Let&#39;s Shake Some Art

I second that!!!

I don't care for the mistakes, either! I even didn't notice them all. And if the people on that island have been white or black because it should have been an African island... it's not the point of the story.

For me only Neal & Peter and Mozzie, Jones, Elizabeth and Diana count. I got my full dose of Peter & Neal, I got a heartfelt hug, I got smiles, I got looks, I got humor and fun and I got my personal kick out of the episodes. Those episodes make me happy, I always watched them both three times. I can't stop!

And all this wonderful dialogue! And they are back in New York now and can do their work there and I'm sure this time Neal will help Peter to get back his job because he knows that Peter lost it because of him.

I'm happy that my beloved show is back and I count the days for the next episode and I already know that I'm going to cry when the next hiatus will be coming.

But then again, therefore fanfiction was invented, right?

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winterstar95.livejournal.com

I'm jumping on here to comment, hope you don;t mind. My fannish rant might have been one you read. My rant came from my deep seeded fear that the mistakes will lead to WC being canceled earlier than it should. I don't want to see it disappear for at least two years. If it continues on its downward slide :(. So I rant about it because I fear for it. But I agree I am thrilled to have our boys back anyway I can get 'em! So I'm good, just wish the casual WC viewer would reappear. KWIM?

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:-) of course I don't mind. I wouldn't have posted anything if I wasn't open to discussion.
But, you know, I did read yours (among others) and I agree with most of it. And I agree with you, I don't want the show to disappear !! (I can't imagine what I will do once the series is over. Getting back to work I guess ;-) )
But I also do feel that this double premiere wasn't meant for new viewers to begin with. It was more of a little escapade, playing around the established mythology, for the pleasure of the regular viewers. It is season 4, they can do that. And now that we are back in NY, we will be back to our familiar case of the week full of shenanigans.

My post is not "against" the rant posts. It is just that reading those, it made me think to much about the flaws of the episodes, and took away a little bit the pure joy I felt watching brand new WC episodes. So I thought we needed some counterbalance. ;)

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Well, I noticed the ratings and they aren't as good as they probably should be but still almost 3 Mio. viewers. I fear as well that USA is going to cancel the show if the ratings keep falling. I hope that they will go up again so we would have at least a season 5. I wouldn't know what to do without the show, either.

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doctor-fangeek.livejournal.com

I totally get the concern - a couple of years ago, maybe, I got sucked into some rather obsessive ratings watching. The current ratings aren't terrific, but they're not terrible either, and I've also noticed that almost all of USA's shows have been down a bit the past couple of years. Royal Pains used to be one of the very top rated shows on the channel, but last winter it was down significantly. And this summer, for example, it "won" its night last week, but with only a 1.1 in the key 18-49 demo (and the only real competition on Wednesdays is the new Dallas). It used to routinely get 1.5's in that demo.

Interestingly, if you read comments on websites like "TV by the Numbers," anytime a show doesn't do as well as people think it should, some part of the fan base exclaims that it's because of this or that thing the show is doing "wrong" (or that they don't like). I get that, and maybe sometimes they're right, but for every person who doesn't like a particular plot line or character or whatever, there may well be another person who loves it. On top of which, to be completely honest I think ratings and quality are quite often not associated with each other. A lot of what I would consider really terrible shows do great in the ratings, and some amazing shows or shows that are critically lauded do poorly.

FYI, there was a conversation recently on Twitter involving Ted Linhart (from USA) in which the question was asked as to why some shows didn't start until July, and whether that doesn't put them at a disadvantage relative to something that's been on for a month already. I forget what all of the reasons were (for a later start), but when concern for WC (and Covert Affairs) ratings were expressed, he explained that the ratings those of us in the public see are an incomplete picture, so we can't really judge, and that almost all scripted cable shows are down. He could have ignored the questions, but he took the time to answer and really seemed to want people to know that they don't have the whole picture. IDK for sure if that was his motivation - just reporting what I saw. :-)

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I so much agree about quality vs. quantity. The best shows I've watched did terrible in the ratings (In Treatment or Awake for instance). On the contrary, I used to enjoy NCIS, even though it's not really a masterpiece, but since it has become the #1 show, it has gone downhill storywise, and I don't understand how their ratings can still grow...

Plus that's true that it is impossible to please all the fans. Just look at the comments about the season 3 arc of White Collar...

