What I’m Watching: White Collar

White Collar: Season 2, Episode 2 “Need to Know” (B+)

The second season of this show is really impressing thus far, picking up the pace a bit from the already great first season by solidifying the strong relationship between its main characters. The revelation that Peter knows that Diana has the box cements the notion of trust, even if Peter is still deceiving Neal for his own good. Diana’s presence also serves to enhance the level of entertainment on the show since her interactions with both Neal and Peter are a whole lot of fun. Neal’s ability to lie so convincingly and just spew so much completely made-up garbage is wildly impressive, and it’s fantastic to see how readily everyone eats them up. Aside from the wondrous scenes featuring any combination of Neal, Peter, and Diana, I’m still most excited, like last week, about everything and anything related to Mozzie. I think I might be a bit behind the curve, since many fans of the show really liked him last season, as far as I can tell. He was great then too; he’s just really come into his own now, in my opinion. Neal’s initial mention of how he votes more often than Peter would think – or approve of – had me cracking up, and then Mozzie and Peter wandering around together with Mozzie giving Peter stuff to read so he wouldn’t concern himself with the allegedly illegal activity Mozzie was engaging in was hilarious. Mozzie’s despair when he found out that it was his preferred politician who might be guilty of misdeeds added an unexpected semi-moral but more so amusing component to an already awesome investigation.