This most recent season of Leverage had its rocky moments, but the two-part finale was brilliant. Written by series co-creator John Rogers and directed by his co-exec producer Dean Devlin, it showed both their talent and the care they have for the material.

The season finale also brought home for me one of the reasons I enjoy the structure of Leverage, why its stories settle into the mind so comfortably. I think it is because the plots operate on a purely strategic level.

The plot development in Leverage is all about the big picture, the master plan. That’s because the show has quietly but firmly established that each member of Ford’s outlaw band is the best in the world at his or her specialty. There is no doubt that when it comes to a fight Eliot the Hitter will win against anything less than an armor division. If something needs to be stolen or a building to be infiltrated, Parker the Thief will get it done. If the team needs to access a secret computer system, gather classified data or perform any other technological trickery, Hardison the Hacker will succeed. If they need to sell a bad guy on a false identity or a fake business deal, the mark will believe thanks to Sophie the Grifter (or in this season her temporary replacement Tara, played by Jeri Ryan filling in while Gina Bellman (Sophie) is on maternity leave. OK, so those two are co-best-in-the-world.)

There are some close calls, and on occasion it may look like someone else is getting the upper hand as Elliot takes a bad punch or Hardison gets out-hacked. But these setbacks always turn out to be fleeting, partial and/or part of the scam.

You might think that this would rob the show of its excitement. If the good guys will always win, where’s the drama? Where’s the suspense?

Well, that’s the catch: even though each member will always win his or her brand of challenge, that doesn’t mean that the team will always succeed in its mission.

In order to succeed, the team needs strategy. They need a master plan to ensure that they steal the right thing at the right time, that they craft just the right con or hack for the job, and that if there’s fighting to be done it happens exactly when and where they need it to.

This of course is the role of the Mastermind, Nate Ford. The pressure is on Ford to make sure each job unfolds the way it should. The show’s most suspenseful moments arise when Nate’s plans go off course, either because of some surprise or because of some distraction such as his ex wife or his alcoholism.

This allows Timothy Hutton to shine, even while his generosity as an actor allows the rest of the cast to do great work with their clever, quirky parts.

The structure reminds me a lot of the Amber Diceless Roleplaying Game, a tabletop RPG based on Roger Zelazny’s Chronicles of Amber. Unlike most table top games, Amber does not rely on dice to determine the outcome of a conflict. Instead characters are ranked on attributes such as strength and magical power, and in a fair fight the character with the higher rank in the relevant attribute will win. This attracts players who are more interested in role playing and story development than war-game tactics, and has lead to long continuing games with intricate plots and intriguing characters.

Similarly, for a series that often has a light tone, Leverage offers some great characters and great character development. Their skills may not be in question, but they all find ways to grow. One of the pleasures of the show is watching bad guys learn the joy of being good guys.

(Sadly the Amber Diceless RPG is out of print, but used copies are available.)

When I first heard of Life I was not especially interested. I’m not all that big on cop shows. Then I heard it involved a detective who had survived 12 years of wrongful imprisonment by adopting and practicing Zen Buddhism. This made me really determined to avoid it. I expected yet another half-baked pop culture abuse of the word and concept of “zen.” Something like “Zen and the art of homicide investigation” to go along with Zen and the Art of Vampires or Zen and the Art of Steel Boat Building.

Then I happened to see a bit of the show while Darling Wife was watching, and after a few minutes I realized this was something special. The characters are interesting, original and cleverly written. The performances are sharp and brilliant, not only from stars Damian Lewis and Sarah Shahi, but also from a great supporting cast including Brent Sexton, Adam Arkin and (new in 2008) Donal Logue. It’s also well shot, with camera work and editing that increases the drama and enhances the storytelling but never distracts.

And then there’s the music. Life makes excellent use of some incredibly good music, with selection and placement of songs that truly serve the story. Comments by Rand Ravich, the show’s executive producer, to Vanity Fair last year highlight how carefully the music is selected, and the importance of music to the show’s style. I’ve discovered a number of new artists and purchased a number of songs and albums because of tracks that I heard on Life, including great songs like Down Boy by Yeah Yeah Yeahs and Little Toy Gun by honeyhoney

If you’ve never seen Life, I wish I could suggest that you take a look at some recent episodes on hulu.com — a site that offers free streaming episiodes of programs from NBC and other networks.

I also wish I could recommend that you buy the first season on DVD. Hell, I’ve even been known to drop an Amazon affilitate link from time to time — solely for your convenience, you understand, dear reader.

Sadly, I can’t do that. Sure, the first season has been released on DVD, and Hulu has the last few episodes. But I won’t suggest that you go watch them. To do so would be to steer you toward a diminished, bastardized product that does not well represent the production I came to enjoy so much.

In the version of Life available on Hulu, and on DVD, the songs that were so important to the original production are replaced with bland, generic-sounding stand-ins. It sounds like some effort has been made to provide a vaguely similar sound, but generally the effect is just sad.

I suspect the reason is that it is less expensive for NBC to use the inferior replacements in the online and DVD versions than to use the music originally selected by the show’s creators. I have no doubt that the replacement songs are cheaper, considering how much they cheapen the impression made by the show.

This all leads me to think that someone is being stupid.

Maybe the artists or the record companies holding the rights to the original songs are being stupid by refusing to license them for use online and on DVD. Or may be they are just being stupid by holding out for an unreasonable amount of money for the additional use. It seems to me that they are throwing away a great opportunity for exposure and marketing. I doubt I’m the only person who has purchased music specifically because it appeared on Life or another series. And I don’t see what the rights holders are possibly risking by allowing the use of the songs. I do not believe anyone who might otherwise buy a song would decide not to buy it because they can hear a part of it on a DVD or an online TV show.

Or maybe NBC is being stupid by refusing to pay a reasonable license fee to use the songs on DVDs and online. They may be saving a little money, but at the cost of unhappy fans, diminished DVD sales and an inferior product to showcase on Hulu.

Of course it’s also possible that all parties involved are being stupid, by refusing to negotiate reasonable licensing terms. It seems to me there may be plenty of stupid to go around. I just don’t see how the end result is good for anyone.

So here’s what I do now, with regard to Life:

• I watch every episode on Tivo, skipping commercials as I am wont to do.
• If an episode is especially good, I keep it for future viewing.
• I purchase music and discover new bands based on what I hear on the show. I’ll happily keep doing so, if the music on the broadcast continues to be as amazingly good as it has been.
• I will NOT watch the butchered episodes on NBC.com or Hulu — which, by the way, have non-skippable ads I would actually sit through.
• I will NOT buy the DVDs, because they don’t really contain the program that I so admire.

Good luck with that model, NBC. The outlets that would actually get people to view commercials, lay out hard cash, and forego unauthorized distribution channels are being saddled with inferior content. If people do find another way to get copies of the excellent, original versions of the episodes, it will probably be be from a source that provides no compensation to the show’s creators. And that’s just stupid.