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White Collar 4x01
I haven't posted anything yet about Tuesday's episode of White Collar because, well first of all, I had a houseful of guests and was only able to get minutes to myself here and there during the week, but second, the episode was ...um. There were things I liked about it, but there were also things that bothered me, and when eventually I put my finger on why it bothered me, my squee collapsed like a punctured balloon.
If you're still on a squee-wave and don't feel like encountering negativity about the show, this post is not recommended.
Okay, so, I adore Peter. I love all the characters a whole lot, but for whatever reason, my secret heart of hearts curled up around Peter. If I don't love Peter, and Neal, and the Peter-Neal relationship, I'm not sure how much I can still love the show.
And I absolutely hated what Peter did in this episode.
When I first watched the episode, I was bothered by Peter deceptively tape-recording his conversation with Neal and then (albeit through carelessness rather than malice) being the one to tip off Collins to Neal and Mozzie's location. My unhappiness with that, especially the last part, didn't really overshadow everything, though. But then I got to thinking about what he'd done, and realized how vile it actually was. Neal and Mozzie were safe, happy and free, but Peter couldn't leave it alone; he had to find Neal, no matter who got hurt, no matter who had to be lied to or betrayed (including Neal himself), and so he ended up destroying their new home and risking their lives. Out of ego. He kicked apart their new life just because he thought they were doing it wrong and he could do it better (which he couldn't, obviously). I am SO disappointed in him. Right now, I don't want to think about this episode, I don't want to watch Tuesday's episode at all ... basically, right now, I just feel like taking a break from the show, period.
The thing about Peter is that I know he's a flawed person -- it's part of what I love about him, especially the way that his flaws are tangled with his strengths (that is, a strength under some conditions is a flaw at other times; this is true of Neal too, and it's one of the things that makes them feel real to me). His "I know better than you do" attitude towards Neal is probably the flaw of his that bothers me most, but it's intrisically tied up with some of his main virtues; his confidence and intelligence, the things that make him a good agent, are also the things that make him confident that he knows what's best for Neal even disregarding Neal's own ideas about himself.
There are times when Peter's invasions of Neal's privacy are a little gratuitous (and sometimes it bothers me a lot), but at the same time it's usually pretty obvious why he's doing what he's doing. He's legally responsible for Neal's actions, and he's also trying to keep Neal on the straight and narrow. At times this becomes a bit skeevy on a personal level (the extent to which he's taken it upon himself to reshape Neal in his own image, although he did seem to be backing off on this a little bit in season three), but he's also kind of Neal's parole officer, and the things Neal does tend to blow back on him, so his interferism at least has legitimate legal and personal reasons for happening. And he really does care about Neal, so there's that too.
But in this episode I felt like Peter crossed the line from concerned friend and parole officer, to creepy, controlling, condescending bastard. He tracked Neal down and basically wrecked Neal's new life for no other reason than because he couldn't believe that Neal could handle things without Peter around to do it for him. Neal and Mozzie didn't want to leave New York, but they landed on their feet and built a new life for themselves on this little island nation of Handwavia. They were happy. Neal asked Peter not to contact him again, to leave him alone. Instead, Peter destroyed Neal and Mozzie's new life and almost got them killed. Not because he had to, not because it was his job, but because he couldn't deal with not having Neal under his control. He ignored Neal's express wishes to be left alone and went ahead and found him anyway, for NO REASON other than he didn't trust Neal to take care of himself and didn't have enough respect for him as a person to abide by Neal's wishes for what Neal wanted done with his life.
The violation of trust makes me so furious -- Neal's trust in Peter not to screw him over, and Ellen's trust, when she gave Peter the pager, that he had Neal's best interests at heart. If the show writers had to do it like this -- with Peter, not Collins, being the one to track Neal down -- I wish they'd just had Peter decide to arrest Neal and Mozzie, and hunt them down for that reason. I could've respected him for just doing his job, especially if he was also a bit conflicted about it. Or better yet, we could've had Collins finding them on his own, and then Peter riding off to the rescue, rather than Peter being the bad guy.
I guess one reason why this is bothering me so much is because this is the first time in the whole history of the show that we've seen how Peter interacts with Neal as an equal. And the answer is ... he can't do it. He can't let go of the idea that he should make Neal's decisions for him, that he knows what Neal needs better than Neal does. It's condescending and paternalistic and stalkery and I absolutely hate it. And I hate that it makes me think so much less of a character that I love(d) so much and want to still be able to love.
