White Collar is in the middle of its second season on the USA network but visited Comic-Con for the first time this past week. For those unfamiliar with the show, Peter Burke is the head of the white-collar crimes division of the FBI and employs a former con man, Neal Caffrey to help give him valuable knowledge and experience to solve forgery and counterfeit crimes.
White Collar creator, Jeff Eastin, was joined by producer Jeff King and cast members Tiffani Thiessen (Elizabeth Burke), Sharif Atkins (Agent Clinton Jones), Willie Garson (Mozzie), Marsha Thomason (Agent Diana Lancing), Matt Bomer (Neal Caffery), and Tim Dekay (Peter Burke) to meet fans and press at Comic-Con International and talk about the second season of their hit television show.
The crux of White Collar is the relationship between Peter and Neal, the trust between them and their ability to get the job done. Fans can expect more of that in this new season.
“It’s compartmentalized, Neal and Peter’s relationship. There’s certain areas where Peter trusts Neal more than anybody. ‘I know he’ll come through. And then there are other areas where I don’t trust him.’ As long as there are those other areas, then the tension will be there. If both of us completely trust each other, then we’ve jumped the shark.”
Show creator, Jeff Eastin revealed the themes in season two. “A theme this season is revenge versus justice; it’s a continuation of trust between the two guys. The biggest fan reaction that surprised me last season was “Vital Signs” when Neal tells to Peter that he’s the only one he can trust. That was a throw-away moment in our minds but people really reacted to it.”
“So we took that trust theme seriously and have been playing with those themes going into this season. One of the rules of mine early on, you’ll never see Neal lie to Peter, ever. It’s true if you go back and watch the show, you’ll never catch Neal in an outright lie to Peter. Neal lies for a living so for Neal lying is a big deal so he’s careful not to do that with Peter. For Peter, he can lie for a living too, but he does it in the best interest to protect Neal.”
“I think the relationship between Peter and Neal is more than FBI-Criminal informant,” said Dekay. “It’s big brother-younger brother, it’s father-son, and sometimes you have to lie to your kid for the better of his upbringing. I think Peter feels responsible for Neal on more than just the professional level. Peter doesn’t like doing it, but he feels he has to.”
“Neal’s very intuitive,” Bomer explained. “As a confidence artist he has a pretty good bullshit meter. It’s like a poker game between us where we’re not revealing our cards, but not outright lying. What drew me to the character was that you never knew what he would do next. Even the audience couldn’t trust what he was going to do next. You start to understand in this season a little more why Neal is the way that he is. Peter is the first person outside of his world who he’s ever opened up to and trusted. So when that trust dynamic gets infiltrated he gets hurt.”
“The Neal-Peter dynamic doesn’t really change much this season,” Eastin said. “The problem with Neal is as much he cares about people, he’s really a creature of the id, it’s in those moments when he’s not thinking that he’ll do things he regrets. Those moments that he screws up that he jeopardizes the relationship that will really hit home in the mid-season finale.”
Some other highlights of this new season revealed:
* An upcoming episode featuring June and a big singing number with Neal.
* More “old and dusty” con episodes featuring counterfeiting antique processes
* More of the triangle dynamic of Peter, Elizabeth, and Neal.
* Agent Jones gets out of the van.
* A brother-sister relationship building between Agent Jones and Agent Lancing.
* Agent Jones and Peter getting into the con game and being sucked into Neal’s world.
* Peter and Mozzie working together more.
* A flashback episode showing Mozzie and Neal’s early caper adventures to which Willie Garson said, “My only hope for that is that I’m wearing some bad-ass hair piece!”
Uh-oh. That last line about Neal screwing up and jeopardizing the relationship — Yikes! Me nervous about the mid-season finale now.
I hope nothing *really* bad happens to Peter, because the other thing they talk about alot is how the show is pretty bloodless. Not a lot of gory injury/death scenes.
And Yay! for more of Peter & Mozzie working together!