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White Collar through 2.10
Jan. 22nd, 2011 01:56 amWhite Collar, is, in essence, a buddy cop show about Neal Caffery, a career thief and conartist who becomes and FBI consultant under the care of Peter Burke, the FBI agent who arrested Neal after hunting for him for several years, and arrests Neal again when he breaks out of prison a few months before his release to look for Kate, Neal’s girlfriend of the better part of a decade, who Neal is convinced broke up with him because she’s in danger.
The show is bright and fluffy and frequently funny, with spurts of “Look! Angst!,” and pretends to be a procedural, but is really a lighthearted caper show that thinks it needs a serious metaplot to keep it going (It doesn’t, which the writers seem to realize at some point and just embrace the cheese and become all “Zomg! Conspiracy theories!”). It’s pretty much brain candy, but there’s nothing wrong with brain candy. Also, I like Neal, despite not typically caring for the “supercharming conartist” type. A lot of it, I suspect, is that, unlike most of the type, he isn’t a womanizer (I understand Matt Bomer wants him to be, and that makes me sad) and even his flirting with anything that moves seems to be more a fascination with his effect on people than any actual interest most of the time, and instead of the smug “I’m cleverer than you” attitude, he’s more disconnected from everything with an almost childlike fascination that he snaps out of when presented with An Adventure, or anything involving Kate. Being fond of Matt Bomer from Chuck also helps.
It’s definitely a “straight white guys” show but…possibly the most inoffensive version possible? These shows tend to come in two main varieties: There’re the ones that are about straight white guys because everything else is about straight white guys and it doesn’t occur to them to be any different, even when they clearly love the other characters, and then there’re the ones that are about straight white guys because straight white guys are the most awesome thing ever and no one else is as cool, and other characters are there to further them. White Collar, thankfully, is the former, which is not to say that it doesn’t have it’s share of problems.
The first season, frankly, doesn’t seem to have a clue about what to do with anyone but Neal and Peter. With one exception, this shows mostly blatantly with Natalie Morales’s character. She seems to have been cast for her ability to outzing Bomer (she can outzing anyone) but after the first couple episodes, they didn’t even have her do that. I suspect she was initially brought in as a potential love interest only to quickly decide not to do that, and so instead they…did nothing with her. Now, I think that the proper response to that is to find something else to do with her, but I can understand the decision not to bring her back for the second season. (That it makes sense for the show itself does not alter the fact that the way they went about it was appalling and unprofessional.)
The main problem, though, is Kate. Not Kate as a character, but that’s actually kind of the problem. See, I kind of…have a very deep need to be invested in Kate and suspect that, if given the chance, I would love her forever and ever. However, despite being a big part of the metaplot (actually, she basically is the metaplot) and Neal’s major motivation (can you say “ubermonomaniacal obsession, but in a most endearing and even sweet way?”) she’s had about 5 minutes screen time, total, and that’s including when we only have her voice at the other end of the phone line. Not only that, but we also know very little about her as a person. We know Neal is obsessively devoted to her, that his friend, Mozzie, likes and trusts her, despite trusting few people, and that Peter doesn’t trust her. We know she likes “the classics” when it comes to crime and plotting, but we don’t really know much of anything about her personality. We know that she is-willingly or unwillingly-involved in an elaborate scheme that involves Neal, but we’ve had absolutely nothing of her own perspective in that, including whether she’s betraying or trying to protect Neal. I mean, I think she’s protecting him, but that’s more a combination of personal preference I mean, how many stories do we get where men deceive women and try to shield them from the worst of the badness “for their own good”?) and not thinking the show would do something that devastating to Neal (sometimes, I think about 90% of his functioning largely as a “normal”-albeit criminal-member of society rests in his absolute belief that Kate is the epic love of his life and that she’s as devoted to him as he is to her) than anything remotely concrete that the show has given me to go on.
That said, season 2, IMO, does a much better job all around than season 1 in terms of having a clue what to do with anyone other than Neal and Peter, though it’s still far from perfect. (Also, given that they’re almost always filming Tiffani Thiessen from the shoulders up and she wears loose clothes when they show more of her, I’m guessing that she’s pregnant, and that’s why we’ve had less of Elizabeth this season? If not, I may have to retract some of this.) However, there are (though not all at once) seven women of recurring or regular status in the show, all but one of whom seems likely to continue to have an important presence. In addition (and this is of particular importance to me, as other shows often praised for Women Doing Things tend to lose me because of this) most of these women have things going on in their lives beyond the straight white male leads. They have careers, which they are shown to be competent in, and if they aren’t directly involved in Peter and Neal’s cases, they’re doing their own things when/if they get pulled in. They aren’t (and probably never will be) the main focus (and, though enjoyable, the show will never be a huge favorite of mine and I won’t be parading it around as “Doing It Right) but, IMO, they’re largely treated with more respect than many other shows.
