White Collar - 3x01 "On Guard"
Jun. 9th, 2011 12:59 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
tj_teejayNice word play there. Did you notice? The fencing? En garde? Anyway...
So what do I have to say about "On Guard"? It usually takes a while for me to let the first episode after a long hiatus sink in. Mainly that's because there's been so much excitement that's been building up for a long time. And then I'm all deflated, once I've seen the episode.
My initial reaction was actually very positive, which may be due to the fact that I'm such a sucker for angsty discord. And if there ever was a WhiCo episode that explored that, it was this one. I mean, it was crystal clear after the season 2 finale that there would be all this treacherous "trust issues" ground Peter and Neal would be treading on, so that wasn't exactly a surprise. And I'm glad they didn't resolve it in the first 15 minutes, because that one of my concerns with this whole setup.
I thought it was so interesting to see Neal go back to his old conman routine, and I have a love/hate relationship with that.
The hate part is because, dammit, I don't want him to be a bad guy! I don't want him to turn his back on Peter and El and his new life without a second thought. Which he did. Yes, he wasn't exactly buddy-buddy with Peter at the time, but, man, you guys have been building a friendship for how long now? A year, surely. Neal, you trusted Peter. More than anyone. You've never lied to him. And you're just throwing that away without looking back? You love Elizabeth for the sweet, bubbly, caring person she is. Of course she'd be on Peter's side -- I mean, what did you expect? So what do we see? The one person Neal wants to say goodbye to is... June? TeeJay does not approve.
The love part was that I liked the reminder that deep down, Neal is a conman. I think we've all been getting a little too comfortable with the fact that he's been turned into the law abiding citizen that Peter wanted to transform him into. Every now and then, I enjoy seeing Neal's deceitful dark side. But I think the hate part outweighs the love part in this love/hate relationship.
The McPunisher in me loved the Neal/Peter discord, of course. Angst, angst, gimme more angst! The interrogation scene was great. The quiet (or not so quiet) resentment on Peter's part was great. Not too fond of Neal's smug smiles, though. Would Neal seriously be so blasé about the fact that he has the ink of Peter's "insidious thief" stamp all over him? I guess that goes hand in hand with what I said about him all too readily leaving his Neal Caffrey persona behind. (At least they're being consistent...)
So, Mozzie stole the treasure and gave Neal the card, huh? Didn't really see that coming. Well, I can't say it hasn't crossed my mind, but somehow I was expecting something a little more convoluted. But, hey, I'm okay with it.
The fencing scene... Nice! Is there anything Neal can't do? I also liked the little jibe with Peter when he fished Neal's cut off tie from the trash can.
Hate Diana's (or rather Marsha's) bangs. Doesn't suit her. Like, at all.
I liked what they did when suddenly Neal was faced with the Jones conundrum. At least that showed that, while Neal seems to be indifferent enough to leave behind his FBI-tethered life, he still doesn't want to see a good person killed. And he even gave up his big escape plan, his long con, to save Jones. That redeems him a little bit. But just a little.
The Peter/Neal make-up scene of sorts at the end? I liked it, but then I didn't. I can't even really say why. I mean, it was such an obvious setup to have Peter go there on his own to discover the Chrysler building painting. Plot device or Neal's intention? I didn't like the fact to begin with that Neal forged his own painting. Here we go again with the open, fully intentional deceit. It doesn't become you, Neal. Especially not if it's about or towards Peter. What I loved a lot about it was the unresolved tension (and I don't mean in a slashy kind of way). Peter is truly apologizing, yet the looks they share clearly spell out that trust is far away in the distance, with a long, narrow, winding road to take them there.
Different topic: The Burke's kitchen! I like it, but tell me, with everything that was going on, when did the Burkes have time to remodel half their ground floor? Where'd the door to the kitchen go? Oh, wait, you're telling me they have a life outside of work? Excuse me, how presumtuous of me to think they didn't. :-P
Was Neal seriously wearing blue jeans, a polo shirt and a zip-up sweater when he saw El? What happened??! Yes, I'm loving it, but that is so not Neal.
