USA adds "White Collar" star to lineup

USA has just given you another reason not to watch "The Jay Leno Show" at 10pm.

The "Characters Welcome" network has taken that often tired "buddy cop" subgenre and added a splash of USA's signature wit and quirk to create their latest show, "White Collar" -- a comfortable cousin to "Burn Notice," "Monk," and "In Plain Sight."

In the new show, which premieres tonight at 10pm, imprisoned white collar master criminal Neal Caffrey (Matt Bomer, whom you may know as Bryce from NBC's "Chuck") escapes from prison with only four months to go on his original sentence. Why? Let's just say he's a romantic. FBI agent Peter Burke (Tim Dekay), who put Caffrey behind bars the first time, is sent to track him down again -- which of course, he does.

Caffrey is sent back to prison but negotiates his release so that he can help Burke catch the elusive "Dutchman" criminal. (No spoilers here, folks -- this all happens in the opening minutes of the show as a way of setting up the show's premise.)

Equipped with a tracking ankle bracelet that keeps him anchored and a pauper's stipend that seriously cramps his style, Caffrey charms a widower played by Diahann Carroll into putting him up in her mansion and giving him her dead husband's classic designer Rat Pack wardrobe.

And we're off.

Though he's nursing a broken heart and still stubbornly searching for his lost love (a
secondary plot that will most likely run throughout the season if not the entire series), Caffrey gradually adjusts to using his criminal genius for good, and carves a begrudgingly respectful relationship with Burke.

"White Collar" is a satisfying mixture of light and dark, of smart and accessible.

In other words, it's classic USA.

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"White Collar" airs on Fridays at 10pm on USA.