I am supposed to have two videos here, but DW refuses to embed them, so you can go to LJ to see them.
Note: I also think the fridging is a fakeout.
The show is bright and fluffy and frequently funny, with spurts of “Look! Angst!,” and pretends to be a procedural, but is really a lighthearted caper show that thinks it needs a serious metaplot to keep it going (It doesn’t, which the writers seem to realize at some point and just embrace the cheese and become all “Zomg! Conspiracy theories!”). It’s pretty much brain candy, but there’s nothing wrong with brain candy. Also, I like Neal, despite not typically caring for the “supercharming conartist” type. A lot of it, I suspect, is that, unlike most of the type, he isn’t a womanizer (I understand Matt Bomer wants him to be, and that makes me sad) and even his flirting with anything that moves seems to be more a fascination with his effect on people than any actual interest most of the time, and instead of the smug “I’m cleverer than you” attitude, he’s more disconnected from everything with an almost childlike fascination that he snaps out of when presented with An Adventure, or anything involving Kate. Being fond of Matt Bomer from Chuck also helps.
It’s definitely a “straight white guys” show but…possibly the most inoffensive version possible? These shows tend to come in two main varieties: There’re the ones that are about straight white guys because everything else is about straight white guys and it doesn’t occur to them to be any different, even when they clearly love the other characters, and then there’re the ones that are about straight white guys because straight white guys are the most awesome thing ever and no one else is as cool, and other characters are there to further them. White Collar, thankfully, is the former, which is not to say that it doesn’t have it’s share of problems.
The first season, frankly, doesn’t seem to have a clue about what to do with anyone but Neal and Peter. With one exception, this shows mostly blatantly with Natalie Morales’s character. She seems to have been cast for her ability to outzing Bomer (she can outzing anyone) but after the first couple episodes, they didn’t even have her do that. I suspect she was initially brought in as a potential love interest only to quickly decide not to do that, and so instead they…did nothing with her. Now, I think that the proper response to that is to find something else to do with her, but I can understand the decision not to bring her back for the second season. (That it makes sense for the show itself does not alter the fact that the way they went about it was appalling and unprofessional.)
The main problem, though, is Kate. Not Kate as a character, but that’s actually kind of the problem. See, I kind of…have a very deep need to be invested in Kate and suspect that, if given the chance, I would love her forever and ever. However, despite being a big part of the metaplot (actually, she basically is the metaplot) and Neal’s major motivation (can you say “ubermonomaniacal obsession, but in a most endearing and even sweet way?”) she’s had about 5 minutes screen time, total, and that’s including when we only have her voice at the other end of the phone line. Not only that, but we also know very little about her as a person. We know Neal is obsessively devoted to her, that his friend, Mozzie, likes and trusts her, despite trusting few people, and that Peter doesn’t trust her. We know she likes “the classics” when it comes to crime and plotting, but we don’t really know much of anything about her personality. We know that she is-willingly or unwillingly-involved in an elaborate scheme that involves Neal, but we’ve had absolutely nothing of her own perspective in that, including whether she’s betraying or trying to protect Neal. I mean, I think she’s protecting him, but that’s more a combination of personal preference I mean, how many stories do we get where men deceive women and try to shield them from the worst of the badness “for their own good”?) and not thinking the show would do something that devastating to Neal (sometimes, I think about 90% of his functioning largely as a “normal”-albeit criminal-member of society rests in his absolute belief that Kate is the epic love of his life and that she’s as devoted to him as he is to her) than anything remotely concrete that the show has given me to go on.
That said, season 2, IMO, does a much better job all around than season 1 in terms of having a clue what to do with anyone other than Neal and Peter, though it’s still far from perfect. (Also, given that they’re almost always filming Tiffani Thiessen from the shoulders up and she wears loose clothes when they show more of her, I’m guessing that she’s pregnant, and that’s why we’ve had less of Elizabeth this season? If not, I may have to retract some of this.) However, there are (though not all at once) seven women of recurring or regular status in the show, all but one of whom seems likely to continue to have an important presence. In addition (and this is of particular importance to me, as other shows often praised for Women Doing Things tend to lose me because of this) most of these women have things going on in their lives beyond the straight white male leads. They have careers, which they are shown to be competent in, and if they aren’t directly involved in Peter and Neal’s cases, they’re doing their own things when/if they get pulled in. They aren’t (and probably never will be) the main focus (and, though enjoyable, the show will never be a huge favorite of mine and I won’t be parading it around as “Doing It Right) but, IMO, they’re largely treated with more respect than many other shows.
I am supposed to have two videos here, but DW refuses to embed them, so you can go to LJ to see them.
Note: I also think the fridging is a fakeout.