12 September, 2012

Review - WHITE COLLAR 4.09: 'Gloves Off'


Neal and Peter are fighting. We still haven't learned anything substantial regarding Neal's father or Ellen's murder. The case-of-the-week was lame, pointless and basically ripped off from a Season 1 episode (1.8 "Hard Sell") that did it much better.

In other words: Season 4 in a nutshell!

Contrary to popular belief, I don't want to complain each week about this show and the others that I write about. But this season of White Collar, leaves me no choice. This season is markedly down from Season 3 and 'Gloves Off' is no exception.

As always, there were a few highlights. Watching Neal get enraged before the fight and taking it out on Peter was fun to see. Their confrontation at the end was intense, but I temper my excitement for that emotional scene and apparent falling-out between the two, because I don't expect that to last for long. The show would be better and get a necessary shot-in-the-arm if those two remain on the outs personally, but 'White Collar' has given us no reason to believe that the we won't just go back to the status-quo in a week or two.

This "falling-out" should have happened a long time ago. Why do Peter and Neal start each episode trusting the other person, when by the end of every episode one or both of them have betrayed the other? If Neal truly believes that Peter is in some way responsible for Ellen's death, they better be at war for the majority of rest of this season.

I'll tell you what, though, I'm not holding my breath on that and next week's mid-season finale better be a doozie and leave me excited for the second-half of Season 4. Because right now, I'm really itching for the fall season of TV to come back and save us all from this summer crap.


QUOTES OF NOTE:

--NEAL (to group) : "I just think it's more realistic if I win."

--NEAL (to Peter): "They found them because of you. They found Ellen because of YOU. I may be a ward of the state, and I will do my job for the FBI -- but as far as my personal life goes: We are done. We're DONE."

RANDOM RAMBLINGS:

--Stupid Neal jumping to conclusions that his father was just saving himself. Because he said that, I'd be willing to bet that the truth is the complete opposite of that.

 --Ah, who hasn't had an argument about the rules, regulations and ethics regarding calling shotgun?

--Nice car, Mrs. Suit.

--OF COURSE Mozzie has experience cornering fights.

--I know stock brokers/traders are crazy people, but a fight club? Come on.

--This Week's Installment of 'Eli is a Creep': There is no installment this week. I am reformed.

THE SCORE: 53 out of 100