked on both parts of the two-part finale of Leverage.

Earlier in the season I was distressed that Leverage's tricks and reversal were neither tricky nor reversal-y enough. Well, they pretty much fixed that too by the end of the season. They were clever when they needed to be, and all the characters even remained interesting. Who could ask for more?

Well, me, of course. I could ask for more. I did ask for more. I do ask for more. And, we're getting more, we're getting a whole new season of the show come this summer. How spectacular is that? Hopefully Kari Matchett will be back too.