But, thank you, Elizabeth, for mentioning that Neal almost shot Fowler. It was so wrong to gloss over that without even another mention after the 2010 winter hiatus.
So let's talk about the Nazi loot. I will need to mention this, even though I'm almost ashamed to admit it. I am German, and it never even occurred to me that any profit made from selling the stolen treasure is blood money. There is holocaust victims written all over the artwork, and Neal even considering to make off with it has all these implications that I never even considered until I read![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
tzikeh's rant about the episode. And shockingly so, she's right. Suddenly I like the episode (and Neal and Mozzie) a whole lot less than I initially thought. Because the idea of Neal unhesitatingly picking which piece of artwork to sell first just seems so callous. The initial excitement about the episode is making way for something more along the lines of resentment.
And that is not a good thing. Not a good thing at all when all of a sudden, I'm feeling malevolence towards the one character I like most about this show, the one character that (I will admit) is my main reason for watching. For the past few months, I've enjoyed the hell out of writing White Collar fanfic. If this is the Neal Caffrey we're stuck with from now on, I'm not sure I want to keep writing. And that is worse than bad.
So, what happened to the compassionate, hopeless romantic in Neal? What's more romantic and rewarding than giving back works of art long believed forever lost back to holocaust victims or their families? Did Neal check in his emotional streak at the door when he entered that warehouse? I'm not liking what I'm seeing.
That said, let me just quickly clarify that I'm not personally identifying with Nazi Germany. I'm of a younger generation that has not been in direct contact with World War II. I don't feel ashamed for being German. Yes, that chapter is a dark, terrible part of our history, but that's what it is to me: history. I don't have a problem with Jeff Eastin using the Nazis for this storyline per se, but I do have a problem with the sheer stereotypicality of it. Because I can just hear the conversation in the writers' room: "Hey, we need someone we can peg as the bad guys for this. Oh, gee, why don't we take.... hmm... Oh! I got it, the Nazis?" Yeah, real original there, Mr. Eastin.
Random, last minute thought: I love me some Neal in a dark blue shirt.
End of disconnected thoughts about the season three premiere. Now carry on.
So what do I have to say about "On Guard"? It usually takes a while for me to let the first episode after a long hiatus sink in. Mainly that's because there's been so much excitement that's been building up for a long time. And then I'm all deflated, once I've seen the episode.
My initial reaction was actually very positive, which may be due to the fact that I'm such a sucker for angsty discord. And if there ever was a WhiCo episode that explored that, it was this one. I mean, it was crystal clear after the season 2 finale that there would be all this treacherous "trust issues" ground Peter and Neal would be treading on, so that wasn't exactly a surprise. And I'm glad they didn't resolve it in the first 15 minutes, because that one of my concerns with this whole setup.
I thought it was so interesting to see Neal go back to his old conman routine, and I have a love/hate relationship with that.
The hate part is because, dammit, I don't want him to be a bad guy! I don't want him to turn his back on Peter and El and his new life without a second thought. Which he did. Yes, he wasn't exactly buddy-buddy with Peter at the time, but, man, you guys have been building a friendship for how long now? A year, surely. Neal, you trusted Peter. More than anyone. You've never lied to him. And you're just throwing that away without looking back? You love Elizabeth for the sweet, bubbly, caring person she is. Of course she'd be on Peter's side -- I mean, what did you expect? So what do we see? The one person Neal wants to say goodbye to is... June? TeeJay does not approve.
The love part was that I liked the reminder that deep down, Neal is a conman. I think we've all been getting a little too comfortable with the fact that he's been turned into the law abiding citizen that Peter wanted to transform him into. Every now and then, I enjoy seeing Neal's deceitful dark side. But I think the hate part outweighs the love part in this love/hate relationship.
The McPunisher in me loved the Neal/Peter discord, of course. Angst, angst, gimme more angst! The interrogation scene was great. The quiet (or not so quiet) resentment on Peter's part was great. Not too fond of Neal's smug smiles, though. Would Neal seriously be so blasé about the fact that he has the ink of Peter's "insidious thief" stamp all over him? I guess that goes hand in hand with what I said about him all too readily leaving his Neal Caffrey persona behind. (At least they're being consistent...)
