White Collar The Complete First Season Blu-ray
Art forger and con man Neal Caffrey helps the FBI on current cases while working on his own agenda behind the back of handler FBI Agent Peter Burke but Burke knows more than Neal thinks.
Film making 23/25
Video 20/25
Audio 20/25
Bonus Features 13/25
Total 76/100
Neal Caffrey played by Matt Bomer is a master at all the bad things he does; forgery, con man, safe cracker, general thief and a highly respected man in his profession. He is also a handsome and charming man who can talk his way through and into any situation which gives him the edge in his criminal endeavors.
Eventually he gets caught and winds up in jail due to the highly dedicated FBI Agent Peter Burke played by Tim DeKay who not only caught him once but several times during the first season. A four year stay in prison does not mean much when art forger and con man Neal Caffrey gets a visit from his girlfriend and promptly breaks out of jail.
Well it wasn't so promptly as it took him a few months to set things up and throughout the season this girlfriend and how she disappeared and slowly sneaks back into Neal's life is the recurring theme. Several times girlfriend Kate who during a visit in jail Neal talks with and suddenly starts his jailbreak pops up a few times in phone conversations and actual meetings.
The episodes themselves and the general theme of ex-con, sort of, helping the FBI and using his consultant to the FBI status to get around certain FBI "rules" is great story. Neal uses his status as a consultant a few times to get around search warrants and other legal issues standing between Agent Burke and an arrest that will make a difference in the world.
Mostly Neal and Agent Burke are going after other white collar criminals but a few times they are thrown into bigger waters to go after those really big fish. During season one several cases revolve around separate issues of crime but also around Neal's girlfriend Kate or other parts of his criminal life.
The series is a great one and even with a few odd choices of plot and characters you get a smart and funny drama that is a bit better than your average cop or detective show. The grisly and often depressing themes of many police dramas is left behind in the world of White Collar and even the seldom used gunfire and bloody scenes add a bit of realism instead of the dark world of crime.
Each episode except for a few like the pilot and a couple of others are stand alone shows that have their own theme and don't have to be watched in order. The recurring theme is well interwoven into the lives of both criminal and agent to blend the show into one well made and entertaining drama.
White Collar is a great show and I could not wait for the release of season 2, Hulu is great to be able to keep up on the shows I just cannot wait for. But like so many things the Blu-ray is much better than the Hulu streaming and high definition for White Collar is great as well as the writing and plot.
Video is clean and crisp due to the Blu-ray edition being shot in high definition giving the series a great looking video. The show looks as good as higher profile shows and looks as good as the many films with much bigger budgets which is a nice surprise for a series.
Colors and textures are well defined and look great with the show being a more clean and good looking world of white collar crime but even the dingy and gritty world they often find themselves in looks realistic. Video just looks great but sometimes is a bit soft and does have a few noticeable places where noise is present in night scenes but not a problem.
Audio is also great but just like video not top of the line, good enough to be remarkable but not good enough to get a top rating. The White Collar audio track is 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio and sounds great with some better than average music and general theme music.
Being a cable series, White Collar is actually better than average and sounds great with a small use of surround sound in everything which for a series is pretty good. Surround sound is evident but not highly used and with the front heavy track you do get at least some side or rear speaker use for theme music and sound effects.
Bonus content for White Collar is average but nothing more than many other shows on Blu-ray with audio commentary, deleted scenes, a good gag reel and a little more. Five commentary tracks are scattered throughout the discs with all other bonus features on the third disc.
The gag reel is one of the more mentionable features with 12 minutes of mostly funny extras during the entire shows filming. Other features are somewhat interesting with some interesting insight into the show through the audio commentary and the one feature with creator Jeff Eastin but mostly there is not much here worth a repeat visit.
White Collar is one of those shows that has the right actors in a smartly written show with well done costumes, writing and general series plot. White Collar is a great show and the Blu-ray edition looks and sounds great for an entertaining and smart show that is definitely worth a purchase.