Tag: White Collar
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Genre Welcome?: Formula, Genre and Branding in USA Network’s Programming and Promotional Content (A thesis)
It has come to my attention that I have yet to link to a work that I spent the last year working on, my MA thesis. Thankfully, I busted my butt last summer and didn’t have much to re-write or tinker with over this school year, but all sorts of other responsibilities kept me from…
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Season finale review: White Collar, “Judgment Day”
As I was watching last night’s White Collar season finale, I just wanted to re-link to the piece I wrote about the series six weeks ago. “Judgment Day” embodied most of the things that make White Collar so great: The plots twists and turns didn’t exist just because it was a finale, they instead worked…
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Character depth welcome: On why White Collar is far and away USA Network’s best series
You may or may not know this, but I am in the midst of completing my MA thesis on USA Network and the “Characters Welcome” brand campaign (among other things). I say this to point out that I have spent a good deal of time with USA Network’s slate of programming over the past year…
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TV Surveillance’s Best of 2011: Nice Words about Series That Didn’t Make My Top 30 of the Year
It is that time again folks! The end of the year is upon us and that means it is time to look back on the highs, lows and WTFs in television from the past 12 months. There is a lot to reflect on in regard to television 2011. Charlie Sheen went crazy. Well, crazier. Comedy…
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TV Surveillance’s Best of 2011: The Top Episodes of 2011, 100-51
It is that time again folks! The end of the year is upon us and that means it is time to look back on the highs, lows and WTFs in television from the past 12 months. There is a lot to reflect on in regard to television 2011. Charlie Sheen went crazy. Well, crazier. Comedy…
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Mid-season finale: White Collar, “Countdown”
I’m kinda-sorta coming out of my self-induced new series hiatus to talk about the mid-season finale of White Collar. I HOPE YOU PEOPLE UNDERSTAND THE SACRIFICES I MAKE FOR YOU. But seriously, hiatus or not, I’d feel remissed to not talk about one of my favorite series as it comes to a temporary stopping point…
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White Collar, “The Dentist of Detroit”
I haven’t written about White Collar since the season premiere. This is disappointing. But you know what else is disappointing this season of White Collar. Perhaps it’s just my personal taste, but I cannot get into this season’s overarching plot. After the season two finale and this season’s premiere, I voiced my concerns over the…
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Series Premiere — Suits, “Pilot”
Apologies for the lack of punctuality with this review, I couldn’t get to the Suits pilot until this weekend. I had some substantial reservations about Suits coming into my viewing of the pilot. You folks know that I’m very intrigued by the USA Network brand and its programming formula and as I wrote about the other day, I wasn’t…
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Brand transition? — On what’s at stake for USA Network this summer
I am entirely enthralled by television network/channel branding. You might know this about me. You might also know that I’m writing my MA thesis on the topic, specifically USA Network’s branding. USA is such an interesting case because they are just so damn successful, even though up until now, their programming has been generally formulaic.…
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Season Premiere — White Collar, “On Guard”
In my review of the White Collar season two finale, I wrote the following: But for whatever reason, this series has a problem with its cliffhangers. This might sound weird, but I think the White Collar writers try too hard to make their cliffhangers cliffhanger-y. With any cliffhanger, there’s an obvious intent to shock and surprise the…
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Season Premiere — Covert Affairs, “Begin the Begin”
Although they are known for their lightweight, summery nature, I like basically all of USA’s series. I guess I’d have to like them a lot to write my entire MA thesis about them. But even though I’ll watch almost anything USA Network puts on the air, there is certainly a clear distinction between what I…
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Season Finale — White Collar, “Under The Radar”
I have noticeably mixed feelings about the season finale of White Collar. On one hand, “Under the Radar” was a solidly-execution to the Adler story and all the drama that’s been driving the series from the very beginning. On the other hand, it features yet another problematic cliffhanger from a series that seems destined to…
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White Collar, “Power Play”
When you have two fantastic leads like White Collar does, that can get you through even the worst of episodes or any sort of gimmick. “Power Play” might use a gimmick device in its storytelling, but it is certainly not one of the series’ worst episodes. After last week’s middling and disappointing effort, “Power Play”…
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White Collar, “Payback”
After a week off White Collar returns with “Payback,” an episode that probably won’t stand out amid some of the season’s best but still had a lot to offer. Series like this, with fairly stagnant week-to-week storytelling — and I don’t mean that in a particularly bad way — always benefit from recurring villains and…
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White Collar, “Countermeasures”
Let’s just get this out of the way first: The actual case narrative and the guest stars in “Countermeasures?” Not so good. I like Billy Dee Williams as much as the next guy, but this was not his strongest performance and the guy playing Jonas Ganz was also messy. Moreover, there was a point about…
CB, PhD 