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Misc fan stuff
So I think I'm pretty much over my knee-jerk negative reaction to the WC finale - I'm still nervous about what might happen in the next episode, but I'm feeling a whole lot less gut-punched ... or, rather, still gut-punched, but in more of a good, AAAAAUGH NEED NEXT EPISODE NOW! kind of way. I think I'm a lot more confident that this is going in a direction that's not going to either completely gut me or be emotionally unsatisfying, which were my two big worries at the end of 3x10.
Also, while generally I'm avoiding spoilers (don't spoil me plz?), it helps a lot to know that Kramer is going to be in the next episode, because one of the things that had frustrated me about both 3x09 and 3x10 (at the time that each episode aired) is that it felt like all setup and no payoff. And I think that just as 3x10 was payoff for 3x09 (in terms of the Keller storyline) that 3x11 is probably going to be payoff for most of the dangling threads in the first half of the season: Keller, Peter + Neal, Neal + Mozzie, Kramer + Peter + Neal. I get the impression that the 3-episode sequence is going to turn out to be one long episode in story-arc terms, whereas a lot of my dissatisfaction had been due to approaching each episode in the expectation that it would stand alone. And I'm looking forward to seeing how the dominos that have been set up over the first half of the season get knocked over in the second half.
And I still love the characters a lot. I think that how I ultimately feel about this story arc, overall, will depend on how it resolves itself, but if the final payoff is worth it (*crosses fingers*), this may end up being my favorite out of all their main story arcs. All the previous ones have relied upon introducing outside sources of tension (Fowler, Adler, etc), and I guess we kinda still have that with Keller, but most of the tension revolves around the character relationships that they've built up over the last three seasons. The tension isn't whether they'll get Elizabeth back or defeat Keller or even whether Neal and Peter will continue working together -- none of that, I think, is really in doubt. The tension comes from the way the character relationships are splitting down their fault lines, from the uncertainty about how (or if) they'll put things back the way they were, or if not, what the new shapes will be. And that's good storytelling.
... however, this does mean that I'm back to NO MORE WHITE COLLAR FOR FIVE MONTHS, HAAAAAAALP. *flails* I've already rewatched the last 20 seconds of the finale more times than I want to admit.
Meanwhile in Echo Bazaar:
I finally found a use for the Ridiculous Hat(s)! I don't know why it took me so long to figure out that drastically dropping your skill scores (thus resetting yourself to an earlier point in the game) is actually useful in certain situations - such as when you're trying to build your scores up quickly without having a lot of horrible things happen to you in the meantime. *taps foot and waits for actions to refresh*
Also, while generally I'm avoiding spoilers (don't spoil me plz?), it helps a lot to know that Kramer is going to be in the next episode, because one of the things that had frustrated me about both 3x09 and 3x10 (at the time that each episode aired) is that it felt like all setup and no payoff. And I think that just as 3x10 was payoff for 3x09 (in terms of the Keller storyline) that 3x11 is probably going to be payoff for most of the dangling threads in the first half of the season: Keller, Peter + Neal, Neal + Mozzie, Kramer + Peter + Neal. I get the impression that the 3-episode sequence is going to turn out to be one long episode in story-arc terms, whereas a lot of my dissatisfaction had been due to approaching each episode in the expectation that it would stand alone. And I'm looking forward to seeing how the dominos that have been set up over the first half of the season get knocked over in the second half.
And I still love the characters a lot. I think that how I ultimately feel about this story arc, overall, will depend on how it resolves itself, but if the final payoff is worth it (*crosses fingers*), this may end up being my favorite out of all their main story arcs. All the previous ones have relied upon introducing outside sources of tension (Fowler, Adler, etc), and I guess we kinda still have that with Keller, but most of the tension revolves around the character relationships that they've built up over the last three seasons. The tension isn't whether they'll get Elizabeth back or defeat Keller or even whether Neal and Peter will continue working together -- none of that, I think, is really in doubt. The tension comes from the way the character relationships are splitting down their fault lines, from the uncertainty about how (or if) they'll put things back the way they were, or if not, what the new shapes will be. And that's good storytelling.
... however, this does mean that I'm back to NO MORE WHITE COLLAR FOR FIVE MONTHS, HAAAAAAALP. *flails* I've already rewatched the last 20 seconds of the finale more times than I want to admit.
Meanwhile in Echo Bazaar:
I finally found a use for the Ridiculous Hat(s)! I don't know why it took me so long to figure out that drastically dropping your skill scores (thus resetting yourself to an earlier point in the game) is actually useful in certain situations - such as when you're trying to build your scores up quickly without having a lot of horrible things happen to you in the meantime. *taps foot and waits for actions to refresh*