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White Collar: Au Revoir (2014)
Not with a bang, but with a whimper
I have thoroughly enjoyed 'White Collar', from the beginning all the way through to the last 20 minutes.
At first I had misgivings, it is a bit of lightweight show. But there is something compelling about the characters that reminds me of 'Person of Interest', but if 'Person of Interest' is a gritty Friday night show, then 'White Collar' is a bit more Saturday afternoon.
This farewell episode fell flat in many regards, but the more I pull at the threads the more it seems like the characters were forced to take actions merely to get places the writers wanted to be:
Kellar dead - had to happen, but with good writing it could've been Neal saving Peter and underscoring their relationship.
A kid called Neal - well it would have been a little self serving if Neal remained alive, and Mozzie already had a baby named after him, and they didn't want to kill Peter.
And then there's the one year later part:
Peter knew everything about Neal but didn't recognise the bottle of Bordeaux when it arrived on his doorstep. Peter also didn't link the key with 701 stamped on it, to the storage containers he'd actually visited with Jones. And he never traced the woman in the photos of the storage containers to ask what Neal was up to, which could also have led to the reveal.
Lastly, despite all his work, all his relationships and comments about enjoying the FBI work because he's only conning bad guys, Neal runs. Kellar told him a life on the run isn't freedom, his father is out there on the run, and he leaves everyone loves behind.
We can debate the subtleties all we want. But even in this six episode series, the importance of Neal's relationships with Mozzie, Peter and June are all highlighted. And honestly, since the show is quite lightweight (I spent two seasons waiting for Kate to come back from the dead in a large overarching story), the relationships were why I stuck with it.
Instead, after six years Neal Caffrey is back to being a lone conman on the run with no roots, relationships or home. But he's in Paris so we're okay with that.
Lewis: What Lies Tangled: Part 2 (2015)
Worth it though.
I really enjoyed the ending, and this review is only really about the last farewell.
I liked that we the audience were shown what would happen next.
Hobsons, "Like Morse?" shows us that Lewis could keep going until they killed him off, but his choice to go on holiday showed that he and Hobson would be okay in the long run.
But for the possible, though unlikely, Hathaway series, we saw that James would probably start his series dealing with the death of his father. Maddox would likely go through a divorce, and pure supposition on my part, present a potential love interest for Hathaway in the mold of Lewis and Hobson. And Lewis even got an invitation to be a recurring guest star from the Chief. They let us know that they could do more stories if they wanted to, but that life goes on and they don't need to do 'Hathaway' or 'Maddox' if they don't want to, we already know how it goes.
The final reflection of the very first meeting was beautiful, and it showed that Robbie had finally surpassed Morse, because he learned to live.
Exit (2011)
Chain Reaction
I watched this film with a view to seeing two actresses work together in a project different from that which I had already enjoyed. Viva Bianca and Hannah Mangan-Lawrence gave great performances, and I enjoyed the depth they gave their characters, which I'm sure had little to do with the writing.
This film is one reaction after another, the poor girls never had a chance to collect themselves and make an impact on the story, they were just caught up in an unravelling mess of a situation.
There was one occasion when the girls seemed ahead of the curve, but that quickly turned into a fist fight that only gave them something else to react to rather than thickening the plot.
I know that reactive stories are not something I like, it was the same problem I had with The Incredible Hulk. And yet I don't feel I can knock the film for it because the tag-line states that this film is about 2 women and 1 bad night. And that it is.