"White Collar": series review

Actors, L to R: Hilarie Burton (Sara Ellis), Matthew Bomer (Neal Caffrey), Sharif Atkins (Clinton Jones), Marsha Thomason (Diana Berrigan), Willie Garson (Mozzie/Theodore Winters), Tiffani Thiessen (Elizabeth Burke), Tim DeKay (FBI Special Agent Peter Burke). Not shown: the radiantly maternal Diahann Carroll.

[WARNING: some light spoilers.]

"White Collar" was one of a slew of well-written TV series that came out during the glory days of the early 2000s and 2010s—along with series like "House" (Fox, 2004-2012), "Burn Notice" (USA, 2007-2013), "24" (Fox, 2001-2010), "Psych" (USA, 2006-2014), "Battlestar Galactica" (SyFy, 2004-2009), and many others. The series, created by Jeff Eastin, lasted six seasons on the USA Network, from 2009 to 2014, averaging 13-16 episodes per season except for the final season, which had only six episodes as viewership dwindled.

The series was an extended heist dramedy in the vein of movies like "Ocean's Eleven," centering on the often-contentious relationship between FBI Special Agent Peter Burke (Tim DeKay) and his slick, handsome, and savvy CI (criminal/confidential informant) Neal Caffrey (Matthew Bomer), an expert art forger, art thief, con artist, and escape artist whom Burke must repeatedly capture. The basic scenario is that Caffrey, having been caught a second time by Burke—the one man Caffrey is unable to outsmart—now works as a CI for the FBI's White Collar Crimes division, helping Burke and his team of agents to solve various crimes, using Caffrey as a resource to get into the minds of the criminals they face in New York City. Caffrey is, with some exceptions, kept in place via an always-modernizing, unbreakable tracking anklet that gives him a two-mile radius from his residence. In the first episode, the FBI releases Caffrey from prison and places him in a squalid, fleabag apartment. Caffrey, ever resourceful, immediately upgrades himself to a posh Manhattan residence owned by June Ellington (Diahann Carroll), who takes an immediate liking to the charming Neal, whose rakish ways remind her of her now-late ex-con husband Byron (referred to but never seen except in vague photos). Working with Caffrey is long-time friend and fellow con man Mozzie (Willie Garson), a compulsive conspiracy theorist and criminal savant who addresses Peter Burke as "Suit" most of the time, refusing to call the agent by name given Mozzie's distrust of the government. Burke, meanwhile, has a team of agents mostly consisting of Diana Berrigan (Marsha Thomason) and Clinton Jones (Sharif Atkins). Neal, in dealing with the criminals the FBI is trying to catch, often finds himself bending and breaking the law in various ways in order to earn the criminals' trust. Being a ladies' man, Neal goes through a series of girlfriends and lovers over the course of the show, an often-painful reality of being a con man. As the series progresses, Neal is tantalized by the promises that, if he helps with one last case, the FBI will eventually let him go free, but something usually happens to frustrate this dream—something often involving the violation of Peter's sense of trust. Peter, too, occasionally has to withhold truth from Neal to protect him, and this constant evasion of the full truth is the source of much of the show's conflict.

As with many of the TV series I cited above, "White Collar" is a mix of episodic and long-form storytelling. Some episodes feature a "con of the week" while some subplots can last for almost an entire season, often centering on some kind of MacGuffin: a priceless music box, a U-boat full of stolen artwork, or a half a billon dollars in cash from the Federal Reserve. Neal and Peter face a series of enemies ranging from a dirty FBI agent to a deadly con man who used to work with Neal in the past to a seemingly winsome, timid woman who turns out to be a former MI5 assassin. Most of the episodes rely on some sort of twist: in the world of cons, reality is never what it seems, and even dirty FBI agents prove to have a good side. Because Neal is mostly kept in place by his anklet, most episodes of "White Collar" are set in New York City, and the series is something of a love letter to the best and worst of the Big Apple, moving easily from posh, downtown locations to dark alleys and dank sub-basements.

Generally speaking, the series features smart, snappy, witty dialogue without having to resort to crass vulgarity (Neal himself is a highbrow, classy guy, and the series's title is a clue that we are often dealing with a refined sort of criminal). There's also very little in the form of bloody, gory violence—in fact, I'd say the show is remarkably bloodless, with most episodes being resolved without anyone having to fire a single shot despite the omnipresence of guns. I noticed that the music for the series sounded familiar, and when I looked the series up, I saw that the composer was John Ehrlich, the same guy who worked on "House."

Among the series's central, interwoven themes are friendship, trust, the temptations of la dolce vita, and nature/nurture. That last theme is probably the most central one: can a con man be reformed, or must he always remain a con man, a prisoner of his nature? This is a bit like asking whether a wild animal can be tamed, which is approximately the answer we get in the series finale: Neal simply is who he is, and he has to follow his nature, as corrupt and risk-prone as his nature might be. I did feel some frustration at how the same basic conflict between Peter and Neal would resurface time and again, with cynical Mozzie off to the side telling Neal that cons can never change their nature while idealistic Peter continues to believe that Neal is basically a good-hearted person who can change for the better.

