Women's History Month Day 2
Day Two: Favorite supporting female character:
Oh my god, do you KNOW how hard it was to narrow this down? Especially since even as there are a LOT of awesome asskicking female leads there are even more awesome female supporting cast? (Day Thirty is going to be SUCH A LONG POST)
But in the end, I broke it down to what made a supporting character awesome, and came up with Elizabeth Burke.
"But Cero, she doesn't kick asses", I know that's what you're thinking. But the thing is? She doesn't HAVE to. What makes her great isn't her ability to outshine any guy but her ability to help them shine even brighter. Without her, Peter would be stodgy and boring. He wouldn't bend to HALF of the schemes Neal puts forth. Without her, Mozzie wouldn't be as loveable. He'd just be that weird friend who hangs around with Neal. He wouldn't be helping out the 'suit'. Without her you wouldn't have any characterization for Jones besides black guy in the van. The first time that you see him have actual characterization is when he's watching over her and Mozzie. And without her, Neal wouldn't be moving from the con-life as well as he is.
And yet? She isn't just some fifties housewife who subsumes her identity in her darling husbands, forgives every slight, and could just as easily be played by a cardboard cut out. She has her own job, her own freaking COMPANY. She and Peter have their own language, and she knows Peter's not going to pick up the dry cleaning if he's overworked and she just picks it up herself, instead of most wives on TV who whine and bitch and turn it into a point of contention. When Peter misses a meal, she gives it to the dog. Does it irk her sometimes? Probably, but she's been married to him for ten years. She obviously knows what's the what. She also made room in her life for Neal, and is something of a big sister type to him, and he respects her so much that it's not the FBI who can really put the breaks on him, it's her. When Peter was kidnapped he told her that he'd do whatever she wanted him to do. To put it like Peter does, they WORK. Their strengths lend each other. She's honestly the heart of the show, and without her, it wouldn't be White Collar. It'd be dull and not nearly as much fun.
She's also a ball, when she's teaching Peter to flirt, or to be Neal (which pretty much amounts to the same thing) And she's not teaching him to flirt with her, she's teaching him so he can flirt with people on the job. She does reap the benefits, but it's not the aim of the project. She's awesome when Neal is going behind Peter's back and enlisting her in whatever his harebrained scheme is, because you KNOW that she knows what's going on, and she's fully on board with it. And when she turns on the sex appeal? WHOOOEEE. As a fully straight woman? I WOULD GO GAY FOR THAT.
Oh my god, do you KNOW how hard it was to narrow this down? Especially since even as there are a LOT of awesome asskicking female leads there are even more awesome female supporting cast? (Day Thirty is going to be SUCH A LONG POST)
But in the end, I broke it down to what made a supporting character awesome, and came up with Elizabeth Burke.
"But Cero, she doesn't kick asses", I know that's what you're thinking. But the thing is? She doesn't HAVE to. What makes her great isn't her ability to outshine any guy but her ability to help them shine even brighter. Without her, Peter would be stodgy and boring. He wouldn't bend to HALF of the schemes Neal puts forth. Without her, Mozzie wouldn't be as loveable. He'd just be that weird friend who hangs around with Neal. He wouldn't be helping out the 'suit'. Without her you wouldn't have any characterization for Jones besides black guy in the van. The first time that you see him have actual characterization is when he's watching over her and Mozzie. And without her, Neal wouldn't be moving from the con-life as well as he is.
And yet? She isn't just some fifties housewife who subsumes her identity in her darling husbands, forgives every slight, and could just as easily be played by a cardboard cut out. She has her own job, her own freaking COMPANY. She and Peter have their own language, and she knows Peter's not going to pick up the dry cleaning if he's overworked and she just picks it up herself, instead of most wives on TV who whine and bitch and turn it into a point of contention. When Peter misses a meal, she gives it to the dog. Does it irk her sometimes? Probably, but she's been married to him for ten years. She obviously knows what's the what. She also made room in her life for Neal, and is something of a big sister type to him, and he respects her so much that it's not the FBI who can really put the breaks on him, it's her. When Peter was kidnapped he told her that he'd do whatever she wanted him to do. To put it like Peter does, they WORK. Their strengths lend each other. She's honestly the heart of the show, and without her, it wouldn't be White Collar. It'd be dull and not nearly as much fun.
She's also a ball, when she's teaching Peter to flirt, or to be Neal (which pretty much amounts to the same thing) And she's not teaching him to flirt with her, she's teaching him so he can flirt with people on the job. She does reap the benefits, but it's not the aim of the project. She's awesome when Neal is going behind Peter's back and enlisting her in whatever his harebrained scheme is, because you KNOW that she knows what's going on, and she's fully on board with it. And when she turns on the sex appeal? WHOOOEEE. As a fully straight woman? I WOULD GO GAY FOR THAT.