TV Show Dissection : White Collar
Posted under: TV
Steven and I don’t watch a ton of television. As it happens, we only watch shows that are available on Netflix or DVD.
Let’s just say we’re not fans of commercials.
This means that we tend to find out about great shows a couple years after the rest of the world is over the hype, but great stories are great stories, regardless of when you consume them.
White Collar
White Collar is the story of an FBI agent and the criminal he caught (an art theif and forgery expert) working together to solve crimes.
It’s got all the great “buddy cop” or “bromance” elements that are so much fun to watch, with the added element of neither of them having the luxury of being 100% honest with the other. The criminal has his own agenda (unraveling the mystery of his ex) and the FBI agent knows he can never quite trust the criminal the way he could another FBI agent.
It’s a fantastic combo, and the writers do a great job of weaving the episodal content (solve the crime) in with the series storyline (what’s going on with the ex?).
Supporting cast is incredibly well done, from the other FBI agents to the criminal friends, to the agent’s wife and the criminal’s landlady. I have to admit loving every scene with “Haversham” or El.
The Wife
Speaking of the agent’s wife, I’d like to hug the writers who opted against artificial drama and actually let the agent and his wife have a long-standing and incredibly healthy relationship.
Take my favorite example: during an operation, FBI agent was required to flirt with someone as part of his job. She gave him a business card with her personal phone number on the back. Wife is doing laundry and finds the card. Alarmed, she asks her husband. “Honey, what … what is this?”
“I was going to tell you about that,” he explains, suddenly nervous. “It was part of the operation and I had to flirt with a woman…”
Wife covers her mouth with her hands, her eyes going wide, a fine sheen of tears forming.
In a normal show, this turns into a fight and he gets kicked out of the house and things get tense and unhappy.
In THIS Show, the wife bursts out laughing. “You HATE flirting!” she says. “Oh I hope there were surveillance cameras. I have to watch that.”
Can I tell you how incredibly REFRESHING that is? How marvelous and wonderful and BRAVE the writers are being? I just want to find one of them and hug them, I really do.
The Ex
The series plotline, involving the VERY mysterious circumstances surrounding the criminal’s ex, does a fantastic job of keeping you on pins and needles.
Is she being coerced, or can she not be trusted? Who is pulling the strings? Why would she push the criminal away at the same time as leaving him clues to keep him following her?
His dedication to their relationship is touching and leads to a lot of believable complications with his relationship to the FBI agent.
We’re having a lot of fun pausing the show and spouting off wild theories about what’s actually happening behind the scenes.
Season 1
We just finished Season 1. Season 2 is also available on Netflix and we’ll be starting that (actually may have already started it by the time you’re reading this).
It’s good enough to be stealing gaming time from us. (And that’s some srsbznz)
You
Anyone else seen the show? What do you think?
Do you have any shows that you feel do a great job with characterization and showing healthy relationships? (Excepting My Little Pony : Friendship is Magic. *grin*)
Do you dissect your favorite shows to find ideas for your writing (either what works or what doesn’t work?)
Love, love, LOVE White Collar. I’ve loved it from day one for just the reasons you’ve listed! I watched the first season (and part of the second) when it was on air but then we cut off cable. I recently re-watched everything that was available on Netflix and fell in love all over again.
At first it was hard for me to look at El and not see Kelly (Saved by the Bell, anyone?) but I quickly got over that, mostly because she’s a much better actress now than she was back then :-)
Another show I love for the characters is Sons of Anarchy. It kind of reminds me of Dexter in the sense that the protagonists aren’t the good guys (and really, there aren’t any “good guys” in SoA like there are in Dexter). There’s so much history in the MC and the writers peel back the layers painfully slowly and only give you little nuggets here and there. It’s wonderfully done.
You find yourself really connected to these guys emotionally and then you turn around and realize that you’re rooting for them to kill someone (Agent Stahl, anyone?). They’ve really turned the tables on this one and I for one love it!
(A quick heads up if you’ve haven’t seen it, it’s fairly violent. I wouldn’t say it’s over the top, but there are a few scenes that I wasn’t able to watch.)
I’ve seen some SoA, and Steven’s seen all the first Season.
It was REALLY good, but unfortunately did cross my violence threshold (when it comes to rape, I reach that point really quickly…rape is a button-pusher for me). I will say that the acting in SoA is freaking AMAZING. Everyone did such a great job, but most amazing to me was “Peggy Bundy” who has CLEARLY been under-used as an actress. She blew me away.
And I so freaking love Netflix.
I will say we just finished Season 2 and that last episode was NOT as good. Both of us felt like it was a terrible season-ender, and that it just wasn’t up to the normal quality of the rest of both 1 and 2 in writing.
Do love “The Burke Seven” though. Tee hee.
I agree about the season 2 ender… I’m actually having trouble remembering it. Forgetable is not a good quality in a TV show fianle.
Royal Pains is cute, but that’s the best I can give it. It’s like MacGuyver meets medical drama. It’s fun and inventive, but I find it a little repetitive.
A lot of folks liked Psych and it just didn’t pull the right levers to make me love it.
The new Sherlock show though? Only three episodes long, and I still think that first episode is damn near as good as the movies have been, for totally different reasons.
Oh goodness, K and I love that show. We’ve actually found that almost anything by USA is well done (Psych, Royal Pains, and Burn Notice to name a few).
