![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
So in order to get my head into writing the White Collar Help_Japan story I've been rewatching season one of white Collar.
Oh, Neal, you are so dang adorable. I keep wanting to kiss the top of his head, he's so cute. I know the show is aiming for him to be suave and sophisticated - which he is - but he's also so wonderfully child-like - a big kid in a candy store :D And Peter, such a sweet dork (and I mean dork in a good way). He's not a bumbling agent - he's too smart for that - he's an exasperated agent who sometimes ends up in these situations that are way over his head. And thanks to Neal, he keeps finding himself in more of those situations.
The ironic thing about White Collar is that it totally blew my expectations. When it was first being advertised the previews were rather misleading, giving me the impression that White Collar was just another show with a cliche hot guy who gets all the girls and sleeps with someone new every other episode. It took me the entire season and a little of season two to realize that I was wrong, that this show wasn't all that typical. For example, yesterday I watched Book of Hours, and today I watched The Portrait. I love how just because a woman is interested in Neal doesn't mean Neal is interested in them. I love in Book of Hours how archeology chick is all over him, inches from his face and he doesn't even move, sometimes doesn't even look at her. In The Portrait, he says up front that the museum curator woman isn't his type. He may flirt, but it doesn't mean anything, because he loves Kate, he wants her back, and that's the end of that. Such Characters like Neal and Peter, who have their one true love, are rare. I wish we had more characters like them, because the sleeps-with-anything-with-breasts characterization is getting old. Strike that, it's gotten old and needs to be retired.
I'm kind of glad that Cruz eventually left and Diana came back. No offense to Cruz fans, but I really didn't like her. To me, she smacked of someone trying to prove themselves. In her case, trying to prove that Neal had no affect on her. But it felt like she was trying too hard, as though trying to shove it in his face that he was nothing special. It's the kind of reaction you see in a lot of shows where one person deep down inside likes another person, but absolutely refuses to give into those feelings by being as condescending to the person as possible. It just... really made me not like her.
But it's been fun watching the show come together from the start, especially knowing where it ends up. The Kate story is also starting to make a lot more sense, where as before there were many aspects to that arc that left me confused. Another thing I like about this show - and, yes, I'm going back to Neal - is how you have this big conspiracy with Neal stuck in the middle against his will. Neal, to me, is such an innocent in some ways - yes, I know, kind of an oxymoron thing to say about Neal, but he is. All he wants is the woman he loves, a secure life and a happily ever after. Deep down inside, he's a pretty simple guy. But you have all these situations, all these people, including Kate herself, tearing him away from his dream in order to fulfill their own wants. You have one side using him, the other side trying to protect him, and poor Neal just trying to see his girl again. Neal is so full of trust and hope that seeing what he's going through is sometimes heart breaking. I love that, and I really hope for something similar next season.
Okay, enough rambling for now, but there may come more as I continue to rewatch season one.
Oh, Neal, you are so dang adorable. I keep wanting to kiss the top of his head, he's so cute. I know the show is aiming for him to be suave and sophisticated - which he is - but he's also so wonderfully child-like - a big kid in a candy store :D And Peter, such a sweet dork (and I mean dork in a good way). He's not a bumbling agent - he's too smart for that - he's an exasperated agent who sometimes ends up in these situations that are way over his head. And thanks to Neal, he keeps finding himself in more of those situations.
The ironic thing about White Collar is that it totally blew my expectations. When it was first being advertised the previews were rather misleading, giving me the impression that White Collar was just another show with a cliche hot guy who gets all the girls and sleeps with someone new every other episode. It took me the entire season and a little of season two to realize that I was wrong, that this show wasn't all that typical. For example, yesterday I watched Book of Hours, and today I watched The Portrait. I love how just because a woman is interested in Neal doesn't mean Neal is interested in them. I love in Book of Hours how archeology chick is all over him, inches from his face and he doesn't even move, sometimes doesn't even look at her. In The Portrait, he says up front that the museum curator woman isn't his type. He may flirt, but it doesn't mean anything, because he loves Kate, he wants her back, and that's the end of that. Such Characters like Neal and Peter, who have their one true love, are rare. I wish we had more characters like them, because the sleeps-with-anything-with-breasts characterization is getting old. Strike that, it's gotten old and needs to be retired.
I'm kind of glad that Cruz eventually left and Diana came back. No offense to Cruz fans, but I really didn't like her. To me, she smacked of someone trying to prove themselves. In her case, trying to prove that Neal had no affect on her. But it felt like she was trying too hard, as though trying to shove it in his face that he was nothing special. It's the kind of reaction you see in a lot of shows where one person deep down inside likes another person, but absolutely refuses to give into those feelings by being as condescending to the person as possible. It just... really made me not like her.
But it's been fun watching the show come together from the start, especially knowing where it ends up. The Kate story is also starting to make a lot more sense, where as before there were many aspects to that arc that left me confused. Another thing I like about this show - and, yes, I'm going back to Neal - is how you have this big conspiracy with Neal stuck in the middle against his will. Neal, to me, is such an innocent in some ways - yes, I know, kind of an oxymoron thing to say about Neal, but he is. All he wants is the woman he loves, a secure life and a happily ever after. Deep down inside, he's a pretty simple guy. But you have all these situations, all these people, including Kate herself, tearing him away from his dream in order to fulfill their own wants. You have one side using him, the other side trying to protect him, and poor Neal just trying to see his girl again. Neal is so full of trust and hope that seeing what he's going through is sometimes heart breaking. I love that, and I really hope for something similar next season.
Okay, enough rambling for now, but there may come more as I continue to rewatch season one.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2011-04-19 01:54 am (UTC)From:no subject
Date: 2011-04-19 01:59 am (UTC)From:no subject
Date: 2011-04-30 03:29 pm (UTC)From:no subject
Date: 2011-05-01 06:29 am (UTC)From:no subject
Date: 2011-05-07 08:44 pm (UTC)From: