aelfgyfu_mead (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
aelfgyfu_mead) wrote2023-08-21 07:54 pm
aelfgyfu_mead) wrote2023-08-21 07:54 pm
Entry tags:
White Collar rewatch
Remember this?
That seems to be the first trailer for White Collar! They appear to have made it entirely from the pilot/premiere.
I loved that show even while I felt I shouldn't. I loved the cast. I loved the characters. A few months ago, when the kinds of fics I read in the fandoms I liked seemed to be drying up, I thought I'd look back. Some of you have noticed, because I've been commenting on your fics from a decade ago or more! (Some of which I read before, and I don't seem to have commented much—or I read it somewhere other than AO3 the first time? That's more likely.)
I'm back into White Collar, and I still don't know why. The cast is mostly beautiful (Willie Garson is not beautiful, ok?). I love the characters. I hate some of the things they do.
Everyone looks so young! Except June, who is ageless. I don't go back and rewatch a lot of shows, especially ones about which I'm so ambivalent, so it's a weird experience. I have Many Thoughts.
Surprises:
I did not remember what a jerk Peter is. Of course I remembered "Cowboy up" and the frequent threats to throw Neal back in prison, with varying degrees of seriousness. I did not remember him reaming his entire team when the safety deposit box blows up! And he shouts "Wait!" too late for the poor guy cracking it. Then he gets mad at everyone else. "How many of you went to Harvard? No, don't raise your hands." A few minutes later, he's off to the superman from which Neal escaped and saying something like (I can't remember the exact quotation, "Oh, you're the one who let him escape." He is, of course, frequently mean to Neal.
Neal doesn't get the women of the White Collar Division at first. He's shockingly clueless for a successful conman and a gorgeous flirt! Peter calls him on flirting with Diana; Neal points out that she likes the hat, but he clearly thinks she's into him. "She wants to wear the hat," Peter tells him. It takes him a surprisingly long moment to catch on to that—maybe because the writers felt they needed to leave time for the audience that long ago and not because they think Neal has so little concept of lesbians? But then he says later that he thought the FBI had "rules against that." Peter has another great line: "That's the military. We don't ask; we don't care." And by the way: Diana would look great in that hat too. Do we ever see her wear it? I do in my mind's eye, but I'm not sure if that's a memory or imagination.
When Lauren appears, Neal mistakes her for a model; that makes sense at first because they've set up a party for models to trap a killer. But he's asking how she got there, and he basically can't even entertain the possibility that she's an FBI agent until she whips out her badge! And then he smirks, "Where do you keep your gun?" eyeing her little dress. (Neal's a jerk too, but that I hadn't forgotten.)
They didn't have the set for Neal's apartment in the pilot! We only see what appears to be the ground floor of June's. We first see Neal's space in episode 2. They clearly made just the pilot at some point and then got an order.
What hurts:
The first time I watched, I think I didn't know what was going to happen to Kate, although I might be wrong, because I'm not sure I watched s1 when it first aired. I certainly didn't have the emotional investment in the characters to make it hurts. It's painful to watch Neal's optimism, hope, and determination when I know where we're headed.
I didn't appreciate enough the first time:
The women! June is such a delight—I appreciated her from the first. But I didn't realize how amazing Elizabeth is. She puts up with a lot. She's also a whole lot smarter than I realized until later seasons. Diana and Lauren don't get enough screen time in the first couple of episodes, so I didn't notice them (and, in case you forgot, Diana is only in the premiere, then succeeded by Lauren; she comes back in s2). But they're both sharp, and they're written that way from the start. I thought I remembered Lauren being undeservedly harsh to Neal. In episode 2, it's deserved!
I love the way they use New York: Neal driving across the bridge, his hair blowing in the wind; Central Park in the second episode; the general feel of the city. I've come to love New York, but I think I didn't when I first watched.
Peter and Neal click right away. They admire each other before the show starts, though Peter would only admit it in very limited ways, with some sarcastic comment immediately, no doubt. I'm not sure how much time passes between the first and second episodes, but they already seem to have built more trust. Still, Peter figures out what Neal is doing at the end of the first episode, when he's in Hagen's warehouse, and he cannot hide his grin (even while he lectures the agents around him, surely just for the audience, but tossing in "No hands now" at their expense, because he's a jerk). They love working together. And I love watching them.
So many great moments!
