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White Collar 3x04
Well, leaving aside one or two ... things I don't want to think about, this episode was mostly made of awesome.
WHERE TO BEGIN.
The sheer shallow hotness in this episode, OMG. Neal's pimptastic mafioso outfit! Neal and Peter in sunglasses! And tuxes! And Elizabeth's reaction to the tuxes ... heee.
"This is why we pay you the big bucks." *Neal's flat look* "... if we paid you."
I'm not sure why, but it's taken me a long time to warm up to Mozzie. On the other hand, watching the early episodes has helped, and this episode helped a lot. ("I was twelve. A dentist was the scariest thing I could think of.") Not to mention the bantertastic interaction with the other characters.
I love elaborate stings and cons and characters being super sneaky, and the episode's delicious little nods to famous ones. "So who's Newman and who's Redford?" ROCK ON, SHOW. XD
BEST FAKE (and not-so-fake) FIGHT EVER. I think one of the things that fascinated me about their "fake" fight and its layers of meta-text is that this is all stuff they both already know about each other, and it's true and they know it, and it's all laid out there in the open -- but five seconds later they're giving each other conspiratorial grins, because that's how they roll. I've been drawn more and more to Peter and Neal's friendship because it TOTALLY punches all my "best enemies" buttons, even though they're not really enemies or even on opposite sides, most of the time. But what I love about it is that they both very clearly care about each other a lot, and yet, the people they are and the lives they lead, they can't ever quite trust each other 100%.
And the whole thing with Elizabeth and Mozzie, and Mozzie saving Peter (I was expecting him to go for Neal's sake; that he actually went for Peter's sake boggled me, but in a good way), and the conversation at the end with Mozzie and Neal, and Neal's look at Peter at the very end ... nnnngh. I think I was wrong about this show not being able to do the angst thing and stomp on my heart, because it really can, all the more so because it slips these super-heartwrenching bits into episodes that are otherwise 95% fluff and squee. (Like that thing in "Vital Signs" with drugged!Neal and "You're the only person I trust" and oh, my HEART. ♥)
I know people are having trouble with the rift between Peter and Neal this season, but I'm not. For one thing, watching the earlier episodes is really impressing upon me that the way they're both pursuing their own agendas is hardly new -- it's how the show has operated all along. I love how the show isn't overly sanitizing Neal or turning him into Peter's best buddy and FBI clone. The conflict in Neal is interesting, damn it -- that he's very clearly a good person at heart who loves and wants to trust Peter and Elizabeth, and yet all his learned responses to difficult situations are things like "lie to people" and "con people" and "flee", and Mozzie, his best friend and closest ally, is pushing him in that direction. He's caught between the two, and I love that there is still tension there, and that there's at least some uncertainty about which way Neal is going to jump when the time comes. And for that matter, there's equal uncertainty as to what Peter's going to do, since he has a mixed track record: sometimes he's totally had Neal's back, even to the point of breaking the law for him (stealing the surveillance tape in the clinic), and sometimes he's stuck to the toeing-the-law line (jumping to conclusions about Neal blowing up the sub). I am confident that they aren't going to sever the connection between the two of them permanently; mostly I'm just enjoying the tension and looking forward to seeing how everything comes out into the open.
So, yeah. SHOW. ♥
This entry is also posted at http://friendshipper.dreamwidth.org/355001.html with
comments.
WHERE TO BEGIN.
The sheer shallow hotness in this episode, OMG. Neal's pimptastic mafioso outfit! Neal and Peter in sunglasses! And tuxes! And Elizabeth's reaction to the tuxes ... heee.
"This is why we pay you the big bucks." *Neal's flat look* "... if we paid you."
I'm not sure why, but it's taken me a long time to warm up to Mozzie. On the other hand, watching the early episodes has helped, and this episode helped a lot. ("I was twelve. A dentist was the scariest thing I could think of.") Not to mention the bantertastic interaction with the other characters.
I love elaborate stings and cons and characters being super sneaky, and the episode's delicious little nods to famous ones. "So who's Newman and who's Redford?" ROCK ON, SHOW. XD
BEST FAKE (and not-so-fake) FIGHT EVER. I think one of the things that fascinated me about their "fake" fight and its layers of meta-text is that this is all stuff they both already know about each other, and it's true and they know it, and it's all laid out there in the open -- but five seconds later they're giving each other conspiratorial grins, because that's how they roll. I've been drawn more and more to Peter and Neal's friendship because it TOTALLY punches all my "best enemies" buttons, even though they're not really enemies or even on opposite sides, most of the time. But what I love about it is that they both very clearly care about each other a lot, and yet, the people they are and the lives they lead, they can't ever quite trust each other 100%.
