A Tale of Two Canons: White Collar and Suits

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Here's the thing--when White Collar started in 2009, I really struggled with it.

I mean, I got it, the appeal. Matt Bomer was a sexy BAMF seen previously on Tru Calling, Traveler, and Chuck, he's smoking and has that endearing hipster gay thing going on. Tim DeKay has been on basically every show that's aired since 1996 (though I personally liked him first from SeaQuest) and I don't know about you, but I started watching because I had a love connection with Tiffani Theissen on Fastlane that I've never abandoned. (Especially not now, lord have mercy that woman is built.)

But I wasn't up for The Adventures of Two Special White Guys again. I was frustrated with the cable networks for being uninventive in their casting and programming, frustrated with fandom because I knew White Collar was a recipe for slashy slashiness and was going to get a following no matter what. Especially when you add in the whole authority angle, and the hurt/comfort angle, and the likable thief angle. But I wanted something else, something that played with the tropes but inverted them as well; I wanted Psych, at least the parts of Psych that aren't white or white-washed. Or heteronormative.

What I'm saying is that it took a lot of convincing from my friend L to get me to really sit down and watch it, and what kept me around was all the things there are to like about it--Diana, Elizabeth and Peter's marriage, June's existence, the supporting characters. It actually took almost the whole first season for me to grudgingly admit I was into it, and the thing that kept me from being all college freshman feminist about it was the Peter/Elizabeth/Neal aspect which did, finally, become the predominant ship in the fandom (much to my relief).

I mean, fandom sees Psych and ships Shawn/Lassiter. What even is that. I'm not going to knock anyone's pairing--god knows I've liked the minor ships in my time--but I completely fail to see how to view the OTP as anything other than Gus and Shawn, a life partnership with a whole lot of gay. And yet, for the first four, maybe five years that Psych was around I could count the Gus/Shawn stories on one hand. That whole ship is the special guy and the guy that follows him around, i.e. Holmes/Watson, House/Wilson, etc. etc. etc.

Similarly, one of my longstanding bafflements was when The Dead Zone finally made it on to fandom's radar. I watched that show with an embarrassing fervor stemming from a visceral love of Anthony Michael Hall. (Thanks John Hughes.) And I wrote fic for it, too, of which there was very little for the first number of years. Same set-up as above: special guy and the guy that follows him around, namely Johnny and Bruce, who are together from day one. And somehow fandom, when it eventually turned its slashy eyes towards TDZ, thought Johnny and the dude that married Johnny's kid's mother and busted on him constantly, was the OTP. The mind boggles.

All this to say that when White Collar premiered I didn't have a lot of thrill going on; which is why I'm kind of shocked at the completely immediate way I've reacted to Suits. Same basic premise: special (white) guy encounters other white guy and they have adventures only they can have. Gayness included at point of sale. And I want to have problems with it, I do. I know from The Sentinel, I know from due South, I know from The Mentalist and House and Merlin that this is a pre-packaged Special White Guy sandwich of slash and yet I can't help myself.

Here's why I think this is so:

1. It has the mentor-student/authority role structure that I secretly crave without the abuse of power issues inherent in Peter and Neal.
2. Gina Torres.
3. I am a sucker for menswear and Harvey wears a three piece suits with double vents, peaked lapels and a full Windsor.
4. Everyone is kind of bitchy on this show and I like snappy comebacks.
5. Despite the racial and heteronormative flaws of apparently every cable show out there, I remain a key audience for shows where remarkable people are given opportunities to extend their talents despite previous circumstances.

I don't know. I eventually got over (most) of my concerns about White Collar, particularly given the supporting casts' diversity. And one day, like Psych, I believe there will be more than one show out there with a lead cast member who is a person of color and/or a queer person and/or not male and not relegated to "recurring character" or "supporting cast member." But even with Gina Torres, who I still worship like she's Jasmine and dream of like she's Zoe, until there's one episode that's about her and not about Harvey and Mike's happy funtimes together, that's supporting cast. And that bothers me.

But not as much as it should, which bothers me even more.