Monsters of Television

“You have a nice little practice going?”
“I do all right.”

“How do you expect to fool them into thinking it’s me?”
“By using another black man and the assumption that all black men look the same to the upper-middle class.”
“That’s dash cunning.”
“We know.

So White Collar is starting to remind me of Chuck and it’s not just the Bryce Larkin connection.

Chuck has been a spy for over three years now and, though he’s supposed to be a “secret” agent, he’s been implicating his friends and family into his web of subterfuge and awkwardness little by little since then. The very people he explicitly stated that he never wanted to affect with the job that fell in his lap are now either knowledgeable of what Chuck does or actively participate in missions, exposed to danger exacted by enemy agents and even Chuck himself.

While I don’t think Neal is carelessly exposing his loved ones to danger, he does implicate his criminal friends into FBI cases and missions in exchange for immunity, passes, and what I can only assume is healthy compensation from Uncle Sam.  Mozzie doesn’t seem like the type to work pro bono for the Suits. And now even Alex is involved.

Who’s next? June? Dead Kate Who Is Not Really Dead? Is there anyone Neal has left in his life that is still a criminal? And, if not, with his solving crime and everyone he knows being in cahoots with the Law, what gray area is left for him to raise the stakes?

Read more »

“That’ll do, pig.  That’ll do.”

Let’s just give up the pretense and call it the Peter and Mozzie Show.

For a show that likes for Neal to operate in such a moral gray area they really don’t like their good guys to be bad, do they?

After yet another false cliffhanger from last episode (Diana having the music box locked away), I’m not sure if the show is just going to constantly pitch me on their good guys going rogue (even if they never do) or if it’s setting me up, crying “villain” until I don’t believe it then flipping the script when Peter takes off his mask and reveals that he’s really Kate or something.  For now, however, the good guy characters are very much good guy characters, no matter how much they try to fake me out.

In fact, everyone in the series is pretty much a white hat right now.  Neal operating in his gray area of the law has almost evaporated with the “death” of Kate.  There is no seasonal villain now that Fowler has gone underground, just a mystery left from the detritus of last season’s botched music box hand-off.  Neal has stopped his search for what happened and just works for the FBI now, nothing extracurricular.  The only connection he has to his past life is Mozzie, and even Mozzie is warming to the suits.

So even this show, once upon a time steeped with the story-world-consuming (if completely annoying) seasonal search for Kate, is kind of becoming the thinly-plotted but character-heavy fare summer USA is known to do and do well.

And we’re kind of fine with that.

Read more »

“Do your thing, Dirty Harry.”

Peter: “How can I be cool again?” Mozzie: “First, I’d have to disabuse you of the notion that you were ever cool before.”

USA keeps reminding me their programming focus is on character. And that might be the only reason I’m coming back to White Collar.

The kinks in the partnership between Neal and Peter have been worked out from a chemistry perspective if not narratively. The glimmers of hope for a great buddy cop show (with federal-agent-procedural stakes) have been more or less fulfilled, demonstrated by Neal and Peter’s first conversation. Neal is no longer the criminal Peter feels he has to be skeptical of. They’re partners now and, while the cop in him is still skeptical, Peter is willing to accept the sketchier parts of Neal’s life (i.e. Mozzie) in order to maintain the friendship.

And that’s what this first episode is all about: the further establishment of the trust bond between these two former rivals, the progression of their mutual respect. Neal continues his track of warming to rule of law and Peter finds deeper sympathy for the devil. Every step of this episode is to further demonstrate how good a team they’ve become, from Peter’s restrained desperation to get Neal back on the force to their non-verbal (or monosyllabic) communication to Peter’s desire to find ways into Neal’s probably grief-stricken head. The stuff with Mozzie is very telling of the esteem in which they hold each other (because Mozzie wouldn’t trust Suit if Neal didn’t trust him). Other characters fall to the wayside in pursuit of this establishment but, let’s face it, even though Neal’s realtionship with her is funny and Peter’s sweet, no one is watching this show for Elizabeth Burke (who makes a single, superfluous, green-screen appearance).

Here’s the thing: as nuanced and developed as the characters are, I’m not sure I could care less about the story.

Read more »

“Into the fire.”

Mozzie, tugging at the heart strings. Don’t cry, buddy.