And the whole thing with Elizabeth and Mozzie, and Mozzie saving Peter (I was expecting him to go for Neal's sake; that he actually went for Peter's sake boggled me, but in a good way), and the conversation at the end with Mozzie and Neal, and Neal's look at Peter at the very end ... nnnngh. I think I was wrong about this show not being able to do the angst thing and stomp on my heart, because it really can, all the more so because it slips these super-heartwrenching bits into episodes that are otherwise 95% fluff and squee. (Like that thing in "Vital Signs" with drugged!Neal and "You're the only person I trust" and oh, my HEART. ♥)
I know people are having trouble with the rift between Peter and Neal this season, but I'm not. For one thing, watching the earlier episodes is really impressing upon me that the way they're both pursuing their own agendas is hardly new -- it's how the show has operated all along. I love how the show isn't overly sanitizing Neal or turning him into Peter's best buddy and FBI clone. The conflict in Neal is interesting, damn it -- that he's very clearly a good person at heart who loves and wants to trust Peter and Elizabeth, and yet all his learned responses to difficult situations are things like "lie to people" and "con people" and "flee", and Mozzie, his best friend and closest ally, is pushing him in that direction. He's caught between the two, and I love that there is still tension there, and that there's at least some uncertainty about which way Neal is going to jump when the time comes. And for that matter, there's equal uncertainty as to what Peter's going to do, since he has a mixed track record: sometimes he's totally had Neal's back, even to the point of breaking the law for him (stealing the surveillance tape in the clinic), and sometimes he's stuck to the toeing-the-law line (jumping to conclusions about Neal blowing up the sub). I am confident that they aren't going to sever the connection between the two of them permanently; mostly I'm just enjoying the tension and looking forward to seeing how everything comes out into the open.
So, yeah. SHOW. ♥
This entry is also posted at http://friendshipper.dreamwidth.org/355001.html with
no subject
I'm not sure why, but it's taken me a long time to warm up to Mozzie.
Yeah, Mozzie is like the show itself - he takes a while to get into. I really didn't like him at first but he really grew on me later on. I love his loyalty to Neal, and Neal's loyalty to Mozzie rivaled only by his loyalty to Peter is making this season's are so interesting.
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I know! I think I was expecting something like, say, Psych, where it's awfully cute and fluffy but never really goes deep enough with the characters' darker emotions to really suck me in. (I'm told Psych does get more intense in later seasons, and someday I'll get back and watch the rest of them, but as much as I liked the characters in season one, it just didn't have enough substance to grab me.) And it really surprised me that the more you get to know these characters, the more the show yanks at your heartstrings when it does hurtie stuff to them.
I adore how intensely loyal Neal is to the handful of people that he's close to. What's interesting to me is that he's very attached to both Mozzie and Peter, and very close to them, but in very different ways. There are a whole lot of things he can talk to Mozzie about that he can't talk to Peter about, and aspects of himself that Mozzie understands that Peter will never understand. But the depth of feeling that he has for Peter really isn't any less, and the relationship he has with Peter is interestingly complex; I think both Peter and Neal have a huge amount of respect and even admiration for each other, and Neal would do just about anything for him (and vice versa, I think). So, yeah, the push and pull between these two opposing forces in Neal's life makes for a really interesting situation.
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Did like him in this ep, though! if not as much as I loved Peter's priceless expression after Neal's "your hot wife" line (actually had to go rewind and rewatch that bit on the spot, too good not to! And all the refs to The Sting, of course (the metric to which all con-men movies and shows must be held!) Though I was disappointed they didn't work a little Scott Joplin into the soundtrack somewhere...oh well, Peter & Neal in matching tuxes makes up for a lot. ^^
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TIM DEKAY'S FAAAAAAAACE. I don't know why some actors are just immensely fun to watch as they react to what the other actors are doing -- Joe Flanigan on SGA comes to mind, and Tim DeKay has another one of those faces. His expression when Mozzie made that remark about sleeping naked? I lol'd. And immediately went back and watched it a couple more times. And, yeah, his YOU DID **NOT** JUST SAY THAT look at Neal. Hee~! The fight was awesome, especially as I caught on to what was happening, the airing of grievances and all ... (But still LOLarious. "You liked my hats!" OH SHOW. ♥)
If there was one other thing I wished they'd cribbed from The Sting for this episode ... I was hoping for a fake death at the end. XD But the plot did not go that way. And yeah, the tuxes, and heeheeheeee, Elizabeth. "Prom photo!" She's so awesome. That is totally going to be her new desktop wallpaper now.
