White Collar-"On Guard"

The Cast of "White Collar"
Credit: USA

My review of the season premiere of White Collar is after the jump.


The better episodes of White Collar are the episodes that focus on the overall arc and not on a self-contained story of the week. This episode was an example of one of those episodes. What usually works for me in an episode of White Collar continued to work very well. The chemistry between the leads was more prevalent then ever and the ongoing arc was very interesting. My only problem with the episode was that the self-contained story seemed like it was forced into the episode for the sake of having a self-contained storyline.


One of my favorite aspects of the show is the back and forth between Tim DeKay and Matt Bomer. These two work so well together and provide so much charm that they can make whatever they are saying at least two times better then it already is. The material that the two of them were given in this episode was the best that I've seen on the show in awhile. The sense of distrust that was going on between them brought a new dynamic to the relationship, which made for some very interesting television. It's inevitable that they would have Neal be tempted back to crime at some point and test the relationship between Neal and Peter. I'm glad that it was as well executed as it was. The tension in the scenes between Neal and Peter made for some very interesting scenes. Tim DeKay and Matt Bomer did a fantastic job with this tension.

 That tension should play a major role in the upcoming arc. The show took the idea that they set up the finale and ran with it. Like I said earlier, it's inevitable that the show would tempt Neal with a return to crime at some point during the run. I like what they did in the premiere with Neal trying to steal the thing that would put him away. I didn't love it, but it was interesting enough that I didn't get bored watching it. What I liked better was the setup for what will play out over the rest of the season. The setup involving the manifest and Neal selling the paintings should be very interesting. This should be a very good story arc, which if done correctly, will hold my attention throughout the summer. The only reservation that I have is that the arc will be completely forgotten once it plays out, but that's not something that I will have to worry about for awhile.

I couldn't care less about the story of the week in this episode. It felt like it was put in so that the episode could have a self-contained storyline. It didn't hold my interest at because the plots didn't connect at all. I didn't care about what would happen to the guy who was smuggling out the money. And it had the payoff to the teaser with he airplane. I didn't like the way that it played out because it wasn't quite what I expected and it wasn't what I was hoping for with that payoff. That's a completely personal thing, so your opinion will probably be different from mine, but I didn't like it.

Some Other Thoughts:

• The supporting cast of the show continues to shine strongly in this episode. Willy Garson continues to show his brilliant sense of comic timing as Mozzie. He's very entertaining to watch.
• Tiffani Thiessen is very good as well. Her chemistry with the rest of the cast is prevalent and entertaining.
• This was the only episode that I was able to see in advance, so if I write about the show in the future, the review probably wouldn't publish until the next day.

Overall, this was a very strong return episode of the show. Sure, the self-contained plotline didn't quite work for me, but the rest of the episode worked well enough that it covered up what didn't work. This is a show that I really enjoy watching, it makes perfect summer television. I won't be writing about it every week because of the procedural nature of the show, but I will be watching, and I will review it at least a few times during the season.

What did everyone else think?