Edited Date: 2012-07-21 08:36 pm (UTC)

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*smushes* It's nice to read something positive...I mean I'm very critical myself, there was something the last season, which nearly ruined the show for me (and no, it wasn't the Nazi treasure), but those last two episodes - my show is back! It was finally about Neal and Peter again, it was about their interactions. Yes, they could have portrayed Collins better. But otherwise, my only real complain about the two episodes is that I wish they had been a three parter, giving Neal some room to come properly home. But there is always fanfiction, right?

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Ratings are one thing, but it always makes a difference when and where a show is send. I'm not worried about White Collar, because the network decides to use it as a lead-in, and normally only shows which are considered strong are used this way. If they were worried about the ratings, they would change the time and/or date, putting a strong show beforehand in order to sucker audience in. Nevermind that White Collar has to go up against some really strong shows. There are rumors that USA network is allready thinking about season 5, and really, after all the exposure Matt Bomer recently got, I would be really surprised if we don't get this season.

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eh back at you ;-) glad to read something positive about the ratings! I do agree with you, that the fact USA put the show against hard competition is good in term of how they perceive the strenght of the show at USA. As long as it keeps the lead-in and the hard time slot, it's all good in the hood ;-)

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Thanks for the explanation, I hope that WC will last very long, wouldn't know what to do without it.

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I read in an interview with Jeff Eastin that the writers are very aware of the fact that the fans want Peter & Neal, that without their friendly interactions the show would be nothing. But he said also, that there must be a little madness between them sometimes because they are different from each other, so there will always be a little friction between them. And this is what's the show is about, too. I think, he is right, there can't always be a happyness between them, there has to be situations with one distrusting the other and something like that. Everyone knows that they like each other, that there is a deep friendship but to make the show interesting there has to be this friction.

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Oh, I totally don't disagree there...I actually liked the Nazi-Treasure story-line, because of the friction it caused. But (big but here), I felt that they didn't spend enough time on it. I liked every single episode which was about Neal and Peter and how they deal with the treasure problem. That was white collar at its best. But there were way to many "special character" episodes, which caused one of them sidelined for a big part of the episode. I think they really scrapped the bottom when they trapped Peter in domestic bliss to give Neal an opportunity to be off investigating with Sara. I certainly don't watch the show to see Peter acting in some sort of sit-com, while Neal is off doing something else. I don't need harmony between them, but I do need seeing them the center of the episode, and that was way too often not the case last season. "Scott Free", The beginning of "Taking Account", "Deadline" and "Pulling strings" were especially bad in this regard.

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I don't mind a little focus on the other characters, though those "other character"-centric episodes were not all equally good. The only real problem for me is that they shouldn't have had ALL those special episodes in the same season. One, maybe 2 each season is ok. But more is too much.

As for Peter not being much in Pulling String, that was because Tim was prepping for the next one, that he was directing. Surprisingly I didn't mind Sara in this one. I like her when she actually does something (as opposed to just smooching with shirtless Neal...)

Edited Date: 2012-07-23 09:14 am (UTC)

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I don't think that you need to make a whole episode about a character in order to flesh him out or give him a moment to shine. A good example is Diana. Diana had the one scene with Neal in the hotel room in "Need to know". In this one scene we learned that she is a diplomats daughter, that her bodyguard more or less raised her, that he died in the line of duty protecting her - all this by letting it stay connected to Neal's grief about Kate. What did we learn in "Deadline"? That she meet Christie during pottery class. It's not about the screentime, it's about the way the screentime is used.

"Dentist of Detroid" also was a special character episode, but one of the few which really worked. For one, because it was the right moment to learn more about Mozzie, in order to understand why he acts the way he does concerning the treasure. I think I would have developed a dislike for him, if I hadn't known why he was pushing Neal to leave. Plus, even though the episode focussed on Mozzie for large parts of it, it was also about Peter and Neal trying to protect Mozzie. They weren't shoved aside, they were part of the story.

Yeah, I heart the "he needed prepping for directing" explanation before, but I don't buy it. They could have easily added scenes in which Neal keeps calling Peter for one reason or another, they could have every member of the team finding a reason to show up while the parents were there. The way they handled it, the episode had two seperate story lines, and none of it was truly used to it's full potential.

I think the only episode in which I truly liked Sara in every scene she was in is "Judgment Day", because it's the only episode in which her presence seems to fit in every scene she turns up. I certainly don't miss her.

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