This is the first episode in the whole history of the show that made me think Peter has no right being Neal's handler. He should not be in a position of power over someone he treats that way when he's not in a position of power over him. Peter's "I will always find Neal" schtick was something that I'd always kinda liked about him, but this episode casts it in a whole new, creepy, stalkerish light: "I will always find you", even if you don't want me to, even if you have really good reasons for staying away from me and let me know that you want me to stay away. And that's just ... UGH. UGH. No, show, please don't make my favorite character into that kind of person. ;_; Now I'm looking back at the whole show, and seeing a lot of Peter's other behavior in a much uglier light, and just feeling miserable because I love this character so much, and now I'm afraid I'm crushing on a creep ... and now I'm SO CONFLICTED and my emotions are feeling all stomped on.
How can I enjoy this character at all? How can I take pleasure in the Peter-Neal relationship when the show is essentially painting it as codependent and abusive?
But then again, right now I'm in a weird mental place: lonely and let down because my guests are gone and I miss them and I'm all alone, but also stressed and tired because I'm an introvert who's hardly had five minutes to myself all week (and a lot of that time was spent around an extremely energetic, extroverted 8-year-old). And I don't know how much of my unhappiness and anger with the show is just an outward manifestation of being a little bit lonely and conflicted and unhappy in general.
Someone tell me if there are still any reasons to like Peter at all? D: (Well, other than Tim DeKay, who is still awesome.) I'm thinking about rewatching the episode tonight and trying to find some happy bits rather than obsessing on the things I hated, now that I'm able to really focus on it rather than being interrupted every 2 minutes, but I don't know if that'll just leave me feeling even worse.
ETA: Upon rereading, wowwwww, this is even more emo than it felt like when I was writing it. XD I think it is safe to assume that this post is at least partly the result of me being kind of lonely and unhappy at the moment (er, not in a clinically depressed kind of way, just in a MY FRIENDS ARE ALL GONE AND I'M ALONE, WAHHH kind of way), so don't feel like you have to read or comment or anything. I will probably be more cheerful later.
ETA2: Decided to lock comments, because I am in a whiny emo mood and discussing this particular topic in comments is apparently making me even MORE emo and whiny, so in the interests of not encouraging that side of myself, I think I will go make a MORE CHEERFUL post about something else. Sorry if I cut you off in mid-comment, but please respect my desire to stop discussing this by not trying to subvert the comment-lock (e.g. by PMing me, or leaving your response to this entry via comments on other entries). When I feel like discussing it again, I'll enable comments again.
If you're still on a squee-wave and don't feel like encountering negativity about the show, this post is not recommended.
Okay, so, I adore Peter. I love all the characters a whole lot, but for whatever reason, my secret heart of hearts curled up around Peter. If I don't love Peter, and Neal, and the Peter-Neal relationship, I'm not sure how much I can still love the show.
And I absolutely hated what Peter did in this episode.
When I first watched the episode, I was bothered by Peter deceptively tape-recording his conversation with Neal and then (albeit through carelessness rather than malice) being the one to tip off Collins to Neal and Mozzie's location. My unhappiness with that, especially the last part, didn't really overshadow everything, though. But then I got to thinking about what he'd done, and realized how vile it actually was. Neal and Mozzie were safe, happy and free, but Peter couldn't leave it alone; he had to find Neal, no matter who got hurt, no matter who had to be lied to or betrayed (including Neal himself), and so he ended up destroying their new home and risking their lives. Out of ego. He kicked apart their new life just because he thought they were doing it wrong and he could do it better (which he couldn't, obviously). I am SO disappointed in him. Right now, I don't want to think about this episode, I don't want to watch Tuesday's episode at all ... basically, right now, I just feel like taking a break from the show, period.
The thing about Peter is that I know he's a flawed person -- it's part of what I love about him, especially the way that his flaws are tangled with his strengths (that is, a strength under some conditions is a flaw at other times; this is true of Neal too, and it's one of the things that makes them feel real to me). His "I know better than you do" attitude towards Neal is probably the flaw of his that bothers me most, but it's intrisically tied up with some of his main virtues; his confidence and intelligence, the things that make him a good agent, are also the things that make him confident that he knows what's best for Neal even disregarding Neal's own ideas about himself.
There are times when Peter's invasions of Neal's privacy are a little gratuitous (and sometimes it bothers me a lot), but at the same time it's usually pretty obvious why he's doing what he's doing. He's legally responsible for Neal's actions, and he's also trying to keep Neal on the straight and narrow. At times this becomes a bit skeevy on a personal level (the extent to which he's taken it upon himself to reshape Neal in his own image, although he did seem to be backing off on this a little bit in season three), but he's also kind of Neal's parole officer, and the things Neal does tend to blow back on him, so his interferism at least has legitimate legal and personal reasons for happening. And he really does care about Neal, so there's that too.
