Leverage, White Collar and a bit of Burn Notice

2010-08-19T14:26:40Z

So for once I actually am caught up on this season of Leverage (I usually watch the show through the TNT site, which means that I'm generally a week or more behind). I'm considerably less caught up on White Collar (which I watch on Hulu and therefore, again, am a week or more behind.

It's pretty easy to compare the two shows: they're both, essentially, caper shows featuring reformed (or, well, semi-reformed) criminals using their bad-guy skills to catch bad-guys, with a relative minimum of violence (distinguishing the shows from another current cult favorite, Burn Notice, where I keep thinking, geesh, guys, yes, I know it's Miami, but even in Miami, people are going to notice that many gun shots and things blowing up, although, with that said, kudos to a recent Burn Notice episode that showed people safely and sensibly remaining indoors (for the most part) during an incoming/ongoing hurricane and fairly realistically showed the issues with trying to track someone down and kill him in the hurricane aftermath with closed and flooded roads, bridges, downed trees, cell towers and so on, in decided and excellent contrast to the usual Hollywood trope of insisting that the action take place during the 140 mile hour winds and pouring rain. I'm still thinking that even during a hurricane aftermath in an evacuation zone at least a few people are going to hear the distinctive sound of things going BOOM because, look, some people always stay behind in a hurricane evacuation zone, especially in Miami Beach, but I was so thrilled to see the show avoid the "let's have a gun fire/chase the monster/give birth alone in the hurricane" trope that I was willing to overlook a few BOOMS. But I digress. Where was I?

Oh, right. Where Burn Notice likes to blow and shoot things up and explain how to blow and shoot things up and dismantle an air conditioning unit in the process, both Leverage and White Collar take a decidedly less violent approach, even when Eliot is hitting things (Leverage) and/or the FBI is waving guns around and arresting people (White Collar). And since the focus is usually on the caper/con

For some reason, I'm finding the cons a little less satisfying on Leverage this season – perhaps because this is the third season of it, so I'm generally used to Sophie putting on an act, Hardison saying such and such hack/computer excitement can't be done and then doing it anyway, and Eliot hitting people, and by now, I can pretty much guess where the con is going; I haven't had a single "huh, didn't see that coming," except when guest star Tom Skerrit attempted to put on a Boston accent, when I did think, "Huh, had no idea Tom Skerrit was so terrible at Boston accents," but that's not quite the same thing.

And yet, I'm still enjoying Leverage a lot more, and finding it more satisfying this season, than White Collar. Why? Well, partly because, despite the massive and generally inexplicable dropping of the main Big Bad plot after the second (er, third?) episode of the season, the show is at least avoiding the White Collar problem of ending on Big Massive Tingling Cliffhanger involving the Main Plotline that has so far inevitably turned out to be an uninteresting flop. Come to think of it, it's probably just as well that Leverage has mostly dropped the plot of Hi, I am George Clooney's girlfriend, hot and out to kill you, because if that ran the way White Collar's "cliffhangers" have been going, I would probably lose interest in Leverage as well.

And something else: all of the Leverage characters continue to feel necessary, even when they hire temporary replacements for Sophie (last season) or take over one another's jobs (most notably Parker trying to be the grifter, and Microsoft, yes, that was the word I was going for, stop changing my words on me, auugh). This is, alas, considerably less true in White Collar. One of the regulars was dropped without fanfare or much notice, and although I like her replacement, mostly because her replacement has been given a bit more to do, a couple of the other regulars might as well be extras, particularly, this season, Elizabeth (Tiffani Thiessen) who has been relegated to a series of increasingly less convincing greenshots. I realize that the actress is pregnant, but, seriously, rather than try to put her with a clearly wrong looking bluescreen effect, why not just, you know, have her on a soundstage behind a nice desk or on a couch? Her appearances have just felt distracted and wrong.

And Leverage has allowed some (minor) character development, keeping an overall character arc moving that way, as well as making me wonder just how far they're planning to take the Nate is being a complete bastard plotline this season. (Maybe Eliot gets to hit him.)

Also, the pretzels will still be there.

Whenever we want them :)

Don't get me wrong – for a mind candy show, White Collar has a lot to like – particularly the presence of an actual, solid marriage between two working partners, however much Elizabeth seems to be out of place this season, and of course the hotness of pretty much everyone on the show (even Mozzie in his own twisted way.) But I don't find myself eagerly anticipating the next episode, either.

Also, although this isn't related to any of the above mentioned shows, I want Pushing Daisies back. Sniffle.

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Leverage, White Collar and a bit of Burn Notice