exhausted is the new awake
Worked an overnight. And then some. I have to be up tomorrow morning at the time I finally crawled into bed today. Fun! Also, an excuse to eschew transitions.
I am excited for White Collar's return tomorrow! With two notable exceptions, the black widow episode of plot and characterization idiocy and Mozzie's hiring of an inept contractor (seriously, Mozzie doesn't know a guy who could actually solve the Keller problem instead of just throwing the contract out to Any Random Criminal in town?! He should get a refund), I have really enjoyed the third season. Mostly, because this season is the culmination of three years of substantial, but believable/organic character growth.
I'm going to preface this by saying that I love amoral characters. I find them fascinating. Maybe because I am so very rules-driven myself, I don't know, but I love characters who live outside the regular rules, who break laws as readily as social conventions.
Neal has always been one of those characters. His motivations for playing (largely) within the rules for the first two seasons were completely external. He wanted to find Kate, so he needed to get out of prison -- and to stay out, without having to worry about law enforcement breathing down his neck while he's trying to find out where she went and why. Sure, he does a lot of good during the first season. He and Peter make a good 'team' -- but Neal has one foot out the door the whole time. He needs Peter/the FBI, so he'll solve their cases and play by their rules. He's not driven by a sense of justice. The notable exceptions are "Vital Signs," when he brings a case affecting June to Peter's attention, and "The Portrait," wherein Neal 'returns' a forged painting to a museum after he decides that the museum's claim is shady. But in both of those episodes, Neal's decisions seem based, not on some higher generalized concept of justice, but rather his connection to the victims (and arguably his dislike of the museum rep).
The second season is much the same: Neal needs access to the FBI to unravel the mystery of Kate's murder. Maybe he enjoys the game. Maybe he's discovered that the thrill of the chase is still there from the right side of the law. Maybe he likes Peter and receiving Peter's approval. But he doesn't have to think about why he's helping Peter: he's helping Peter because he needs Peter.
In the third season... those external motivators are gone. He found and lost Kate. He solved the mystery of her death, and he's put those behind it behind bars or (thanks to Peter) under ground. And thanks to Mozzie, he has a share in the score of the century waiting for him. He has no reason to stay and work with Peter.
And yet.
To me, that's where things got interesting. Because Neal could walk away and disappear. But he can no longer do it without regrets, and that means he's had to reevaluate who he is on a very fundamental level. Do I think he's suddenly found a moral compass? Not really -- or at least, not one that matches up with society at large any better than it did in the first season. He cares about the people he cares about, not 'people' in general. I love the compartmentalizing he does -- when he's with Mozzie, he seems utterly sincere about leaving; when he's around Peter, it's impossible to imagine him going. But he can't put the decision off forever -- he can't have both lives. Neal has to figure out if he's still the con artist... or if he's really the CI.
And of course, it's after he's made his decision to stay, to play (more or less) by the rules, to throw in with Peter on a permanent basis when his past, and his secrets, catch up to him in a big way.
Seriously, why is it not tomorrow yet!
This past week, I had a dream which perhaps should have been about meeting a celebrity I only know/care about at all due to bandom flisters, but was actually about attempting to text about seeing said celebrity to said flisters and my complete inability to capslock on my so-called smart phone. I had a dream about (failing at) texting. Awesome.
This week's Supernatural!!! LOVE. Who do we know who could play Eliot Ness in a time travel episode? I don't know, Nicholas Lea? Also, the offhand, complete dismissal of Dean's manpain was DELIGHTFUL. ALL THE LOVE. Also, last week's! ♥ I am really enjoying this season, you guys, [massive season break spoiler] and all.
I have an invite for a Chinese New Year party, but due to the time change between my house and the hostess's, I'm going to have to decline because I'm working until too late that Saturday. I'm feeling sulky about it. Woe.
Still vaguely mean to do the year-end writing meme. Maybe I shall do it for the start of the year of the dragon. (Relatedly, I am have age-shock at it being the year of the dragon again.) In the meantime, most-not-all of my fics for the year were crossposted to
ifreet, and I can now claim authorship of my dSSS story lex parsimoniae, post Call of the Wild Fraser/Vecchio through a Turnbull POV with shades of Turnbull/Kowalski by the end. Also, I should respond to comments on AO3.
Ok. Back to writing. For real.
