sholio: Peter and Elizabeth from White Collar kissing (WhiteCollar-Peter El kiss)
Sholio ([personal profile] sholio) wrote 2012-11-17 03:22 am (UTC)

I love them. :D I think they're a very rare example of a TV married couple done right. I also appreciate that the writers and the actors seem to be completely on board with them just the way they are, which gives me an unusual level of confidence that the show is not going to fuck them up in some horrendous way.

... having said that, I do wish that the show gave Elizabeth more to do as a character. I appreciate tremendously that they invent reasons for her to be in every episode, and to interact with characters other than Peter, when it would be awfully easy for them to just shove her off to the side. But it's relatively rare when she gets to do something more interesting than make supportive noises at Peter and smile at his and Neal's antics. Tiffani does the best she can with what she's got, but she often doesn't have a whole lot to work with. And we almost never see El having her own life, as opposed to showing up when she intersects Peter and Neal's.

Having said that, however, one thing I particularly like about the Burkes (besides their lack of domestic strife and general adorableness) is that we see them sharing the household chores and basically acting as equal partners in the marriage. I know that it's a little thing, but they're such a heteronormative couple in so many ways that I really appreciate the fact that the show doesn't default to, say, Elizabeth doing all the cooking and cleaning, or to Peter making all the decisions without El getting a voice. And it seems stupid that it needs to be commented upon, but the sad thing is that it's awfully easy for even well-meaning writers to fall back on those standard, sexist tropes, especially when it's all taking place in the background. So I really appreciate that we see "manly man" Peter cooking and cleaning off the table and ironing his own shirts.

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