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Still sick.
Watched an episode of White Collar tonight, and did a quick (less than five minutes) sketch of Tiffani Thiessen (Elizabeth) while I watched. It came out recognisable! I am pleased.
My next planned subject is Marsha Thomason (Diana). Googling her for a reference pic, just then, I discovered that she's actually from Manchester.
That would explain why the episode where Diana had to "fake" an English accent (Manchester dialect), her accent was flawless. Having assumed Marsha Thomason was American, I'd wondered if they'd had Thomason do her best English accent and then picked the region by what matched what she achieved. But no, they just took the path of having a Mancunian actress who normally fakes an American accent.
I wonder if she and Hugh Laurie share an agent or something.
Now for drawing. It's easier to practice faces, at this point, with actors and actresses than people I know - if I'm drawing someone who's a part of the fabric of my emotional landscape, then too much of them and me is in the drawing for what I'm trying to achieve.
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So, lately my TV-type obsession has been White Collar. I'm up to the end of season 2, and I am still utterly in love with it.
Here are the reasons why White Collar is awesome. Awesome.
1) Good Writing
Seriously, this is one of the best-written televisions shows in the history of ever. Good stories, good dialogues, clever ideas, great characters... and it's a show that involves law enforcement (as the FBI) that actually pays attention to the law. In the very first episode, one character heaves out a tome entitled "Warrant Law", because whether they can legally do something or not actually counts.
2) No Seriously, The Characters
The central characters of the show are Peter Burke (Tim DeKay), an FBI agent, and Neal Caffrey (Matt Bomer), a con man, thief, and convicted forger serving out his sentence working for the FBI as a consultant (while wearing a tracking anklet).
They're both awesome.
Also, Neal wears very nice suits very very well, and absolutely rocks a trilby.
The other major characters include:
- Elizabeth Burke, Peter's wife. (Tiffani Thiessen)
Elizabeth is amazing, and White Collar is remarkable and gives me endless joy for the way their relationship is written. They love each other, they respect each other, and their relationship is founded on that love and respect - and trust.
In one episode, Elizabeth finds another woman's business card in the pocket of Peter's jacket. Why, you might ask, is she going through his jacket pockets if she trusts him? Because she's doing laundry, so she's emptying out the pockets of all the clothes.
Peter explains that the card belongs to a woman who, as part of a case he and Neal are working on, he had spent the entire afternoon flirting with. Elizabeth's reaction to discovering that her husband has been flirting with a beautiful woman is... to laugh so hard she nearly cries, because she knows that Peter hates flirting, and her trust that he wouldn't cheat on her is absolute.
I love seeing a healthy, loving, functional relationship based on trust and respect on TV.
- June, Neal's landlady. (Diahann Carroll)
June is an older black woman - I'm bad at guessing ages to begin with, and June is stunningly beautiful, but she has a 22-year-old granddaughter, so she's certainly not that young. She invites Neal to live with her, knowing that he's a freshly-released convict, because he's charming and looks good in her late husband's very stylish suits, and she - an excellent judge of character - knows she can trust him. They become fast friends. (Her late husband, Byron, was also a criminal - a very very good one.)
- Diana Barrigan (Marsha Thomason)
Diana is in the pilot as Peter's "probie" - probationary agent. She is elsewhere for season 1 (Marsha Thomason was doing another show, I think), but returns as a fully qualified agent in season 2 to be completely brilliant. She is smart as a whip and completely kickass. It's also pretty brilliant to have a character who's both black and a lesbian, and yet, not have that be in any way the focus of her character; if you were to sum up Diana, the central aspect of her character would be brilliant FBI agent.
- Clinton Jones (Sharif Atkins)
Jones is another FBI agent, who rounds out the core of Burke's crew at the FBI. In many ways, he's the anchor of the team. Peter, Neal, and Diana are all fantastic, and will generally be the ones who come up with the spectacular acts of crimefighting, but on various occasions every single one of them would be absolutely screwed if not for Jones.
The thing about Jones is: he's a highly intelligent man, but he doesn't quite have the inspired brilliance of the other three. But he knows that, and he's okay with it, because he knows he's awesome, and he knows that he's part of a truly excellent team.
More than that, he has a genius for covering the details that the others lack - when things start to go south, Jones is the one who's anticipated the risks and is ready with backup. The word that comes to mind, with Jones, is solid.
- Mozzie (Willie Garson)
... I don't know if I even have words to sum up Mozzie. But he's very very cool.
So, yeah. It's a brilliantly well-written TV series, featuring some very, very pretty people, including actual representation of minorities as major characters, and you should watch it.
(Oh, and in case it's the kind of thing you need in your TV: if you watch with slash glasses, Peter and Neal are totally gay for each other, in a way that's even kind of okay because they're also both totally gay for Elizabeth, so you can have your slash pairing or your OT3 and it'll just work fine.)
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So, Dean (![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif) velithya) and I have been catching up on White Collar for the last few weeks.
There is so much that is awesome about White Collar, but tonight we watched episode 2x13, "Countermeasures", and in this episode, a scene happens which is exactly the fic I had vaguely planned to write.
White Collar DOES MY FIC FOR ME AND PUTS IT ON TV WITH THE REAL ACTORS AND EVERYTHING.
White Collar is amazing.
Speaking of Dean, I drew a picture and gave it to her and she posted it on her LJ (with permission). ♥
So, yeah, there's a sketch I drew over there. Because she likes my drawings. :3
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