The whole Nazi art plot ... I am just trying not to think too hard about it. Because, yeah, most of what Mozzie did in that episode doesn't make sense -- particularly blowing up/burning all of Neal's art, which, as an artist, made me go D: a lot. I actually can see Mozzie thinking Neal would be delighted to pack up and leave the country on a moment's notice, because I'm pretty sure Mozzie thinks that he and Neal think more alike than they actually do (or possibly, in light of this episode, Mozzie is more like Neal than he realizes, in all the ways he doesn't want to believe). But the logistics of it make NO SENSE, and the ethics of it make me cringe; it's just an implausible, unpleasant plot, so I'm trying to view it as the Maguffin that it totally is, and focus on what it's doing to the boys' friendship instead.
... hey hey, here's hoping next episode is a good one
with lots of h/c, 'cause we can watch it together! ^_^no subject
But Tim DeKay's face is indeed awesome! I find Neal pretty almost (but not quite) to the point of turning me off (boy is aesthetically stunning, I am shallow) but Peter's my guy (at least 50% because he and El are making a good play for CUTEST MARRIED COUPLE EVER...I just wish she were in the show more! I mean, I get why she's not, they have to contortion the plot half the time to get her in at all, but still! So much <333 for El. ^^)
Ahahah, yeah, ignoring the plot Macguffins and focusing on the cute they produce is definitely the way to go! Show will give you a headache otherwise. ...and faked dead would be nice, eheh. I would be lying if I said that I didn't watch hoping for whatever h/c they can squeeze in (do more bad things to Peter, show!)
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AREN'T THEY JUST? I think they've actually displaced Wash & Zoe as my favorite married TV couple, and I didn't think that was possible. They're just so wonderfully fun and funny and mutually supportive; half the time they make me laugh helplessly, and the other half they melt me into a puddle of goo.
... and yeah, I am a Peter girl through and through, though I actually think Neal is a lot more layered as a character and more interesting to dissect in meta and fic (plus "grifter with a heart of gold" is a type I totally go for ... and the aesthetics, yes; there are times when I just go WOW, SHOW, WHERE DID YOU FIND THIS MAN). But there is just something about Peter, and the way Tim DeKay plays him, that gets to me hardcore. I love that they could so easily have made him the straight man/foil to Neal's sparkly personality and intelligence, but instead he's just as smart and funny himself, but in a totally different way -- it's what makes them work. I will never get tired of his little grins and his little-kid glee at things like the sextant treasure hunt. (He also kinda has, where Neal is concerned, a similar vibe to the one that Sheppard used to give off WRT McKay -- the "you are so amusing and adorable, I'll just happily sit back and watch you do your thing" kind of look. Well, except with the added wrinkle that he does not find it at all amusing when Neal flagrantly breaks the law. But I think he admires Neal's chutzpah even while he's upset by it.)
I would be lying if I said that I didn't watch hoping for whatever h/c they can squeeze in (do more bad things to Peter, show!)
heeee~! I too would be lying if I said I wasn't hoping for that (more like 2x08, plz!), though I also adore seeing Peter go all protective-big-brother on Neal (a la 1x10), so I'm perfectly happy either way. We definitely need more eps like that ...
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Also YES THIS. Hee~!
(...I kind of admit to OT3ing them badly. In a totally non-canonical way, because Peter is straight as a heterosexual arrow and not the polyamourous type, and that's not really how Neal loves Peter. But El would totally be up for it XD)
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(But I also agree about El. XDDD She totally has fantasies about it.)
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But now I don't think Neal is really acknowledging that hurt--he probably thinks he's fine with it, though he's clearly not. And shipper or no, it seemed clear at the end of last season that he was very jealous of Peter and Elizabeth's settled, long term relationship.
So I love the tension in Neal, that he knows he wants something different than what he's had in the past, but he doesn't know what or how to get it and he can't stop being who he is. And Peter, preparing for that moment when Neal's anklet comes off and he has to hope Neal doesn't just disappear again.
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... it's such a complicated show! So much more so than I thought it was going to be at first.
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Made me happy.
(I also adore this show. I watch it, though, mostly because I also find Peter super adorable. Neal is hot, sure, but it's Peter that does it for me. Got be an age thing.)
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(I have noticed a definite trend among the SGA fans who are also White Collar fans, that Rodney people seem to be drawn to Peter, while Sheppard people are more strongly drawn to Neal -- maybe it's a "type" thing.)
And I'm going to have to rewatch that scene with Peter and Mozzie now! I hadn't noticed that ... but of course, I am still getting caught up on the older episodes.