DAPs Magic Disney News – by PJ Campbell
One of the most exciting shows over the past few years has been USA’s ‘White Collar’. The show stars Matt Bomer (‘Chuck’, ‘In Time’) as everyone’s favorite con man Neal Caffrey. Neal helps the FBI as a consultant to catch some of the most clever, and hardest to catch, criminals that the company is faced with. But this season finds Caffrey trying to come to terms with his dark past, while trying to pull off one of his biggest cons yet. The show costars Tim DeKay (‘Carnivale’), as Neal’s partner Peter Burke. Tiffani Thiessen (‘Saved by the Bell’, ‘Beverly Hills, 90210’) as Peter’s wife Elizabeth, and Willie Garson (‘The Rock’, ‘Being John Malkovich’) as Neal’s friend Mozzie. It’s a fast paced thinking man’s thriller, and it’s easily one of the best shows on television right now.
Picture and Sound
‘White Collar’ comes home on DVD courtesy of 20th Century Fox, and once again they’ve give us another spectacular looking DVD transfer. Coming in the widescreen aspect ratio, the show is sporting a handsome look. The characters suits and clothes are all natural looking, not a lot of color crushing, and very little digital noise to be found. Characters skin tones are natural, and even for a standard def release, you can see some decent fine detail on not only the characters, but things in the background as well. It’s not going to win any awards, but it’s definitely a beautiful looking transfer. I’d love to see these seasons get a blu-ray release down the line, because I think they’d really pop in high definition.
The show also comes to DVD with a nice 5.1 Doby surround sound track. This show is definitely dialogue heavy, and can be incredibly fast paced at times, so for something like that you need to make sure that the audio is crisp and clear and easy to understand. Fox has made sure that this set packs an audio track that fits that bill nicely, and it’s definitely got a nice little punch to it. I’m continually finding myself more and more impressed with some of the audio tracks that have been coming to DVD lately. They’re really pushing the format to greater heights, even while they aren’t high definition. It’s really impressive, and ‘White Collar’s is definitely a step in that direction.
Special Features:
Fox has given us a few features on this release. We’ve got the standard blooper reel, some deleted scenes from throughout the season, an audio commentary on the season finale, a feature called Jeff Eastin: @ddicted, and ‘Interrogation Room’, which is a trivia challenge featuring the cast and crew. It’s all fairly standard features, but even the most basic features are a step up from a featureless DVD. I actually really enjoyed the commentary during the season finale, which made me really wish there had been more commentaries throughout the season, not just on the one episode. I also really enjoyed watching the blooper reel, just because it’s always a nice laugh. Overall, it’s a nice little set of features that makes the set that much better.
Overall Recommendation:
‘White Collar’ really is one of the best shows on television. Featuring one of the strongest leading man performances on any show right now on television in Matt Bomer’s Neal Caffrey, the show on that level alone is easily worth a recommendation. But on top of that, it’s also a great thriller, with lots of twists and turns, and is much better than the procedurals that dominate the television landscape. This is a smart, fun, and just downright well written show that seems to fly under many people’s radars. In order to fully appreciate, you should definitely hunker down and watch the first two seasons, but season three is still fun even if you haven’t seen it. ‘White Collar’ fans will definitely want to pick this up to continue reliving the adventures of Neal, while new fans of the series will want to check it out to see what all the fuss is about. I honestly can’t recommend the show enough, and it’s definitely worth your time. It’ll be a great addition to your DVD collection. Highly recommended.
