Stays Crispy in Milk
"White Collar" /
Dustin Rowles
TV Reviews | October 27, 2009 | Comments (23)
What the hell is in the water over at the USA Network? It’s like Cocoa Krispies — yummy on the outside; nothing but air on the inside; but damn, if it doesn’t snap, crackle, and pop. I could eat two boxes and never feel full. It’s probably not any goddamn good for me, but it says “Helps with immunity” right there on the box! How bad can it be?
“White Collar” is the latest shiny, breezy, drama-lite show to be added to an ever-growing slate over on USA that already includes “Burn Notice,” “Psych” and “In Plain Sight” (we won’t speak of “Royal Pains.”) And like the other three, “White Collar” is likely destined to be a great marathon show, something you get stuck in front of on a Saturday afternoon, and don’t realize until you’ve eaten a box cake and slurped down 3 two-liter sodas from the bottle that you haven’t left the house in 12 hours. Mindless, addicting, and pretty. Oh so pretty.
Of the three, “White Collar” is more closely aligned to “Burn Notice” — instead of a burned spy solving crimes, here we have a charming con artist hunting down his own kind. It also seems to have the same comedy/action/drama ingredients that makes “Burn Notice” so watchable.
Pretty boy Matt Bomer (“Chuck” — the one with the eyes) plays Neil Caffrey, a slick and likable white-collar criminal who escapes prison days before his four-year jail sentence is set to end. TV veteran Tim DeKay is Peter Burke, the federal agent who spent three years tracking down Caffrey (one wonders why a con artist who warrants a three-year manhunt only gets a four-year prison sentence?). As the pilot opens, Caffrey escapes prison; Burke, noticing that Caffrey’s girlfriend recently stopped visiting him in jail, puts the puzzle together and tracks Caffrey down at his girlfriend’s apartment, where he is sulking because she has left him for good. Burke and Caffrey, like a light television version of DeNiro and Pacino in Heat have a great deal of mutual respect for one another(Caffrey is not a violent criminal, after all).
The set up is fairly standard; Caffrey talks Burke into allowing him to help on a case in exchange for a few days of freedom and, as you’d expect, their working relationship becomes permanent. The pilot episode revolves around a counterfeiting scheme, the intricacies of which are best left to the television viewer to discover. It’s fair to say, however, that it’s paper thin, but obscured by a lot of slick but engaging plot contrivances meant to draw your eye away from the lack of actual substance (a recurring motif in USA Network programs). Still, the friendly vibe, the chemistry between Caffrey and Burke works, and DeKay and Bomer are perfect for the by-the-books versus suave and charismatic wild-card archetype. Tiffani Amber Thiessen and Willie Garson (“Sex and the City”) add some familiarity to the show. Thiessen plays Burke’s mid-thirties wife, which is enough to make those who grew up on “Saved by the Bell” feel positively ancient. Garson is another criminal mastermind, who acts as Caffrey’s link back to the criminal world.
“White Collar” isn’t going to kill you with depth or challenge you with complicated cases. But it’s not going to kill any brain cells, either. Much like Bomer’s other show, “Chuck,” it’s frivolous, but not entirely disposable. It’s a rarity: Fun, but not completely dumb.
Comments
Posted by: Julie at October 27, 2009 2:06 PM
Ooh I'm glad you reviewed this, I was curious to see if it was worth watching OnDemand. Sweet. Love the USA shows.