Movie Review: White Collar Season 2

Neal Caffrey and FBI agent Peter Burke continue their adventures catching bad guys along with the season long story line all good series use to keep the long term interest.

Film making 23/25

Video 18/25

Audio 20/25

Bonus Features 20/25

Total 81/100

Neal Caffrey is a career criminal who got caught, just one slip up and its jail for the con-man, forger and thief but when FBI agent Burke gives him a chance to help he jumps at it. Now after the first season of helping solve federal crimes Burke is hiding something while Neal is trying to find out who killed his girlfriend in the previous season.

Season one of White Collar saw Neal tracking down the current criminal cases of the FBI white collar division while Peter hid things from Neal. By the end of the season we have Neal's girl friend on board a plane and Neal ready to take off with her but before he can board the plane explodes.

Season 2 of White Collar has Neal and Peter chasing down who killed Neal's girlfriend for an emotional and season long tie in. Usually we have Neal and Burke solving various crimes for most episodes and a few minutes here and there dealing with the music box and Kate, Neal's girlfriend.

White Collar is a great show but season 2 lets down a little with the suave style of Neal and the first season's adrenaline induced crime fighting. I just watched season 1 again and it is exciting in how Neal and Burke approach each episode and the crime of the moment but season 2 seems to focus more on the season long story.

Season one concentrated mostly on each episode with Neal spending a little time, usually less than five minutes trying to find Kate and the season long theme. In season two more and more of the story is about the overall theme and more than a single episode is dedicated to this story.

While this can be pulled off successfully in a series more often I have seen it fail or at the least take interest away from each episode and too much on the season long theme. The series works and the main thing I find attractive about the show is Neal's character and his interactions with others.

The suave and sophisticated criminal who has done bad things but never really hurt or purposefully injured an individual when pulling off his crimes makes the series. The Robin Hood of modern times is mainly what Neal comes across as even if he does not give the money to the poor and most of the people he robs from are usually corporations and companies.

White Collar is a good show and I think Neal is the kind of criminal that is good deep down but just needs a reason to use his talents for that good. Season 2 of White Collar was a bit of a letdown in my opinion but still well worth a purchase and an addition to anyone's collection.

Video and audio are both a bit of a mixed bag with video being somewhat of a letdown for me, the green screen is used way too much. Some of the scenes are a bit cheesy, obvious green screen with backgrounds of various locations like one of Peter's wife in San Francisco make the video a bit mixed.

I really do not think when they have locations like New York City that they really need to fill in backgrounds of other cities and not just say it's another city. Pick any typical city street and show tall buildings with the beautiful Tiffani Thiessen and we'll believe anything she says, even that she is in San Francisco.

Aside from this obvious dubbing the shows video looks good with nice color and well done scenes, no problems with odd darks and night scenes are visible enough. The audio is better with very clear voice when you need to hear things and well done background sound and effects.

The audio track is a Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound and is crisp and clear through all the episodes without any problems. Bonus content is also very good but not as much as I would like to see with several making of features, a Burn Notice and White collar roast exchange and more.

Audio commentary on several episodes, the roast exchange between shows, a gag reel, deleted scenes and more include enough extras to make any lover of a show smile. There are plenty of extras and all good quality so the bonus content is worthwhile and good, a little more would have been better but there is enough.

White Collar Season 2 is a great show and while it is a bit of a let down from the first season it is still worth a purchase just like season one was. White collar and the further exploits of the suave and daring Neal Caffrey along with his partner FBI agent Burke make for fun crime fighting.

White Collar Website