By Dean Robbins

Have the ‘Leverage’ con artists met their match?

“Leverage” is “Mission: Impossible” with a sense of humor about itself. In every episode, Timothy Hutton’s gang of thieves and hackers pull off a difficult task to help some underdog.

The gang members are crooks with hearts of gold. The show’s producers get credit for being good guys, too, since they offer a rare new episode (Sunday, 8 p.m., TNT) amid all the repeats of Christmas week.

If you thought one group of con artists was fun, try two. Our heroes must foil a black widow named Meredith, who’s orchestrating an elaborate grift on wealthy bachelors with a female crew. Hutton’s Nate has to make her think she’s getting the better of him.

“As good as you are, you’re not nearly as good as you think you are,” Meredith tells him.
Well, yes he is. Nate cons her out of business, making her regret that she ever met him.

He also cons us out of another hour of our time, but we don’t regret it in the slightest.

‘Call of the Wildman’

Sunday, 9 p.m. (Animal Planet)

This reality series follows the adventures of gap-toothed Ernie Brown Jr., who makes his living solving wild-animal problems in backwoods Kentucky for about $50 a pop. With his habit of catching dangerous snapping turtles and snakes with his bare hands, kissing the critters on the mouth, and shrieking “Yi yi yi yi yi,” Brown astonishes even his roughhewn neighbors. “Ernie is a whole different critter,” says one. “I’ve never seen anybody like him.”

I’ll second that emotion. Brown is known locally as the Turtle Man, but he might as well be called the Man Turtle since he often seems more beast than human. I wouldn’t be surprised to see a spin-off series where he moves in with some of those animals he kisses so passionately. CV