Yeah, I don't think it's gone downhill at all, and I totally agree -- everything that people complain about in season three was there all along, in my opinion: the trust issues and the working behind each other's backs, all of it. I do find myself having more emotional ups and downs watching it in realtime than watching the episodes all in a batch -- I think my reactions to the last few episodes demonstrates that; it was all over the map, and the more time I had to think about the episode, the more it changed -- but the writing and acting and all of it is still great! And I'm dying for the next episode. :D (So long to WAAAAAAAIIIIT. *wails*)
I love that it sticks with its MO while at the same time tries different things with that MO, because it makes it a show I can trust without it becoming formulaic and boring.
Yes! White Collar does a better job with that than any show I can think of off the top of my head. It changes things up enough not to get repetitive (there are some shows, like NCIS, that I've stopped watching because they just got so formulaic that I wasn't enjoying them anymore), but I'm reasonably confident that the show is not going to break my heart -- I can get deeply invested in the characters and character relationships without being afraid that they're going to do a major shake-up and leave me unhappy.
I also love that they put so much into all the character relationships on the show. It could easily have been just the Neal and Peter show, but I think it's so much better because it also has the Neal and Mozzie friendship, or Mozzie and Elizabeth, or Peter/El, or Neal and Diana's friendship, or Neal and June ... even the little moments that we get between characters like Peter and Alex, or Sara and June, or Mozzie and Sally! You get the feeling that everybody, the actors and writers and producers and all the people who make the show, are very invested in the characters and love them as much as the viewers do. And that translates into the general feeling of what we're getting onscreen.
... heh, not to mention that for me as a writer, the show has opened up a whole new realm of plots that I haven't explored yet. :D Nearly everything I've written to date has been in sci-fi and fantasy fandoms (or original sci-fi or fantasy novels), but I've always really loved heist and con shows and movies, and I am absolutely brimming over with story ideas! On top of EVERYTHING else, the original novel that I'm currently writing is set in New York (by total coincidence; it predates my infatuation with White Collar), which means that the research I'm doing overlaps really well. It's just working out very well as a complementary fandom to the other stuff I'm writing right now.
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I love that it sticks with its MO while at the same time tries different things with that MO, because it makes it a show I can trust without it becoming formulaic and boring.
Yes! White Collar does a better job with that than any show I can think of off the top of my head. It changes things up enough not to get repetitive (there are some shows, like NCIS, that I've stopped watching because they just got so formulaic that I wasn't enjoying them anymore), but I'm reasonably confident that the show is not going to break my heart -- I can get deeply invested in the characters and character relationships without being afraid that they're going to do a major shake-up and leave me unhappy.
I also love that they put so much into all the character relationships on the show. It could easily have been just the Neal and Peter show, but I think it's so much better because it also has the Neal and Mozzie friendship, or Mozzie and Elizabeth, or Peter/El, or Neal and Diana's friendship, or Neal and June ... even the little moments that we get between characters like Peter and Alex, or Sara and June, or Mozzie and Sally! You get the feeling that everybody, the actors and writers and producers and all the people who make the show, are very invested in the characters and love them as much as the viewers do. And that translates into the general feeling of what we're getting onscreen.
... heh, not to mention that for me as a writer, the show has opened up a whole new realm of plots that I haven't explored yet. :D Nearly everything I've written to date has been in sci-fi and fantasy fandoms (or original sci-fi or fantasy novels), but I've always really loved heist and con shows and movies, and I am absolutely brimming over with story ideas! On top of EVERYTHING else, the original novel that I'm currently writing is set in New York (by total coincidence; it predates my infatuation with White Collar), which means that the research I'm doing overlaps really well. It's just working out very well as a complementary fandom to the other stuff I'm writing right now.