What I’m Watching: White Collar

White Collar: Season 2, Episode 5 “Unfinished Business” (B+)

USA knows how to do characters. The addition of Hilarie Burton, delivering a far better performance here than she ever did on “One Tree Hill,” in what should likely be a recurring role, is a fantastic one because it gives Neal yet another person to constantly annoy and flirt with off the charts. She spouted off some great one-liners, like “Curiosity can’t kill me if I’m already dead” and “You’re a con man, you smile for a living,” making her a valuable presence only moments after she first appeared and drove away with that extremely expensive car. I really hope she sticks around for a while, and judging by the fact that she was about to get killed less than two minutes before the end of the episode, I figure she’s not going anywhere for a bit. I like the way this show handles action scenes, making them not terribly intense but still awesome. Neal’s side investigation with Mozzie regarding Kate’s death is rather entertaining and clever, and his decision to have the information mailed to Sara was extraordinarily impressive. The fact that he ultimately had to leave it behind in the service of saving Sara’s life was just as thrilling and fulfilling as the fact that he almost got away with picking it up. Neal having to pose as an assassin was an unusually violent twist on the show that still managed to work quite well with the tone of the show. Neal having a partner crime, even if it’s a woman who wants to shoot him and/or put him in jail, also helps, and the underlying plotline of the painting is pretty darn entertaining too.