FBI Agent and Criminal Informant – Peter Burke (Tim DeKay) and Neal Caffrey (Matt Bomer). Agent Peter Burke, the man who caught one of the greatest bond and art forgers of all time, Neal Caffrey. While Caffrey is spending his four-year sentence in prison, he begs with the man who caught him (twice) into a deal which would be mutually beneficial – Neal to become a criminal informant for the FBI with Peter as his handler. Strict rules are put into place where Neal is restricted to a two-mile radius around his house and he is tied to a tracking device around his ankle.
Every episode brings a new white collar criminal for the new unlikely pair to take down. While suspicion of what Neal gets up to grows and grows in Peter’s mind, Neal is indeed giving good reason as he plots and plans his own heists. Both protagonists are incredibly intelligent, always trying to be one step in front of each other. Testing each other to extreme limits, hiding secrets, suspicious in both directions. However, this partnership between Peter and Neal, unlikely as it is, becomes a formidable team, one that is loved by the audience. The partnership only develops throughout the series, making them one of the best teams to watch (in my opinion).
Peter and Neal aren’t the only two characters of the show to be adored. In comes Peter’s wife, Elizabeth Burke (Tiffani Thiessen). Elizabeth is an amazing character, her and Peter’s relationship is brilliant and any episode where she is involved in taking down the criminal just makes it that much better. Secondly, there’s my favourite character of the entire show, Mozzie (Willie Garson). Mozzie is hilarious for so many reasons; his conspiracy mind, his desire of the criminal world, his reference of the ‘suits’ and distrust of the FBI. At the FBI White Collar division, there is also two other agents, Clinton Jones (Sharif Atkins) and Diana Barrigan (Marsha Thomason) (she does randomly leave, but happily rejoins the team again). Both are excellent additions to the team helping solve the day-to-day cases of forges and other crimes.
Every episode is completely different, although a story arc continues throughout the series, so it is needed to be watched in order. Now, I watch a lot of tv shows, for example, this one is very similar to ‘The Blacklist’. However, a big difference is there seems to be a higher quality of crimes within ‘White Collar’, less underbelly of the city and much less death and guns. Neal Caffrey is a phenomenal character, whose cons are magnificently intelligent or even simple in their sophistication. His plays on his good looks to charm anyone and every episode is exciting to see how his mind works on each case they solve. What is brilliant is that there are so many shock moments, moments you can’t guess what’s going on, they were shocking in the delivery and leaves you baffled constantly in execution. I would definitely recommend this show, it has comedy, romance, crime and classic FBI scenes.
Striking Film Reviews 