The little things: Neal spinning a story for the priest at the church to get them a few minutes to look at Hagen's restoration: he makes it a story of Peter's temptation and how close Peter is to falling. Peter asks if he lied to a priest. "Do you think Diana is attractive?" "Yeah." "Then we're good." No, we're not! It was a whole lot more than that!
Elizabeth takes everything in stride, because she is awesome, and she knew what she was getting when she married him—mostly. She was expecting less murder.
Neal's escape really is tremendously clever, and not one other inmate does anything to give him away as he walks out past many of them. He has won people over inside. I don't think for a moment it would work like that in real life, but it's so fun on the screen!
Neal has no impulse control. I started rereading fic months before I started rewatching, and I kept thinking people were misremembering. Nope. He takes off after Ghovat and is shocked when the killer draws a gun on him. Who'd have thought? Literally everyone else. Cruz takes Ghovat down immediately.
But Neal is brilliant! He immediately thinks to jam Ghovat's phone and get the others in the van to do it. Hughes gives in and simply tells Cruz to "stay on Caffrey" instead of trying to stop Neal.
I love the emotional vulnerability too. Matt Bomer and Tim DeKay are just great together. In the car, Neal is trying to help Peter think of something for El for their anniversary, and Peter shoots down an idea with "I'm not the one whose partner flew to another country to avoid me!" He's being all smooth, and then suddenly there's a moment of deep hurt, followed by a hard look, mingled with managing to ask if Peter really knows that Kate left the country. And Peter realizes he's been a jerk and tries to backpedal and just flails. He flails a lot. Also, the later scene where Peter has pulled El's financials to figure out what to give her is both terrifying and hilarious. "So you're stalking your wife," Neal says.
Apparently I could go on, and on, but enough for now.
That seems to be the first trailer for White Collar! They appear to have made it entirely from the pilot/premiere.
I loved that show even while I felt I shouldn't. I loved the cast. I loved the characters. A few months ago, when the kinds of fics I read in the fandoms I liked seemed to be drying up, I thought I'd look back. Some of you have noticed, because I've been commenting on your fics from a decade ago or more! (Some of which I read before, and I don't seem to have commented much—or I read it somewhere other than AO3 the first time? That's more likely.)
I'm back into White Collar, and I still don't know why. The cast is mostly beautiful (Willie Garson is not beautiful, ok?). I love the characters. I hate some of the things they do.
Everyone looks so young! Except June, who is ageless. I don't go back and rewatch a lot of shows, especially ones about which I'm so ambivalent, so it's a weird experience. I have Many Thoughts.
Surprises:
I did not remember what a jerk Peter is. Of course I remembered "Cowboy up" and the frequent threats to throw Neal back in prison, with varying degrees of seriousness. I did not remember him reaming his entire team when the safety deposit box blows up! And he shouts "Wait!" too late for the poor guy cracking it. Then he gets mad at everyone else. "How many of you went to Harvard? No, don't raise your hands." A few minutes later, he's off to the superman from which Neal escaped and saying something like (I can't remember the exact quotation, "Oh, you're the one who let him escape." He is, of course, frequently mean to Neal.
Neal doesn't get the women of the White Collar Division at first. He's shockingly clueless for a successful conman and a gorgeous flirt! Peter calls him on flirting with Diana; Neal points out that she likes the hat, but he clearly thinks she's into him. "She wants to wear the hat," Peter tells him. It takes him a surprisingly long moment to catch on to that—maybe because the writers felt they needed to leave time for the audience that long ago and not because they think Neal has so little concept of lesbians? But then he says later that he thought the FBI had "rules against that." Peter has another great line: "That's the military. We don't ask; we don't care." And by the way: Diana would look great in that hat too. Do we ever see her wear it? I do in my mind's eye, but I'm not sure if that's a memory or imagination.
When Lauren appears, Neal mistakes her for a model; that makes sense at first because they've set up a party for models to trap a killer. But he's asking how she got there, and he basically can't even entertain the possibility that she's an FBI agent until she whips out her badge! And then he smirks, "Where do you keep your gun?" eyeing her little dress. (Neal's a jerk too, but that I hadn't forgotten.)
They didn't have the set for Neal's apartment in the pilot! We only see what appears to be the ground floor of June's. We first see Neal's space in episode 2. They clearly made just the pilot at some point and then got an order.
