Skip to main content

Pawns and Players: An Advance Review of the Winter Premiere of USA's "White Collar"

When we last watched USA's White Collar, the fun and frothy crime series might have seemed as though it had itself taken a swan dive onto a bakery awning, offering a cliffhanger reveal that called into question everything that we had seen up until that point, most notably the tenuous partnership between semi-reformed criminal Neal Caffrey (Matthew Bomer) and gruff g-man Peter Burke (Tim DeKay).

Fortunately, tonight's brand-new episode of White Collar ("Hard Sell"), the series' winter premiere, deals head-on with that pesky reveal over the course of the hour via a series of plot twists that test the characters' preconceptions and their own trust issues.

Lest you worry that White Collar has jumped the shark, that couldn't be further from the case. With a facile ease and a gleeful wink at the shock of the viewing audience, the writers not only explain why a ring-clad Peter met with Kate but just what the significance of that scene really was. In other words: whatever you think you saw, guess again.

This week's episode of White Collar finds Neal going undercover to bust up a boiler room operation that is swindling unsuspecting investors out of thousands of dollars. It's a case that tests not only his ability to remain charming, charismatic, and utterly convincing but also puts his relationship with Peter under increased scrutiny, after Neal makes a shocking discovery about his partner.

What price would it take to betray the people closest to you? It's this question which hovers over the action of tonight's episode and which will make you question some of the foundations of the series itself. Along the way, there's also a nice caper for Neal and Peter to pull off if they can keep it together long enough not to sell the other out. Throw in a vault, comic books, a shotgun, and some amber and you have the makings of a fantastic installment that deepens the series' central relationships and offers a new direction for the overarching plot.

Both Bomer and DeKay are sensational in this week's installment and the undercover angle gives both men the opportunity to take on different personas than their usual regular identities. Much of the series' charm is derived from their banter and by the begrudging respect each of them has for each other. Place that and their working relationship in jeopardy and we begin to see just how dangerous each of them is in their own way, as well as how clever and crafty. Trust--and betrayal--is a very powerful thing.

And that's all I'll say for now, lest I ruin tonight's plot twists. But be sure to tune in and find out just what happens.



White Collar returns tonight at 10 pm ET/PT on USA.

Comments

Steph said…
Great preview. I watched the screener last week and was blown away by this episode, which is certainly their strongest to date. DeKay and Bomer are one of the best duos on TV right now, and have obviously found a comfort level with each other than translates well on screen. This show has found its legs, and seems poised to be the next breakout hit the network has been reaching for.
Greer said…
Whew. Glad to hear that they haven't done anything too bizarre with the whole Ring Peter storyline. It had me worried. This show isn't the most brilliant thing on television but it's fun and charming all due to the great relationship and chemistry between Peter and Neal. Take that away and there would be no show!

Popular posts from this blog

What's Done is Done: The Eternal Struggle Between Good and Evil on the Season Finale of "Lost"

Every story begins with thread. It's up to the storyteller to determine just how much they need to parcel out, what pattern they're making, and when to cut it short and tie it off. With last night's penultimate season finale of Lost ("The Incident, Parts One and Two"), written by Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse, we began to see the pattern that Lindelof and Cuse have been designing towards the last five seasons of this serpentine series. And it was only fitting that the two-hour finale, which pushes us on the road to the final season of Lost , should begin with thread, a loom, and a tapestry. Would Jack follow through on his plan to detonate the island and therefore reset their lives aboard Oceanic Flight 815 ? Why did Locke want to kill Jacob? What caused The Incident? What was in the box and just what lies in the shadow of the statue? We got the answers to these in a two-hour season finale that didn't quite pack the same emotional wallop of previous season

Pilot Inspektor: CBS' "Smith"

I may just have to change my original "What I'll Be Watching This Fall" post, as I sat down and finally watched CBS' new crime drama Smith this weekend. (What? It's taken me a long time to make my way through the stack of pilot DVDs.) While it's on following Gilmore Girls and Veronica Mars on Tuesday nights (10 pm ET/PT, to be exact), I'm going to be sure to leave enough room on my TiVo to make sure that I catch this compelling, amoral drama. While one can't help but be impressed by what might just be the most marquee-friendly cast in primetime--Ray Liotta, Virginia Madsen, Jonny Lee Miller, Amy Smart, Simon Baker, and Franky G all star and Shohreh Aghdashloo has a recurring role--the pilot's premise alone earned major points in my book: it's a crime drama from the point of view of the criminals, who engage in high-stakes heists. But don't be alarmed; it's nothing like NBC's short-lived Heist . Instead, think of it as The Italian

The Daily Beast: "How The Killing Went Wrong"

While the uproar over the U.S. version of The Killing has quieted, the show is still a pale imitation of the Danish series on which it is based. Over at The Daily Beast, you can read my latest feature, "How The Killing Went Wrong," in which I look at how The Killing has handled itself during its second season, and compare it to the stunning and electrifying original Danish series, Forbrydelsen , on which it is based. (I recently watched all 20 episodes of Forbrydelsen over a few evenings.) The original is a mind-blowing and gut-wrenching work of genius. It’s not necessary to rehash the anger that followed in the wake of the conclusion last June of the first season of AMC’s mystery drama The Killing, based on Søren Sveistrup’s landmark Danish show Forbrydelsen, which follows the murder of a schoolgirl and its impact on the people whose lives the investigation touches upon. What followed were irate reviews, burnished with the “burning intensity of 10,000 white-hot suns