Tim DeKay is solid as Agent Burke; his slow, distinct line delivery betrays a theater background but fits the character of Agent Burke perfectly: Burke is a methodical, relentless man. Burke's wife Elizabeth (Tiffani Thiessen, formerly known as Tiffani Amber Thiessen in her younger days on "Saved by the Bell"), gives a solid performance as Peter's long-suffering wife. Together, the two have a solid, wholesome, affectionate marriage. In the short Season 6, Elizabeth finally gets pregnant (Peter is middle-aged, but Elizabeth is young enough that pregnancy for her isn't dangerous); this prompts her to deliver an ultimatum to Peter—that he has to be there for his future son and not merely hand over all of the parenting duties to Elizabeth, who refuses to become a "married single mother." Matthew Bomer is rakishly handsome and irresistible to the ladies; the irony is that Bomer is, in real life, gay, so it's amusing to see him in the role of a serial Lothario. Willie Garson as Mozzie—a childhood mispronunciation of his teddy bear's name "Mozart"—provides much of the series's comic relief. Mozzie is socially awkward, pompous, a little too in love with alcohol, but also a criminal genius who was, at first, Neal's mentor before becoming his partner in crime. Together, Neal and Mozzie often find themselves on the razor's edge between committing federal crimes and helping the FBI solve its white-collar cases. Marsha Thomason, a British actress, plays Agent Diana Berrigan—a proudly out lesbian—with girl-boss competence, but the series came out in an era when girl-bosses hadn't become intolerable representatives of what the Critical Drinker has come to call The Message. I remember watching the first two seasons of "White Collar" back when it was originally out, and I fell instantly in love with Marsha Thomason's gorgeous looks. (Despite being born British, Thomason is now an American citizen.) Sharif Atkins as Agent Clinton Jones is calmly competent as well; "White Collar" isn't about fumbling dummies: it's about smart, capable people, like Jones, who are all trying to stay one step ahead of each other. Together, Agents Jones and Berrigan are indispensable to Peter, and part of the thrill of the series is watching Peter, Neal, and the team work their way through criminal machinations, cryptic puzzles, and plans that fall through because of unforeseen complications. I'd also like to heap praise on the absolutely brilliant Diahann Carroll—an actress, singer and model who gained prominence in the 60s—in the role of June, Neal's landlady. Carroll dominates every scene she's in; June's husband Byron used to be a con himself, which is one reason why she's so charmed by Neal: she sees Byron in him. Neal and June first meet at a used-clothing store as June is dropping off some of Byron's dapper suits, which Neal gratefully buys up. This leads to Neal's moving into June's place, where he resides in a top-floor apartment offering a splendid view of New York City. Anyway, Carroll absolutely makes the show; it's a shame she never got beyond minor-character status: her June had learned a lot about being a con from Byron. Another supporting character of note is Hilarie Burton as insurance investigator Sara Ellis, who spent years chasing after Neal for stealing a Raphael, and who eventually falls in and out of love with him. Burton, like Thomason, is very easy on the eyes, and she's got a stunning smile.

The general lack of evolution in Peter and Neal's relationship is the show's central focus and also its greatest flaw. It would have been nice to see the relationship truly grow and evolve. This is part of the problem with having characters who, from Season 1 onward, are already smart and competent: they have nowhere to go from there, and they're already set in their ways, so all they can do is to repeatedly lock horns. But as I implied above, the show's eventual answer to the nature/nurture question falls firmly on the side of nature, which puts it at odds with recent series like "Cobra Kai," a show that is all about how people, especially bad people, can change for the better. I understand that a "White Collar" revival might be in the works, but unfortunately, some of the principal cast have since died: Willie Garson (Mozzie, real name Theodore Winters) died in 2021 of pancreatic cancer at age 57, and Diahann Carrol died in 2019 of natural causes at age 84. It's all very sad; this was a cast that worked well together. Any revival of the series can't help but be inferior, I'm afraid. I recently saw Tim DeKay in a small role as a possibly unscrupulous admiral on "The Expanse." I have no idea what the rest of the cast has been up to. I'd love to see a reunion, but at the same time...

Would I recommend "White Collar" to first-timers? Absolutely. It's fast-paced, tense, and often very funny. It takes full advantage of its New York City setting, showing us plenty of glitz and dark corners. The show also throws in a lot of facts and trivia from history and science to keep nerds happy. It romanticizes the life of crime while also providing the moral caution that, in most cases, a life of lies eventually catches up with a person. By the end of the series, most of the principal recurring villains have met some form or other of justice, but the series leaves the fate of some main characters up to interpretation. I do find it ironic that Matthew Bomer, a gay man, plays the ladykiller Neal Caffrey while Marsha Thomason, a (gorgeous) heterosexual woman, plays an open lesbian. Acting!

Watch "White Collar" with my enthusiastic blessing.