So, Mozzie stole the treasure and gave Neal the card, huh? Didn't really see that coming. Well, I can't say it hasn't crossed my mind, but somehow I was expecting something a little more convoluted. But, hey, I'm okay with it.
The fencing scene... Nice! Is there anything Neal can't do? I also liked the little jibe with Peter when he fished Neal's cut off tie from the trash can.
Hate Diana's (or rather Marsha's) bangs. Doesn't suit her. Like, at all.
I liked what they did when suddenly Neal was faced with the Jones conundrum. At least that showed that, while Neal seems to be indifferent enough to leave behind his FBI-tethered life, he still doesn't want to see a good person killed. And he even gave up his big escape plan, his long con, to save Jones. That redeems him a little bit. But just a little.
The Peter/Neal make-up scene of sorts at the end? I liked it, but then I didn't. I can't even really say why. I mean, it was such an obvious setup to have Peter go there on his own to discover the Chrysler building painting. Plot device or Neal's intention? I didn't like the fact to begin with that Neal forged his own painting. Here we go again with the open, fully intentional deceit. It doesn't become you, Neal. Especially not if it's about or towards Peter. What I loved a lot about it was the unresolved tension (and I don't mean in a slashy kind of way). Peter is truly apologizing, yet the looks they share clearly spell out that trust is far away in the distance, with a long, narrow, winding road to take them there.
Different topic: The Burke's kitchen! I like it, but tell me, with everything that was going on, when did the Burkes have time to remodel half their ground floor? Where'd the door to the kitchen go? Oh, wait, you're telling me they have a life outside of work? Excuse me, how presumtuous of me to think they didn't. :-P
Was Neal seriously wearing blue jeans, a polo shirt and a zip-up sweater when he saw El? What happened??! Yes, I'm loving it, but that is so not Neal.
But, thank you, Elizabeth, for mentioning that Neal almost shot Fowler. It was so wrong to gloss over that without even another mention after the 2010 winter hiatus.
So let's talk about the Nazi loot. I will need to mention this, even though I'm almost ashamed to admit it. I am German, and it never even occurred to me that any profit made from selling the stolen treasure is blood money. There is holocaust victims written all over the artwork, and Neal even considering to make off with it has all these implications that I never even considered until I read
tzikeh's rant about the episode. And shockingly so, she's right. Suddenly I like the episode (and Neal and Mozzie) a whole lot less than I initially thought. Because the idea of Neal unhesitatingly picking which piece of artwork to sell first just seems so callous. The initial excitement about the episode is making way for something more along the lines of resentment. And that is not a good thing. Not a good thing at all when all of a sudden, I'm feeling malevolence towards the one character I like most about this show, the one character that (I will admit) is my main reason for watching. For the past few months, I've enjoyed the hell out of writing White Collar fanfic. If this is the Neal Caffrey we're stuck with from now on, I'm not sure I want to keep writing. And that is worse than bad.
So, what happened to the compassionate, hopeless romantic in Neal? What's more romantic and rewarding than giving back works of art long believed forever lost back to holocaust victims or their families? Did Neal check in his emotional streak at the door when he entered that warehouse? I'm not liking what I'm seeing.
That said, let me just quickly clarify that I'm not personally identifying with Nazi Germany. I'm of a younger generation that has not been in direct contact with World War II. I don't feel ashamed for being German. Yes, that chapter is a dark, terrible part of our history, but that's what it is to me: history. I don't have a problem with Jeff Eastin using the Nazis for this storyline per se, but I do have a problem with the sheer stereotypicality of it. Because I can just hear the conversation in the writers' room: "Hey, we need someone we can peg as the bad guys for this. Oh, gee, why don't we take.... hmm... Oh! I got it, the Nazis?" Yeah, real original there, Mr. Eastin.
Random, last minute thought: I love me some Neal in a dark blue shirt.
End of disconnected thoughts about the season three premiere. Now carry on.