But in this episode I felt like Peter crossed the line from concerned friend and parole officer, to creepy, controlling, condescending bastard. He tracked Neal down and basically wrecked Neal's new life for no other reason than because he couldn't believe that Neal could handle things without Peter around to do it for him. Neal and Mozzie didn't want to leave New York, but they landed on their feet and built a new life for themselves on this little island nation of Handwavia. They were happy. Neal asked Peter not to contact him again, to leave him alone. Instead, Peter destroyed Neal and Mozzie's new life and almost got them killed. Not because he had to, not because it was his job, but because he couldn't deal with not having Neal under his control. He ignored Neal's express wishes to be left alone and went ahead and found him anyway, for NO REASON other than he didn't trust Neal to take care of himself and didn't have enough respect for him as a person to abide by Neal's wishes for what Neal wanted done with his life.
The violation of trust makes me so furious -- Neal's trust in Peter not to screw him over, and Ellen's trust, when she gave Peter the pager, that he had Neal's best interests at heart. If the show writers had to do it like this -- with Peter, not Collins, being the one to track Neal down -- I wish they'd just had Peter decide to arrest Neal and Mozzie, and hunt them down for that reason. I could've respected him for just doing his job, especially if he was also a bit conflicted about it. Or better yet, we could've had Collins finding them on his own, and then Peter riding off to the rescue, rather than Peter being the bad guy.
I guess one reason why this is bothering me so much is because this is the first time in the whole history of the show that we've seen how Peter interacts with Neal as an equal. And the answer is ... he can't do it. He can't let go of the idea that he should make Neal's decisions for him, that he knows what Neal needs better than Neal does. It's condescending and paternalistic and stalkery and I absolutely hate it. And I hate that it makes me think so much less of a character that I love(d) so much and want to still be able to love.
This is the first episode in the whole history of the show that made me think Peter has no right being Neal's handler. He should not be in a position of power over someone he treats that way when he's not in a position of power over him. Peter's "I will always find Neal" schtick was something that I'd always kinda liked about him, but this episode casts it in a whole new, creepy, stalkerish light: "I will always find you", even if you don't want me to, even if you have really good reasons for staying away from me and let me know that you want me to stay away. And that's just ... UGH. UGH. No, show, please don't make my favorite character into that kind of person. ;_; Now I'm looking back at the whole show, and seeing a lot of Peter's other behavior in a much uglier light, and just feeling miserable because I love this character so much, and now I'm afraid I'm crushing on a creep ... and now I'm SO CONFLICTED and my emotions are feeling all stomped on.
How can I enjoy this character at all? How can I take pleasure in the Peter-Neal relationship when the show is essentially painting it as codependent and abusive?
But then again, right now I'm in a weird mental place: lonely and let down because my guests are gone and I miss them and I'm all alone, but also stressed and tired because I'm an introvert who's hardly had five minutes to myself all week (and a lot of that time was spent around an extremely energetic, extroverted 8-year-old). And I don't know how much of my unhappiness and anger with the show is just an outward manifestation of being a little bit lonely and conflicted and unhappy in general.
Someone tell me if there are still any reasons to like Peter at all? D: (Well, other than Tim DeKay, who is still awesome.) I'm thinking about rewatching the episode tonight and trying to find some happy bits rather than obsessing on the things I hated, now that I'm able to really focus on it rather than being interrupted every 2 minutes, but I don't know if that'll just leave me feeling even worse.
ETA: Upon rereading, wowwwww, this is even more emo than it felt like when I was writing it. XD I think it is safe to assume that this post is at least partly the result of me being kind of lonely and unhappy at the moment (er, not in a clinically depressed kind of way, just in a MY FRIENDS ARE ALL GONE AND I'M ALONE, WAHHH kind of way), so don't feel like you have to read or comment or anything. I will probably be more cheerful later.
ETA2: Decided to lock comments, because I am in a whiny emo mood and discussing this particular topic in comments is apparently making me even MORE emo and whiny, so in the interests of not encouraging that side of myself, I think I will go make a MORE CHEERFUL post about something else. Sorry if I cut you off in mid-comment, but please respect my desire to stop discussing this by not trying to subvert the comment-lock (e.g. by PMing me, or leaving your response to this entry via comments on other entries). When I feel like discussing it again, I'll enable comments again.