White Collar has returned to cable TV, and more importantly, my life is finally complete. With White Collar, The X Factor, and The Voice all on TV right now, expect a lot of content coming from the TV Review side of things.
But let’s talk about season 5 of White Collar. It opened with a rewind all the way to Peter and Neal’s first case together. This will be important later. Ironically, I went back and watched Season 1’s Pilot right before watching the opener of season 5. Very happy I did. In the first episode ever, Peter and Neal went after a man who forged spanish bonds worth a total of $250,000. They called him the dutch man. Again, this information will be important later.
The first new scene is Peter and Neal in Peter’s cell, the two of them talking about what the future means. Eventually we get to Neal and Elizabeth, Peter’s wife, talking. El tells Neal to do whatever it took to get Peter out, and Neal said that he would. Not sure what that meant just yet, but let’s see how it goes.
Neal meets up with Mozzi, Mozzi announces that he has broken Neal’s anklet and can now Neal can go anywhere. In the midst of it all, Neal gets a text saying that “i can help Burke”.
This leads to Neal meeting up with season 1’s The Dutchman. This leads to an interesting propsition from Curtis Hagen. Hagen will help Neal, all he needs is a vocal confession. In a long about way, Neal records a confession of James Bennet, the man who killed a federal agent and pinned it on Burke, who is now in jail. Peter is then set free, and it’s all down hill from there.
Here’s a random thought: Writers, why didn’t you drag this out a bit longer? WHy didn’t you got atleast one more season before getting Peter out?
Moving on.
Peter comes back to a welcome ovation from the office, and better yet is given a promotion. All this is happening way to fast. Remembe White Collar, you’re a series, not a movie. You can take your time developing the story.
Anyway, the show goes on, Neal steals coins, Peter investigates that coin heist and thinks Neal has something to do with. All and all, Neal was set up and now Peter thinks Neal is going to be responsible.
Neal announces that he is bringing in an outside to be Neal’s new handler (Possibly Warren Kole). Interesting show.
FINAL THOUGHTS:
Here is my biggest issue with the show: They are moving too fast. Much like last season, they concluded the biggest issue of the season way to soon. Sure, it’s nice that Peter is out. But what I would have loved is to see how Neal behaves without Peter. I would loved to see who became Neal’s handler and how they worked well together. And at the end of it all, how this entire storyline worked out for Peter in maybe a 2-3 episdoe period. Really allow us to see how important Peter is for Neal.
Overall, it was a great show. However, it’s really fast paced. Hope they can slow it down and develop the story more.
