Why take risks when you know it works? Back in October, USA extended its relationship and confidence in White Collar creator Jeff Eastin by ordering an untitled hour-long drama pilot that Fox TV Studios will produce. The series will feature an ensemble of undercover agents from a variety of federal and state law enforcement agencies (FBI, LAPD, US Customs, etc.) who reside under one roof in Southern California.
Over the past week, Deadline broke some of the early casting choices headed by Brandon Jay McLaren who was recently seen in AMC’s The Killing and will play Dale Jakes a US Customs Agent. Aaron Tveit who Gossip Girl fans will recall played Trip van der Bilt will co-star with McLaren as Mike Warren, a rookie FBI agent. Vanessa Ferlito from CSI: NY will play a tough DEA Agent, Catherine “Charlie” Lopez. It is believed that the series will follow a similar format as White Collar in that it will center around two leads, in this case Jakes and Warren, and others such as Lopez will support the cast.
USA is banking that Jeff Eastin’s loyal White Collar support base will get behind his new pilot and make it another successful series launch. White Collar is set to return to complete its third season on January 17, 2012 and has already been renewed for a fourth season. I’ve already subscribed to the slogan, “In Eastin, We Trust” so no matter the concept–and this one has piqued my interest despite the gluttony of law enforcement shows and procedurals in production–I’m tuning in. McLaren is an interesting cast choice as a lead who’s most prominent featured role was in Tucker and Dale vs. Evil but was one of the major red herrings in The Killing as Rosie Larsen’s shifty English teacher, Bennet Ahmed. McLaren will also appear in the upcoming second season of TNT’s Falling Skies.
The unique spin on Eastin’s show could be how the agents from the different branches of the government mix and how they can assist each other given each other’s varying resources and degrees of security clearance. That they are all undercover I’m going to assume that there’s an element of infiltration and establishing covers each week. White Collar may have shed light on the con, this show could be focused on the cover.
If a full season is eventually ordered from Eastin’s pilot, it will continue the expansion of the highest-rated cable network, who has been growing its lineup of original scripted series that already include: Burn Notice, Covert Affairs, Pysch, Necessary Roughness, In Plain Sight, Royal Pains, Fairly Legal, White Collar and Suits. They are set to debut their latest series, Common Law, a series about two homicide detectives ordered to undergo couples therapy because they can’t get along.
Do you currently watch White Collar and if so, would you add another Jeff Eastin show to your viewing schedule? What do you think about the actors cast so far? Is there any fear that the quality of White Collar would suffer with Eastin adding another show to his to do list? Let us know below!
