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All done!
Done with White Collar, just waiting on new episodes now. (Tuesday! ♥)
It really is a lot of fun to be this into a show that's currently ongoing. I still love Highlander and SGA and some of my other former shinies, and we're currently watching (and really enjoying) Heroes on Netflix, but there is something special about the eager little-kid feeling of looking forward to new episodes.
Random thoughts in no particular order:
The season one finale was incredibly wrenching, especially all the goodbyes, even knowing how things turned out. (The hilariously blatant Ford product placement, though .... AHAHAHAHAA. No, really, show, be less subtle! I think we might have missed it otherwise!)
I see why people said that Kate's motivations are murky, though. Murky as MUD, man. She never really emerges as a character. It helped seeing the flashback episode before seeing most of the Kate episodes, but that's another problem, because I'm not convinced that the flashback episode actually fits all that well with the bits and pieces of Neal's timeline and history that we got in season one. I don't think there are any blatant contradictions (except that I couldn't figure out when Neal and Kate were supposed to be so down on their luck that they couldn't afford nice things, since they seemed to go straight from working for Adler to pulling high-ticket cons) ... it's more like the flashback episode makes things too neat and tidy, and rather than being a total mystery it makes Kate into a rather one-dimensional nice girl with no ulterior motives, which I'm not convinced works for me all that well now that I've seen season one.
Another thing I remember people on my flist commenting on was Neal not saying goodbye in the season three premiere, where he'd done it before at the end of season one. But the circumstances of his skipping town are different -- I don't think he felt like he could in season three, because rather than leaving with a legit new identity, he was skipping town with a lot of stolen art, and he had to make sure that Peter had no idea. He couldn't say anything to anyone who moved in FBI or Burke circles. And, yes, I think there is a certain element of hurt/angry "So you think I haven't changed? I'll show you just how much I haven't changed" with Neal right now where Peter is concerned.
Speaking of Peter, I absolutely love how sharp he is at anticipating Neal's moves from the tiniest of clues. I love watching his and Neal's constant game of one-upsmanship, and I think both of them enjoy it, too. I think the show does a fabulous job of keeping that dynamic alive without either of them ever having the upper hand for long.
I need to go back and watch some of the first episodes I watched, especially the end of the Fowler stuff -- one thing about watching it completely out of order is that I have no idea what order certain things happened in.
For example, did Neal ever actually have a fling with Alex, or did they just flirt a bit and then he moved on with Sara? I can't remember. For some reason I keep thinking they had a thing for a while, but I'm not sure. (I do like Alex a lot, though -- I kinda wish that all of Neal's girlfriends/love interests didn't seem to be cast from such a similar-looking pool of actresses, but Alex is streetsmart and distrustful and fun. I'd love to see more Alex & Peter interaction too.)
One thing I find completely fascinating about the show -- and I think this is one of the reasons that it appeals to me even though I'm not really in a mood for buddy shows right now -- is that neither Peter nor Neal are really the other's most important person. Neal is probably closer to Mozzie than he is to Peter, and now there's Sara; and Peter, obviously, has Elizabeth, as well as his FBI team. In an odd sort of way, I think this is actually what makes Peter and Neal's complicated, push-and-pull, give-and-take relationship work for me -- that they both have other people outside that relationship that they love and lean on. And yet they are obviously very close to each other, and the constant evolution and changes in their partnership is what the show revolves around. It's just a neat sort of dynamic.
It really is a lot of fun to be this into a show that's currently ongoing. I still love Highlander and SGA and some of my other former shinies, and we're currently watching (and really enjoying) Heroes on Netflix, but there is something special about the eager little-kid feeling of looking forward to new episodes.
Random thoughts in no particular order:
The season one finale was incredibly wrenching, especially all the goodbyes, even knowing how things turned out. (The hilariously blatant Ford product placement, though .... AHAHAHAHAA. No, really, show, be less subtle! I think we might have missed it otherwise!)
I see why people said that Kate's motivations are murky, though. Murky as MUD, man. She never really emerges as a character. It helped seeing the flashback episode before seeing most of the Kate episodes, but that's another problem, because I'm not convinced that the flashback episode actually fits all that well with the bits and pieces of Neal's timeline and history that we got in season one. I don't think there are any blatant contradictions (except that I couldn't figure out when Neal and Kate were supposed to be so down on their luck that they couldn't afford nice things, since they seemed to go straight from working for Adler to pulling high-ticket cons) ... it's more like the flashback episode makes things too neat and tidy, and rather than being a total mystery it makes Kate into a rather one-dimensional nice girl with no ulterior motives, which I'm not convinced works for me all that well now that I've seen season one.
Another thing I remember people on my flist commenting on was Neal not saying goodbye in the season three premiere, where he'd done it before at the end of season one. But the circumstances of his skipping town are different -- I don't think he felt like he could in season three, because rather than leaving with a legit new identity, he was skipping town with a lot of stolen art, and he had to make sure that Peter had no idea. He couldn't say anything to anyone who moved in FBI or Burke circles. And, yes, I think there is a certain element of hurt/angry "So you think I haven't changed? I'll show you just how much I haven't changed" with Neal right now where Peter is concerned.
Speaking of Peter, I absolutely love how sharp he is at anticipating Neal's moves from the tiniest of clues. I love watching his and Neal's constant game of one-upsmanship, and I think both of them enjoy it, too. I think the show does a fabulous job of keeping that dynamic alive without either of them ever having the upper hand for long.
I need to go back and watch some of the first episodes I watched, especially the end of the Fowler stuff -- one thing about watching it completely out of order is that I have no idea what order certain things happened in.
For example, did Neal ever actually have a fling with Alex, or did they just flirt a bit and then he moved on with Sara? I can't remember. For some reason I keep thinking they had a thing for a while, but I'm not sure. (I do like Alex a lot, though -- I kinda wish that all of Neal's girlfriends/love interests didn't seem to be cast from such a similar-looking pool of actresses, but Alex is streetsmart and distrustful and fun. I'd love to see more Alex & Peter interaction too.)
One thing I find completely fascinating about the show -- and I think this is one of the reasons that it appeals to me even though I'm not really in a mood for buddy shows right now -- is that neither Peter nor Neal are really the other's most important person. Neal is probably closer to Mozzie than he is to Peter, and now there's Sara; and Peter, obviously, has Elizabeth, as well as his FBI team. In an odd sort of way, I think this is actually what makes Peter and Neal's complicated, push-and-pull, give-and-take relationship work for me -- that they both have other people outside that relationship that they love and lean on. And yet they are obviously very close to each other, and the constant evolution and changes in their partnership is what the show revolves around. It's just a neat sort of dynamic.
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And for my part? I never could come up with characterization of Kate that I could grok. She is a mystery to me.
Happy watching!!!
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And thanks! :)
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So I know what you're talking about (or at least I assume so) with the current season's meta-plot. It's one of those situations where I've made a conscious effort not to think about certain squickier aspects of the plot (a skill that was well honed through many seasons of Stargate *g*) to enjoy the rest of the show. I do wish they'd done something different, though.