Geekscape TV Review: White Collar Season 2
White Collar follows FBI Special Agent Peter Burke (Tim DeKay) and ex-con Neal caffrey (Matt Bomer) as they work to apprehend high end criminals. The crux of the show is Neal caffrey is on work release from prison, helping the FBI to stay out of jail. The show is a well balanced ensemble dramedy with a very eclectic cast of side characters, but ultimately boiling down to a buddy drama built around the charisma of Matt Bomer’s caffrey. It’s balance of crime of the week and serialized drama has created engaging storylines and engrossing situations for the characters.
The show has done a superb job of serializing a search for Neal caffrey’s girlfriend Kate and interweaving a mystery pupeteer trying to get at an item caffrey supposedly stole earlier in his criminal career. The first season ended with Neal and Peter finding what caffrey was being manioulated to get, a Russian music box. When last we saw the dynamic duo Neal caffrey’s girlfriend Kate being blown up just after Burke talked caffrey out of fleeing with her.
Season 1 did a wonderful job of setting the tone of what kind of show White Collar was going to be and season 2 focuses more on who the characters are going to be. FBI agent Peter Burke is trying to hide that he still has the muisc box in his posession from Neal and Neal is trying to find out who killed Kate without Peter.They’re heading in the same direction, but willing to take incredibly different paths to reach the desstination. With a dynamic built on trust, the relationship is strained to the breaking point.
Season 2 also saw the supporting cast grow, in both size and screen time. While Burke and caffrey are engaging as your leads, performances from Willie Garson as Mozzie and Hillarie Burton as Sara Ellis steal the show. Willie Garson is a damn pleasure to watch in this season, from the Mozzie centric episode “By the Book” to leading Peter on a scavenger hunt in “Need to Know”, Mozzie is possibly the second biggest reason to watch “White Collar.”
This season also saw the addition of Hilarie Burton to the cast, she is best remembered as Peyton from One Tree Hill. Burton plays a tough and witty insurance investigator by the name of Sara Ellis who testified against Neal and helped put him away. Of all the actresses that have come through White Collar, Hilarie is the first one to show any real chemistry with Matt Bomer and the only one to give her character more personality than what’s on the page. By the end of the season you kinda wish the show was about her and you can’t help but celebrate her promotion to series regular in season 3.
The guest stars this season were sublime with the highlights being John Laroquette in “In the Red”, Tim Matheson in “Withdrawal”, and Billy Dee Williams in “Countermeasures” and Andrew McCarthy does a great job coming in as big bad Vincent Adler. The calibre of the actors guest starring brings great presence to the show and they make wonderful foils for our heroes to parry against.
There isn’t a single wasted episode in this season, but some of the best are the flashback episode “Forging Bonds” that reveals how Neal and Peter first got on each other’s radar and Neal’s history with Kate. The introduction of potential love interest Sara Ellis in “Unfinished Business”. And “Burke’s Seven”, the episode where Peter is framed for a crime, suspended from the FBI and must prove his innocence with a con. The team that rallies behind him becomes “Burke’s Seven.”
The extra features on the dvd set include a commentary on a couple of episodes that isn’t particularly enlightening, though you do learn a bit about what it’s like to shoot in New York from the track. A feature on Mozzie actor Willie Garson is quite entertaining as we learn how much Willie has put himself into the character. The deleted scenes included really just prove that the editors for White Collar know where to trim the fat. At no point while watching them did I think an episode lost something of value with the cut of the footage. The blooper reel on the set is inspired as the cast is incredibly entertaining and to see them riff after a flub had me laughing hysterically.
Perhaps the most interesting extra was a collection of interviews with the creator & writing staff of White Collar and the creator & writing staff of Burn Notice ripping on each other’s shows. The two shows are both produced by 20th Century Fox for USA, so it makes sense for the sister shows to cross promote. The feature is a fun, quick look at the very different dynamics the shows have and it shows how unfunny writers can be when they’re put on the spot to “cap” on someone else’s show.
White Collar season 2 is a fun, fresh, character driven ride that I recommend picking up if you liked projects like “Catch Me If You Can, Ocean’s Eleven, or want a procedural with a fun twist. You can pick up the dvd set in stores and catch new episodes of White Collar on USA starting June 7th.
