It's fair to say that the mid-season finale of USA's new caper drama "White Collar" contained one of the more polarizing cliffhangers of recent years. Up until the last episode of the fall, the series was basically a cheerful, fast-paced buddy comedy about brainy FBI agent Peter Burke (Tim DeKay) who recruits world's-smartest-thief Neal Caffrey (Matthew Bomer) to be a consultant on tricky theft cases. It was a charming, fun romp, fueled mainly by the great chemistry between (and wonderfully loose performances of) the two leads. Then came the mid-season finale in which it appeared that the straitlaced Peter was a bad guy who was keeping Neal's lady love Kate as a sort of hostage. It was a shocking possibility, and one that could have turned this light caper into something dark and sinister. Like many, I had no idea how I felt about it. On the one hand, I would like this show to have a little more substance. No, I don't expect it to suddenly turn into "The Wire," but I'd like there to be more at stake for the characters. On the other hand, the Peter-Neal relationship is one of the show's strongest assets, and I can't possibly support anything that messes with that. Well, the show returns for the second half of its season tonight at 10 and, without spoiling anything, let me just say that I'm pleased by the new episode. It manages to add a little more depth and mystery to the show without spoiling that central relationship. Plus, there's a fun mystery of the week in which Neal has to go undercover to bring down a boiler room scam. The show's at its best when it lets its two leads show why their characters are the best at what they do. Both Bomer and DeKay get nice showcases here, and Willie Garson is still a joy as Neal's paranoid sidekick Mozzie. It's an enjoyable episode and it should satisfy those who were scratching their heads at the fall finale.
Putting together a list of this year's top 10 shows proved harder than I anticipated. While last year was a relatively spotty year for TV (with the exception of excellent final seasons for "The Shield" and "The Wire"), 2009 offered a lot of reasons to love the boob tube. Several returning shows had particularly strong seasons and there were some truly smart and imaginative new offerings. To accommodate all the year's notable programming, I present not only the traditional top 10 list, but also an honorable mention and a list of runners up. Do you have a problem with that? I didn't think so. On to the list. 1. "Breaking Bad," AMC: After a strong, but uneven, first season, AMC's wrenching drama "Breaking Bad" blossomed into a devastating, much-watch series in its sophomore outing. With the initial exposition out of the way, the tale of drug-dealing chemistry teacher Walter White (Bryan Cranston, whose brilliance goes without saying at this point) and his slightly more seasoned sidekick Jesse (Aaron Paul) went into overdrive. The guys got deeper and deeper into the drug biz. They built up a crew, acquired a lawyer (the excellent Bob Odenkirk) and unleashed a whole lot of hell. At its best, "Breaking Bad" is smart, darkly funny and deeply unsettling. It's the year's best show and, along with "Mad Men," cements AMC's reputation as the new home for great drama.
2. "Lost," ABC: Yes, I know the new conventional wisdom is that cable is king and broadcast is yesterday's news. But this year, the networks offered a lot of top-notch programming, including the best season yet of ABC's fascinating sci-fi drama "Lost." This was the show's penultimate season, and it was a doozy. We had time travel, the surprisingly touching romance of Juliet and Sawyer and perhaps the year's most shocking finale. What if, it proposed, everything we'd been watching these five seasons could be undone? The show's final season will, presumably, provide the answer. I can't wait. In the meantime, check out one of the season's funniest moments here. 3. "Big Love," HBO: How does "Big Love" do it? How does it manage to make a drama about a polygamist family seem like just another family drama (albeit an incredibly well-acted and well-written one)? Three seasons in and I'm more hooked than ever on the story of Bill Hendrickson (Bill Paxton) and his three wives, played wonderfully by Jeanne Tripplehorn, Chloe Sevigny and Ginnifer Goodwin. This season, everyone shone but Sevigny was a particular highlight as her increasingly unstable Nikki Grant battled her daddy issues, her insecurities and a host of secrets. 4. "Mad Men," AMC: Granted, this season of the period drama "Mad Men" was a little slow. There were too many episodes focusing on adman Don Draper's (Jon Hamm) home life, particularly his increasingly dreary wife Betty (January Jones). But the season's best episodes were so phenomenal, they made up for any lags. How can you deny the brilliance of "My Old Kentucky Home," which includes the now-classic line "My name is Peggy Olson, and I want to smoke some marijuana?" Or the visceral shock of the lawn mower scene from "Guy Walks Into an Advertising Agency?" Or the devastating genius of this scene, in which Don finally reveals the truth about his past? It all led up to the unforgettable, game-changing finale, "Shut the Door, Have a Seat," in which the "Mad Men" world we knew unraveled, and morphed into something new and exciting. Truth is, I'm willing to put up with this show's slow spots, because it delivers the goods more often than not. And when it delivers the goods, few shows are better. 