... or maybe going home to continue operation Clean All the Things? I've been shredding an entire shoebox of old photos. I keep wishing I were crafty enough to do something with the resultant confetti -- it looks really cool. Oh, man, I'm considering using housework to procrastinate from writing fanfic. /o\
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I am excited for White Collar's return tomorrow! With two notable exceptions, the black widow episode of plot and characterization idiocy and Mozzie's hiring of an inept contractor (seriously, Mozzie doesn't know a guy who could actually solve the Keller problem instead of just throwing the contract out to Any Random Criminal in town?! He should get a refund), I have really enjoyed the third season. Mostly, because this season is the culmination of three years of substantial, but believable/organic character growth.
I'm going to preface this by saying that I love amoral characters. I find them fascinating. Maybe because I am so very rules-driven myself, I don't know, but I love characters who live outside the regular rules, who break laws as readily as social conventions.
Neal has always been one of those characters. His motivations for playing (largely) within the rules for the first two seasons were completely external. He wanted to find Kate, so he needed to get out of prison -- and to stay out, without having to worry about law enforcement breathing down his neck while he's trying to find out where she went and why. Sure, he does a lot of good during the first season. He and Peter make a good 'team' -- but Neal has one foot out the door the whole time. He needs Peter/the FBI, so he'll solve their cases and play by their rules. He's not driven by a sense of justice. The notable exceptions are "Vital Signs," when he brings a case affecting June to Peter's attention, and "The Portrait," wherein Neal 'returns' a forged painting to a museum after he decides that the museum's claim is shady. But in both of those episodes, Neal's decisions seem based, not on some higher generalized concept of justice, but rather his connection to the victims (and arguably his dislike of the museum rep).
The second season is much the same: Neal needs access to the FBI to unravel the mystery of Kate's murder. Maybe he enjoys the game. Maybe he's discovered that the thrill of the chase is still there from the right side of the law. Maybe he likes Peter and receiving Peter's approval. But he doesn't have to think about why he's helping Peter: he's helping Peter because he needs Peter.
In the third season... those external motivators are gone. He found and lost Kate. He solved the mystery of her death, and he's put those behind it behind bars or (thanks to Peter) under ground. And thanks to Mozzie, he has a share in the score of the century waiting for him. He has no reason to stay and work with Peter.
And yet.
To me, that's where things got interesting. Because Neal could walk away and disappear. But he can no longer do it without regrets, and that means he's had to reevaluate who he is on a very fundamental level. Do I think he's suddenly found a moral compass? Not really -- or at least, not one that matches up with society at large any better than it did in the first season. He cares about the people he cares about, not 'people' in general. I love the compartmentalizing he does -- when he's with Mozzie, he seems utterly sincere about leaving; when he's around Peter, it's impossible to imagine him going. But he can't put the decision off forever -- he can't have both lives. Neal has to figure out if he's still the con artist... or if he's really the CI.
And of course, it's after he's made his decision to stay, to play (more or less) by the rules, to throw in with Peter on a permanent basis when his past, and his secrets, catch up to him in a big way.
Seriously, why is it not tomorrow yet!
This past week, I had a dream which perhaps should have been about meeting a celebrity I only know/care about at all due to bandom flisters, but was actually about attempting to text about seeing said celebrity to said flisters and my complete inability to capslock on my so-called smart phone. I had a dream about (failing at) texting. Awesome.
This week's Supernatural!!! LOVE. Who do we know who could play Eliot Ness in a time travel episode? I don't know, Nicholas Lea? Also, the offhand, complete dismissal of Dean's manpain was DELIGHTFUL. ALL THE LOVE. Also, last week's! ♥ I am really enjoying this season, you guys, [massive season break spoiler] and all.
I have an invite for a Chinese New Year party, but due to the time change between my house and the hostess's, I'm going to have to decline because I'm working until too late that Saturday. I'm feeling sulky about it. Woe.
Still vaguely mean to do the year-end writing meme. Maybe I shall do it for the start of the year of the dragon. (Relatedly, I am have age-shock at it being the year of the dragon again.) In the meantime, most-not-all of my fics for the year were crossposted to
ifreet, and I can now claim authorship of my dSSS story lex parsimoniae, post Call of the Wild Fraser/Vecchio through a Turnbull POV with shades of Turnbull/Kowalski by the end. Also, I should respond to comments on AO3.
Ok. Back to writing. For real.
... or maybe going home to continue operation Clean All the Things? I've been shredding an entire shoebox of old photos. I keep wishing I were crafty enough to do something with the resultant confetti -- it looks really cool. Oh, man, I'm considering using housework to procrastinate from writing fanfic. /o\
The Dreamwidth version of this entry currently has
comments.