Round Two: White Collar

White Collar: Season 1, Episode 2 “Threads” (C+)

This second episode doesn’t condemn the future of this show to failure, and honestly isn’t terribly indicative of the direction it will likely take. Instead, it’s probably more of a sub-par episode with a plotline that’s just not that interesting. Fashion Week seems a bit obvious and out in the open for the dynamic duo who should really be keeping a lower profile in their attempted sting operations. What’s really fascinating and surprising about this show is the very comic relationship between the two leads. Their camaraderie is so loose and friendly, and it seems that they trust each other implicitly despite having been nemeses for all of the time leading up to the start of the show last week. Neal’s search for his missing girlfriend is a nice added thread that will hopefully be fleshed out in coming episodes. Anyone who uses Morse code is cool in my book (my favorite instance being Jack and Sidney’s use of blinking to communicate in Morse code when they were taken hostage in the first season of “Alias”), and Mozzie’s quick ability to interpret what she was tapping on her leg was impressive. The idea that she’s out there and that’s she trying to send messages to him adds a nice recurring mystery, and Neal’s knowing look and smile when he reexamines the ship-in-the-bottle is a great indicator of fun things to come.