5. "Friday Night Lights," NBC/DirecTV 101 network: Sadly, many people still haven't seen any of the fourth season of the wonderful drama "Friday Night Lights." That's because you can only watch it on DirecTV's 101 channel. The season won't air on the show's other home, NBC, until the summer. That's a shame, because this is possibly the show's best season since its first. The series reinvigorated itself with a brilliant story about Coach Taylor (Kyle Chandler) being forced to helm the football team at East Dillon High, a hardscrabble school far less well-off than his former home, Dillon High. The show has also successfully introduced new characters and started to close out stories for some of its returning characters. These include tortured good guy Matt (Zach Gilford), whose character has been through the ringer this season. It's disappointing that this series has to fight to be noticed (to even be seen, in fact), because it's easily one of the most moving, intelligent shows on TV. 6."The Good Wife," CBS: 2009 presented a bunch of promising candidates for best new show, but CBS's "The Good Wife" gets my vote. "ER" vet Julianna Margulies plays a familiar type -- the betrayed wife of a scandalized politician. Left behind to raise her family after a dalliance with a prostitute lands hubby in jail, Margulies's Alicia Florrick returns to her legal career -- as a junior associate. Turns out, she's pretty good at her job. The show manages to be both procedural and compelling character drama, with Margulies giving a brave, powerful performance. Bonus: the husband, played by Chris Noth, is portrayed not as a complete jerk, but as a flawed guy who still loves his angry wife. Good, adult entertainment. 7. "Nurse Jackie," Showtime: The next best new show of the season, "Nurse Jackie" stars Edie Falco as the title character, an excellent nurse who is also a philanderer, drug addict and general rule-breaker. But you kind of love her anyway, thanks to Falco's spot-on performance. Bonus: Merritt Wever's performance as newbie nurse Zoe, maybe the year's funniest new character. 8. "True Blood," HBO: A surprise hit in its first season, HBO's vampire soap "True Blood" got even better in its second season, thanks to some truly insane plotlines, the deepening of several characters and LOTS of sex. Yes, the storyline involving Michelle Forbes's quasi-demoness Maryann was uneven, but it was never boring. And all the show's supporting characters were in top form this season, especially Alexander Skarsgard's Eric, Ryan Kwanten's Jason and Chris Bauer's hilarious Andy Bellefleur (I chuckle every time I think of Bauer's reading of the word "pizazz"). With so many elements clicking, there's only one thing I can say: bloody good show! 9. "Modern Family," ABC: Imagine if the Bluth family of "Arrested Development" was made entirely of well-meaning, decent people instead of self-centered brats. It sounds awful, doesn't it? Well, ABC's new sitcom "Modern Family" isn't awful. Not even a little bit. The show has the dry wit, wacky characters and mockumentary format of "Arrested," but has something else, too: a heart. This family isn't stabbing each other in the back. They love each other. And you know what? Loving families can be funny, too. Especially if the family members are played by deft performers like Ed O'Neill, Sofia Vergara, Ty Burrell and Eric Stonestreet. Don't believe me? Take a look at this. 10. "Dollhouse," Fox: Yes, I know that Geek Nation is up in arms because Fox didn't renew its challenging sci-fi series "Dollhouse" for a third season. But come on! It's a show that deals with heady topics such as personal identity, exploitation and our culture's growing dependence on technology. We should be happy it even got two seasons. Particularly since the show's second season has been nothing short of excellent. The show centers on a company that imprints mind-wiped humans, or "dolls," with new identities to meet the needs of clients. This season, doll Echo (Eliza Dushku), has developed a personality and free will. Other characters have deepened as well, including Dollhouse tech Topher (Fran Kranz) who has gone from a smarmy geek to a truly complex, compelling part of the show. So yeah, I'm sad this is the last season. But I'm glad we got to see "Dollhouse" at all. Honorable Mention -- ESPN's "30 for 30": Technically, this isn't a TV series but a series of occasional specials ESPN is running to celebrate the network's 30th year on the air. But it's too good not to mention. Each special focuses on a different story or personality in sports history. Each is helmed by a different director (Peter Berg and Barry Levinson are among the contributors). And each provides a truly fascinating look at the world of sports. Well-worth watching. Runners up: 1. "Dexter," Showtime: For John Lithgow's awesome performance as the season's chief villain, Arthur Mitchell. 2. "White Collar," USA: For being one of TV's most entertaining new shows, and providing a star-making role for the charming Matthew Bomer. 3. "The Closer," TNT: For being one of the few procedural dramas with a sense of humor that goes beyond darkly comic puns about body parts. 4. "30 Rock," NBC: For Alec Baldwin's continually great performance as Jack Donaghy 5. "Glee," Fox: For proving that a scripted series with musical numbers can work (take that, "Cop Rock!"). Also for Jane Lynch.