What hurts:
The first time I watched, I think I didn't know what was going to happen to Kate, although I might be wrong, because I'm not sure I watched s1 when it first aired. I certainly didn't have the emotional investment in the characters to make it hurts. It's painful to watch Neal's optimism, hope, and determination when I know where we're headed.
I didn't appreciate enough the first time:
The women! June is such a delight—I appreciated her from the first. But I didn't realize how amazing Elizabeth is. She puts up with a lot. She's also a whole lot smarter than I realized until later seasons. Diana and Lauren don't get enough screen time in the first couple of episodes, so I didn't notice them (and, in case you forgot, Diana is only in the premiere, then succeeded by Lauren; she comes back in s2). But they're both sharp, and they're written that way from the start. I thought I remembered Lauren being undeservedly harsh to Neal. In episode 2, it's deserved!
I love the way they use New York: Neal driving across the bridge, his hair blowing in the wind; Central Park in the second episode; the general feel of the city. I've come to love New York, but I think I didn't when I first watched.
Peter and Neal click right away. They admire each other before the show starts, though Peter would only admit it in very limited ways, with some sarcastic comment immediately, no doubt. I'm not sure how much time passes between the first and second episodes, but they already seem to have built more trust. Still, Peter figures out what Neal is doing at the end of the first episode, when he's in Hagen's warehouse, and he cannot hide his grin (even while he lectures the agents around him, surely just for the audience, but tossing in "No hands now" at their expense, because he's a jerk). They love working together. And I love watching them.
So many great moments!
The little things: Neal spinning a story for the priest at the church to get them a few minutes to look at Hagen's restoration: he makes it a story of Peter's temptation and how close Peter is to falling. Peter asks if he lied to a priest. "Do you think Diana is attractive?" "Yeah." "Then we're good." No, we're not! It was a whole lot more than that!
Elizabeth takes everything in stride, because she is awesome, and she knew what she was getting when she married him—mostly. She was expecting less murder.
Neal's escape really is tremendously clever, and not one other inmate does anything to give him away as he walks out past many of them. He has won people over inside. I don't think for a moment it would work like that in real life, but it's so fun on the screen!
Neal has no impulse control. I started rereading fic months before I started rewatching, and I kept thinking people were misremembering. Nope. He takes off after Ghovat and is shocked when the killer draws a gun on him. Who'd have thought? Literally everyone else. Cruz takes Ghovat down immediately.
But Neal is brilliant! He immediately thinks to jam Ghovat's phone and get the others in the van to do it. Hughes gives in and simply tells Cruz to "stay on Caffrey" instead of trying to stop Neal.
I love the emotional vulnerability too. Matt Bomer and Tim DeKay are just great together. In the car, Neal is trying to help Peter think of something for El for their anniversary, and Peter shoots down an idea with "I'm not the one whose partner flew to another country to avoid me!" He's being all smooth, and then suddenly there's a moment of deep hurt, followed by a hard look, mingled with managing to ask if Peter really knows that Kate left the country. And Peter realizes he's been a jerk and tries to backpedal and just flails. He flails a lot. Also, the later scene where Peter has pulled El's financials to figure out what to give her is both terrifying and hilarious. "So you're stalking your wife," Neal says.
Apparently I could go on, and on, but enough for now.
no subject
I find myself rewatching a lot of the older stuff in syndication these days, partly because I'm just overwhelmed and can't take in much new info. Haven't come across White Collar yet, but I'd definitely watch it if I do. Just so much fun, even when you wanted to smack some of the characters for doing something dumb (looking at you, Neil) (you too Peter) (El, you're amazing).
no subject
I loved Neal and Peter, but they could have used a good number of Gibbs slaps! But not El. And June is wonderful. And the evolution of relationships on this show, apart from the dope-slap moments, is beautiful. El and Mozzie becoming friends was something I never anticipated but am looking forward to seeing again.
no subject
This may change as things evolve. I've been reading that the ad money from "free" services is bringing in more money than paid subscriptions for ad free service. So how long before they sell more ads to cram in, just like on regular TV?
no subject
I fear soon it will be like regular tv, except that it's even more annoying. Somehow, they haven't stuck the ads in right at the break every time. They'll often stick them in two to ten seconds too soon, right before the end of a scene, so the show will break off just as a character is finishing a sentence or forming a facial expression, go to commercials, and then come back for a last couple of syllables or a look!
no subject
There have been a few scenes that were practically like "The killer is--" [awkward ad break] "...s." [dramatic music]