White Collar 1x12

[ivyfic]

I was not as happy with this ep as I have been with previous. Two reasons, really.

1. Keller is the blue collar version of Neal? Really? I know the show is called White Collar, I get that, but that's about the type of crime--which is the same for Keller. And I don't believe Neal comes from a silver spoon background, based not only on his character, but on what he said about his early years with Kate. He strikes me as a less sociopathic Talented Mr. Ripley. Someone who comes from nothing who has made himself into a member of the upper class by force of will. In fact, that makes perfect sense of the fact that Neal's idea of classy is outdated, affected, and slightly odd. Charming, but odd. People who actually come from that background wouldn't focus so much on retro fedoras and the rogue code of morality as Neal does. He's playing dress up.

Which means Neal isn't white collar in any substantial way, and the difference between him and Keller has nothing to do with socioeconomic class. The difference between Neal and Keller is that Neal is chaotic good (to borrow from D&D parlance)--he doesn't follow the law, but he does the right thing--and Keller is chaotic evil--he is not only out for himself, and willing to kill to get what he wants, he seems to rather enjoy hurting people. So to dress that difference in morality up as a class thing, and to give Keller a noticeably blue collar accent, that bothered me, just a wee bit.

2. I have now concluded that Neal is the Damien Hirst of con artists. That is, he's a concept guy. He comes up with the plan, but he has people to execute it for him. Technicians. I mean, this was supposed to be about Neal's skill as a forger, right? And pitting him against Keller? He didn't forge jack shit this episode. Mozz did. So it's not so much that Neal is this brilliant criminal as that he is friends with a brilliant criminal. This dynamic is starting to annoy me. I can tell they do that so they don't have to waste screen time on complicated expositiony stuff, they can just hand something to Mozz and get the result they want without having to get into the how, but I really think you're losing something of Neal's character for him to use Mozz so much. I mean, it's hard to believe that Neal's on this different level when Mozz is doing all the hard stuff.

I still liked that Peter could see right through Neal's feeble attempts at deception. But yeah. Not their best effort.

How can there be only two episodes left in the season! :(

Comments

[gryphonrose.livejournal.com]

I think the difference between Keller and Caffrey is that Keller is the rougher, cruder version. Hence the blue-collar reference. Doesn't matter that Neal may have started out poor and desperate, he's smoother and more cultured, more sophisticated. A "better class" of criminal.

I agree about having Mozz make the bottle. That was wrong. We know Caffrey's a master forger. I can totally buy him using Mozz for support and supplies, but it should have been Caffrey who did the actual label and so on.

[ivy03.livejournal.com]

A "better class" of criminal.

This is the conflation that bothers me, though. Because the "better class" is about a code of conduct, the loveable rogue thing. And they made it about socioeconomic class. So what they are saying is upper class = playful but harmless, lower class = money-grubbing murderer. And yeah, that's a problem.

[ivy03.livejournal.com]

Also, he's only cruder in that he killed someone. He shows himself to have good enough manners to pass in just as high social circles, to have just as developed a palette, and to be just as smart or smarter than Neal. He is not rude, or sloppy, or boorish. The only way he is "less classy" is that he is more evil, and equating morality and class is a prejudice with a long, long, long history that I wish they hadn't stepped into.

[gryphonrose.livejournal.com]

I didn't say I approved of the conflation, but it's easy to see why they thought it would make sense. And we should remember that Caffrey isn't rich as far as we know, at least not right now. He simply has an appreciation for the finer details in life.

And, in the same way, they show Keller to be cruder in several ways. He smokes, for one thing. That's crude. He dresses more roughly. He doesn't drive as fancy a car. Etc. Yes, all throwaway details, but easy (even lazy) shorthand for showing that he isn't in Caffrey's "class." In any way.

I'd actually expected them to reveal that Keller *wasn't* the owner of the bottle--that instead he'd set Caffrey up to create a perfect forgery (knowing Caffrey was better at it) so he could then steal the original and swap it with Caffrey's fake. That's how I'd have written it, because it avoids all the questions about "where'd he get the original from in the first place?"

[linaerys.livejournal.com]

Those things bothered me too, especially that Mozz was doing all the forging. I guess that was so he could be in the ep, but seriously, if we're supposed to buy Neal as this master criminal, then let's see him doing criminal things.

I'd love a montage of him bent over the bottle with a soft sable brush, a lock of hair falling over his forehead, in the soft orange glow of a lamp . . .