It’s all come down to this. Neal, after working for the feds all season, and doing a good job (sometimes so good I wonder how Burke even caught him in the first place), is ready to possibly throw it all away for the dream of a girl he fetishizes and the proverbial “one last job.” Aided by the decidedly hotter Alex and the always faithful Mozzie, the team prepares a plan to steal the music box from the Italian consulate during a conveniently-planned gala. Peter knows Neal is up to something and crashes their planning party. Peter tries to talk Neal out of doing anything illegal but the smarmy look Neal always wears tells Burke that it’s going to happen anyway. Peter’s parting words: “Do the right thing, Neal.”

Central to this series is what Neal thinks is the right thing. He is a principled man, a cultured man, a man both polite and courteous, not even prone to jackassery. By all outward appearances, a gentleman. But then again, he’ll also rob people blind for motives that aren’t entirely clear. Does he only defraud those he feels can afford it? Does he rob just because he likes the nice things? Or does he buck society for some other deep-seated reason? In a binary world, he appears to ride the fence of good and evil, leaning toward one side or the other whenever it suits his purposes. For Neal, though, the world is not binary. It’s all gray. The right thing here is to save Kate. That is his responsibility. And, despite the woman right there that obviously still holds a torch for him, he has an obligation to see this through and chase the dream. The only way to do that is to skirt the law.

Read more »

“Time to get into character.”

I’m not even sure how Diane Neal has any hair left.

One can say there are many themes to this show. Maybe it’s to create a new kind of buddy cop/detective story, a “bromance” (even typing the word puts a foul taste in my mouth) of sorts between past enemies learning from one another. Or it’s about the true meaning of “thick as thieves” growing beyond the criminal aspect and into the bonds all people share. Or maybe it’s all just Matt Bomer starring in sartorial and haberdashery porn. It’s all of these things. But, at the very heart of the show, White Collar is about the morality of Neal Caffrey.

This is no surprise to anyone that’s seen an episode of this ending-too-soon first season but this is the episode that most deftly negotiated the different aspects of Neal’s life: the sharp criminal mind, the heart of gold, and the gray moral ground those two things occupy.

The episode starts with an offer. Neal has been tracking down this music box for a few episodes, mercifully giving another name to his mission of rescuing Kate. For a while, he was saying the name “Kate” so much, I was pretty sure Pee Wee Herman was right and he was actually going to wear it out. Alex, another pretty brunette (the producers just are not into blondes), his spurned ex-lover/partner, has the location of the music box but won’t work with a Fed. To prove himself, he has to get rid of the anklet by the next evening. If this were any other show you might wonder, “How the heck is he going to do that?” But this is Neal so, really, you just have to wonder how it’s just going to work out in his favor. Turns out the Feds are going to do it for him.

Read more »

“Image is everything.”

White Collar has been a frustrating show. With each passing episode, the show lost a little bit of its charm, its energy, and general pizazz that really turned me on during the pilot. Neal and Peter’s relationship, what should be the driving force behind the show, felt ill-defined, as Peter goes between trusting Neal and thinking’s he’s a total crook to asking the guy for advice on how to improve his marriage. And Peter’s a remarkably competent agent and man, so these little bouts seem forced, to create some tension that never fully surfaces.

Neal, on the other hand, is held down by the elusive Kate, a plot that was DOA because I didn’t have a reason to give a damn about Kate except that Neal does (and I need a bit more than that, as likable as Matt Bomer is). And the shadowy “Man With The Ring” aspect didn’t help matters any. It led to a wide guessing game of who it could be, enhanced by notion that it was someone at the FBI. I jokingly tweeted that the show wasn’t dark enough for it be Peter.

But then the mini-break episode came and we find Kate entering a hotel room. In front of her, sitting in a chair, is “Man With The Ring” and *GASP* it’s Peter! Craziness ensues. I snark that the ring is making Peter evil (he never has the ring on otherwise!) and it’s up to Neal and Mozzie to bring the damn thing to Mount Doom. I had already put the show on a fairly short leash with the decline in interesting stories, but with this (alleged) reveal, I was hooked for at least one more episode to see how/if the show figured out way to get itself out of this corner. Read more »

As Nick noted, USA Network is rapidly becoming the spy-procedural channel, much in the way CBS has become the cop-procedural channel. Their recent announcement of Covert Affairs (punny), a show about  CIA newbie Annie Walker (portrayed by Piper Perabo) who for some reason becomes a field operative and is dealing with the break-up with a mysterious boyfriend who happens to be of interest to her boss. (You can read the full rundown from THR here.)

But what’s more is that while CBS has replicated its procedural approach across many of its dramas, USA is hybridizing its shows to create its network identity without getting the ribbing CBS does for its CSI-cloning. Read more »