Totally agree about how they handle El. She’s actually a real woman!
LOVE (lovelovelove) Burn Notice. Love.
<3
I love White Collar! Your dissection is spot-on. It is the characters that make this show engaging and entertaining. It doesn’t matter how cheesy the plot is if you truly care about what happens to the characters.
My husband and I have enjoyed a few other shows from the USA Network that have similar strengths to White Collar, such as Royal Pains, and Burn Notice. Of course we only watch them on Netflix.
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That’s the second shout out to Royal Pains on this thread. I’ll need to check that one out!
Yeah, from the same couple though :P
*laugh* Hey, far as I’m concerned, you both still get to vote!!
White Collar is tied for our #1 slot on television, right now. In fact, we had an interesting debate about which we’d give up if we had to choose between Castle and White Collar. We’re still not sure who won; they’re both absolutely excellent shows. I think you’ll find a lot of the same elements to like about Castle: great supporting characters, excellent writing, fun episodic action mixed in with an engaging larger story, and a sense of dynamic humor in the character relationships that persists and enriches the show.
The rest of our top-five list would have to be: Dexter, Burn Notice, and Eureka on SciFi.
We also watch Once Upon a Time, but at this point I think it’s more out of a desire to like the show than any true love. It’s getting harder and harder to want to watch it. :(
As for writing? Oh, yes. I am always watching what they do and how the dialogue adds to the characters, making mental notes about the dynamics they build. (Personally, I think action is relatively easy in a story; it’s creating engaging and unique characters that are both believable and interesting that I find much more challenging.) If anyone does characters well, it’s these successful TV shows, and I love to analyze which parts of what I love about a character come from the writing and which from the actors. There are lessons to be learned on each side of that equation.
If you like Eureka, check out Warehouse 13. It’s got some goofball stuff in it, but it’s HELLA fun. Not as srsface as my usual tv show love, but it’s definitely on my list (and your list looks a LOOOOOT like my list)
I wish to high heaven Castle was available on instaqueue netflix. I’ve seen enough to know I’ll adore it, but I haven’t had a chance to watch it straight through.
Oh! Also? Pushing Daisies. (again, kind of an “off” recommendation based on our normal stuff, but I can’t not recommend it. Season 2 is weird because they knew they were getting the show cancelled, but Season 1 rocks my argyle socks)
As usual, I am responding in a tangential manner that does not address the question at hand.
We were avid fans of House for a number of years, but have since just quit watching it. We agreed that none of us care any longer about House and that his witty retorts are not enough to make us want to see what happens next.
We have all offered up scenarios in which we think the storyline might have held our interest. We are a bit upset that the writers were unable to contrive such scenarios to make the show better, or at least to prevent it from flat lining as it has.
We no longer have a show that all of us enjoy together, excepting Adventure Time and the Simpsons. Bob and Jacob like Boss and Breaking Bad a lot. Bob had me watch a particular scene from Boss that I have to admit was compelling, but I am late in the game with that show. Breaking Bad is a little rough for me, but they really enjoy it.
I agree on House! The first season was phenomenal, and the following seasons excellent, but there’s been a marked downward spiral that makes me quite sad.
I think they had trouble coming up with seasonal storylines to hold ours (and House’s) interest.
Unfortunately, although the writers are great at the witty one-liners (and the cast quite wonderful actors and actresses), the conflicts all seemed to revolve around building something up and then tearing it back down. And sure, that’s fun for a while, but I stopped looking for a happy ending, and that’s the point where I’m done. I always need to have a hope that there will be a good outcome, and the writers of House have taught me they will deliver no such thing.
I haven’t watched any Breaking Bad, and although I’ve had a ton of people recommend it to me (including random folks at work) the premise just doesn’t draw me in.
I cannot be drawn in with Breaking Bad. I cannot tell you specifically why, I just have not interest in the story or the characters.
I have only seen about half a show of Boss, but that is very good acting, strong writing and an intriguing story. I have to take the time to go back and watch old episodes, and since the boys are ahead of me, I am less motivated to do that than if we were all watching together.
I have watched parts of White Collar, but never a full episode. Unless there is a program that we all like, or a majority of us anyway, the TV is not a big draw in our home. And I, least of all, have little patience of time to sit and watch a show.
We pretty much only watch it years later, after it’s on Netflix and we’ve had folks nag us to watch it.
*laugh* We didn’t even watch Burn Notice till a friend bought us a copy and told us we had to sit down and watch it THAT NIGHT.
In our house we recently went through ALL of the “Cheers” episodes on Netflix. I thought it was a great series with many memorable characters, even if it’s not edgy enough to make most lists. I can’t say the characters really developed per se, but many are well-loved by my family, and the shows were consistently very funny.
I loved a lot of Cheers, but hated the relationship with … the crazy blonde lady, whatever her name was.
That being said, in White Collar, they TOTALLY used a Cheers gag (the one about “I’ll drink that shot without touching my hat”) and I nearly rolled off the couch, I was pointing so hard. *grin*
LOVE White collar!? I can´t wait. Tiffani Amber Thiessen was my favorite on BVHills 90210 and i still love her? devilishness today
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Love this show. Never had time to watch it broadcast but am enjoying the Netflix streams.
By the way…..
It’s spelled THIEF, dear. :-)
I will probably never learn to spell that word correctly.