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'hokay, apparently not done talking about White Collar yet!
It is really interesting watching this show after getting familiar with it through fandom! Because so much of what fandom apparently sees in the show are things that I do not see at all!
And I'm not just talking about shipping things, although this is definitely a gen + canon pairings show all the way for me.
Noooo ... it's just very interesting because I had read a few fics and a few pieces of meta about the show before I started watching it, and I had generally come away with an impression of Neal as much less independent and much more codependent/needy/attached to Peter and El than I see him now that I'm watching the show.
Much, much more so. So much more that it's like a whole different show. It's possible that it's not entirely fanon, that the character dynamics read differently in season one and early season two. I've already realized that I like the season three character dynamics better than in season two. I've really been loving some of the individual season two episodes, but overall I much prefer season three where Neal is working his own game, and is divided between his life with the FBI and his other life. Basically I just really love seeing that his life outside the FBI and outside the very limited circle of Peter, Elizabeth and the FBI team has been developed to the extent that it has. I really like that he has a girlfriend and friends, and he loves the adrenaline high that he gets from a good con, and basically, if anything, working for the FBI and going straight is a step down for him. I like the way that the show's different sets of characters (Peter and El; Peter and the FBI; Neal and his fellow criminal friends) overlap and interact with each other, in their many and varied combinations, and with a certain amount of tension between them.
One area where I do agree with established fanon is that I think it's pretty clear that Neal yearns for a sense of family and belonging, but I don't get the impression that he enjoys taking orders or being under Peter's control, and I definitely don't get the impression that he likes the idea of giving up his autonomy in order to get that sense of stability. It's not an easy choice for him. And I don't think I would like the show nearly so much if it was an easy choice, if it was just a matter of Neal wising up and realizing that he's better off with the FBI.
Like I was just telling![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
trobadora, I disliked Neal when I watched the first couple of episodes -- I saw him as too slick and polished to interest me, too much of a mastermind type. And I wondered if the fanon version of Neal as a sort of clingy shell of a man was an overreaction to that. But now that I'm watching more episodes of the show, I've really come to like the Neal that I see onscreen -- Neal who is a basically decent guy at heart, who does want someone to love him, but is also an adrenaline junkie, and kind of unscrupulous, and basically pretty happy with his life. I like him a lot better than some of the ideas that I'd gotten of him from fandom, where he's essentially a lost soul in need of someone to tell him what to do.
This entry is also posted at http://friendshipper.dreamwidth.org/353803.html with
comments.
And I'm not just talking about shipping things, although this is definitely a gen + canon pairings show all the way for me.
Noooo ... it's just very interesting because I had read a few fics and a few pieces of meta about the show before I started watching it, and I had generally come away with an impression of Neal as much less independent and much more codependent/needy/attached to Peter and El than I see him now that I'm watching the show.
Much, much more so. So much more that it's like a whole different show. It's possible that it's not entirely fanon, that the character dynamics read differently in season one and early season two. I've already realized that I like the season three character dynamics better than in season two. I've really been loving some of the individual season two episodes, but overall I much prefer season three where Neal is working his own game, and is divided between his life with the FBI and his other life. Basically I just really love seeing that his life outside the FBI and outside the very limited circle of Peter, Elizabeth and the FBI team has been developed to the extent that it has. I really like that he has a girlfriend and friends, and he loves the adrenaline high that he gets from a good con, and basically, if anything, working for the FBI and going straight is a step down for him. I like the way that the show's different sets of characters (Peter and El; Peter and the FBI; Neal and his fellow criminal friends) overlap and interact with each other, in their many and varied combinations, and with a certain amount of tension between them.
One area where I do agree with established fanon is that I think it's pretty clear that Neal yearns for a sense of family and belonging, but I don't get the impression that he enjoys taking orders or being under Peter's control, and I definitely don't get the impression that he likes the idea of giving up his autonomy in order to get that sense of stability. It's not an easy choice for him. And I don't think I would like the show nearly so much if it was an easy choice, if it was just a matter of Neal wising up and realizing that he's better off with the FBI.
Like I was just telling
trobadora, I disliked Neal when I watched the first couple of episodes -- I saw him as too slick and polished to interest me, too much of a mastermind type. And I wondered if the fanon version of Neal as a sort of clingy shell of a man was an overreaction to that. But now that I'm watching more episodes of the show, I've really come to like the Neal that I see onscreen -- Neal who is a basically decent guy at heart, who does want someone to love him, but is also an adrenaline junkie, and kind of unscrupulous, and basically pretty happy with his life. I like him a lot better than some of the ideas that I'd gotten of him from fandom, where he's essentially a lost soul in need of someone to tell him what to do.This entry is also posted at http://friendshipper.dreamwidth.org/353803.html with