Quick Thoughts: WHITE COLLAR, "On Guard"

The Season 2 finale of White Collar was what people like to call a "game-changer", and I was intrigued to see how Season 3 would kick-off. While "On Guard" wasn't chock full of shockers, it was still an entertaining installment of the show.

Right off the bat, we learned that Mozzie was the one who stole the Nazi treasure, which was appreciated because spending an entire episode or more of Peter grilling Neal would've gotten old fast. Plus, Mozzie made sense. The thing is, we all knew Neal wasn't going to run off with the loot, which took all of the suspense out of the episode, but did build some momentum for the rest of the season.

The hook of Season 3 is going to be the cat and mouse game between Neal and Peter, which will be amplified by the fact that they'll still be working cases together, and their relationship will no doubt be at stake. This back and forth between the two protagonists is what's going to make White Collar stand out because of the tension alone. While watching "On Guard", I remember being worked up as Peter doubted Neal because I wanted to believe that their bond was stronger than that, and what irked me even more was the fact that he was right and I fell for Neal's charm. This combination of conflicting emotions could make White Collar one of the best shows on TV if it can maintain the right balance.

Nerve-wracking oneupmanship aside, the rest of "On Guard" was pretty standard stuff. The Case of the Week, Neal conning a thief trying to smuggle money out of the country, wasn't particularly earth-shattering. It did provide some decent jokes and an excuse to pull off a con known as the "Phoebe Cates". There's nothing wrong with that.

One of the few missteps that the episode made was it was too exposition heavy. Some of the characters explained some plot points with heavy-handed detail that I was briefly taken out of the episode. Also, the scenes where Neal and Peter demonstrated how they knew exactly what the other was thinking/doing felt like some pretty big leaps. Don't get me started on Neal painting and burning a new piece of artwork in less than 30 minutes.

The thing is, White Collar is one of those shows that you need to turn off your brain to enjoy. If you start thinking about the plausibility of what's going on, it gets a lot less fun, so you have to let some stuff slide. This cruise-control approach to television watching and the right amount of long-term storytelling made "On Guard" one of the better outings to date. I have a feeling it's going to be a good season.