So, I know I already posted a review of the mid-season finale of USA's charming new caper drama "White Collar," but I wanted to take a few brief moments to talk about the episode itself, now that you've (presumably) seen it. That said, episode spoilers are below. OK, I'd primarily like to talk about that last scene. What do you think it means? Do you really think Peter is bad? I sincerely doubt it and, if he is, my esteem of the show will fall immensely. Making Peter evil with no real lead-up to that reveal would just be kind of a cop-out; a way to generate some cheap gasps and thrills. I think the real reason he's following Kate is probably more complicated. Perhaps he senses Kate is using Neal, and he's trying to keep her away from him. Or maybe she's the one who helped Peter catch Neal in the first place, and he doesn't want Neal to find out about it. Whatever the reason, I'm really hoping the show deals with it in a satisfying way. I'm a little worried about that as, though the series is great fun, it is a bit slight. I hope this twist isn't just explained away in five minutes, but that it adds a little weight to the show. Even if Peter isn't evil, he is betraying Neal. That betrayal will add a layer of complexity to the relationship between the two leads, and complexity is just what this show needs a little more of. What did you think?
USA's charming new caper series "White Collar" has its mid-season finale on Friday night at 10 p.m. Though I haven't gotten a chance to write much about it, I honestly believe this show -- starring Tim DeKay as a clever FBI agent and Matthew Bomer as the brilliant thief who becomes his partner -- is one of the most entertaining new series of the year. The show is the latest in USA's stable of lightweight, character-driven mysteries, such as "Monk" (which has it series finale Friday at 9 p.m.),"Psych," and "Burn Notice." All of these shows are less about meaty drama than they are about engaging personalities (with the possible exception of "Burn Notice," which gets deeper and more interesting every season). And "White Collar" features two of the most engaging personalities on TV, in the person of TV vets DeKay and Bomer. DeKay gives just the right note of weary intelligence and dry humor as frazzled FBI agent Peter Burke, who teams up with charming forger and thief Neal Caffrey (Bomer). Both actors are terrific, but this is Bomer's vehicle. The actor has bounced around in everything from the short-lived drama "Traveler" to NBC's cult hit "Chuck," and here he has a really fun, flashy role that will finally make him a star. There are some good supporting players as well, including the ever-reliable Willie Garson as Neal's sidekick, a conspiracy theorist with a seemingly endless talent for information-gathering. The show doesn't always work. Tiffani Thiessen's role as Peter's sweet wife seems like an afterthought, and I never understood why Marsha Thomason's character disappeared after the pilot. But, overall, this is a strong show. The finale is as good as everything that came before it, and ends with a shocking twist that -- if it is what it appears to be -- could turn the entire show upside down. I kind of hope it doesn't. I like this show the way it is.
As some of you might have noticed, my posts have been sparse lately. That's because my computer has been on the fritz and is out for repairs. For the past couple of weeks, I've been typing my "Mad Men" recaps on my husband's computer but have put a hold on all other posts. That's why you haven't yet seen anything on USA's charming new drama "White Collar" (love it -- and promise to write something about it soon) or FX's new sitcom "The League" (like it, but not sure I'm in it for the long haul). I also haven't been able to weigh in on the progress of some of my favorite shows (Jennifer Carpenter's work on "Dexter" is better than ever, isn't it?) And, since ABC posts all its screeners online, I wasn't able to preview the new series "V" (I'll DVR and try to watch soon -- promise). But I have a computer now, and will try to be better about my posts. And don't forget to read my recap of the season finale of "Mad Men," which will appear online on Monday!
