{"id":8522,"date":"2010-03-08T23:23:20","date_gmt":"2010-03-09T06:23:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.dreamloom.com\/?p=8522"},"modified":"2010-03-08T23:23:20","modified_gmt":"2010-03-09T06:23:20","slug":"white-collar-out-of-the-box","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.dreamloom.com\/?p=8522","title":{"rendered":"White Collar: “Out of the Box”"},"content":{"rendered":"

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While I find White Collar<\/em> to be a decent diversion and continue to watch it each week, it’s failed to make the leap narratively. I’m sticking around because I think Matt Bomer’s got a lot of charm, I love Willy Garson, and I’m a long-time fan of Tim DeKay’s. ((Plus, I keep hoping Natalie Morales is going to get a bigger role.)) Story-wise, they aren’t treading ground that I haven’t seen on dozens of other shows over the years.<\/p>\n

I just don’t care if Neal ever gets back with Kate. ((The fact that Alexandra Daddario is a blank as Kate doesn’t help the character’s cause. Why the hell is Neal smitten with such a non-entity?)) I’m not sure how much I care about Project Mentor and Fowler and I haven’t found him threatening in the least. Noah Emmerich is a fine actor who can certainly be an intimidating presence and he’s doing what he can with what he’s been given, but there’s just no heat there.<\/p>\n

And of course I’m still stinging from the cheap feint over the mid-season cliffhanger.<\/p>\n

I want this show to be more than it is and I think part of why I’m still watching is the hope that a little of Matt Nix will rub off on Jeff Eastin. I want Neal to do something truly bad to someone who deserves it. I want him to have a dark secret he must keep from Peter bigger than the uninteresting, plain vanilla machinations to steal the music box for Fowler. I want Peter’s threats to send Neal back to prison to be real, to feel like more than the equivalent of Ralph Kramden’s “to the moon, Alice.”<\/p>\n

All of White Collar<\/em>‘s sister shows have embraced the dark to some degree. Even the lightest of light weights,\u00a0Royal Pains<\/em>,\u00a0has demonstrated a willingness to rough up its characters and challenge our assumptions about them. Not so with our mismatched buddies here. Peter is (mostly) a by-the-book guy who grudgingly lets Neal bend the rules a little bit. Neal is a thief with a heart of gold. Mozzie, who at least expresses great antipathy for suits, is nonetheless a pussycat. Where are their edges?<\/p>\n

I guess I shouldn’t be surprised Fowler and the criminals-of-the-week aren’t very intimidating. With such toothless protagonists, it would be terribly unbalanced to have actual bad guys as the bad guys.<\/p>\n

But there is still hope.<\/p>\n

The season finale inches toward the edge of the abyss, keeping its light heart while letting Fowler be a touch more intimidating. Revelations about Mentor and its relationship to Neal add a little spice. And maybe this time, the final shot won’t be a cheap trick to be explained away with a wave of the hand. If the events of Tuesday’s finale hold, it’s just possible that I’ll be watching White Collar<\/em> next year for more than the charm of its leads.<\/p>\n

If you’re hopeful like me, go ahead and give the season finale a chance this Tuesday at 10\/9C on USA.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

While I find White Collar to be a decent diversion and continue to watch it each week, it’s failed to make the leap narratively. I’m sticking around because I think Matt Bomer’s got a lot of charm, I love Willy Garson, and I’m a long-time fan of Tim DeKay’s. ((Plus, I keep hoping Natalie Morales […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"activitypub_content_warning":"","activitypub_content_visibility":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[84],"class_list":["post-8522","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-reviews","tag-usa-network"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dreamloom.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8522","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dreamloom.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dreamloom.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dreamloom.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dreamloom.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8522"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.dreamloom.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8522\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8527,"href":"https:\/\/www.dreamloom.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8522\/revisions\/8527"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dreamloom.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8522"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dreamloom.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8522"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dreamloom.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8522"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}