YMMV / White Collar

• Adorkable:
  • Mozzie. It really helps that he's played by Willie Garson. But then they give him lines like "Mi casa es suit casa", followed by a dorky little grin.
  • Peter plays video games (well, Angry Birds at least) and fist bumps (with explosion) with Elizabeth. And you should see him flirt. Well, try to flirt.
• Alternate Character Interpretation: Did Rachel Turner really love Neal, or was that all part of the con? Was she really preparing to cut him in, or was she just playing to the cameras? How much of her later darkness is who she really is, and how much is it the venom of a woman scorned?
• Awesome Music: "How You Like Me Now?" during the climax season 2's mid season finale.
• Ensemble Dark Horse: Diana, who was only in the pilot, but was brought back as a full time regular in season two because of her popularity.
• Heartwarming in Hindsight: Hilarie Burton gushing about her experience working on the show in interviews after it was revealed how toxic an environment the One Tree Hill set was following the #MeToo movement in 2017, with White Collar being Burton’s first job following her departure from the show.
• Hilarious in Hindsight:
  • Curtis Hagen, played by Mark Shepperd, is a Starter Villain that gets caught easily, after being on Leverage where he played Jim Sterling who was noted to "never lose".
  • In the seventh episode of the first season, they catch a lackey because, upon exiting a secret tunnel, he turns to look at a girl and gets caught on camera. We find out the meaning of the following exchange a few seasons later when we learn exactly how Peter caught Neal the first time. The affected casualness of the last two lines really sells it. And it even works at the time because Neal always, always hits on every woman in sight. Successfully.
    Peter: Guy steals three point two million in diamonds and we get him because he can't resist a pretty face.
    Neal: Happens to the best of us.
    Peter: [pointed glance]
    Neal: What?
    Peter: ... You know what.
    Neal: No I don't.
    Peter: Yes you do.
• Ho Yay: Oh yes. There's a reason the fandom's main ship is Neal/Peter/Elizabeth.
• Narm Charm: Those hilariously ham-fisted promotions for Ford.
• Never Live It Down: In "Forging Bonds", Burke becomes the butt of a number of jokes after inadvertently meeting Neal and letting him get away, and he keeps the lollipop Neal gave him as an eternal reminder of that fact. A more humorous one would be when Neal distributes pictures of Burke's mustache to his entire department.
• Nightmare Fuel: The season 5 episode "Controlling Interest" has a psychologist who manipulates her patients into committing crimes. That's bad enough on it's own, but it gets really bad when Neal, while undercover as a patient, finds out he's been Drugged. You know things are bad when even Neal Caffrey is caught off guard.
• One-Scene Wonder: In "Judgement Day", Bosch of Sterling-Bosch, who helps save Neal's bacon.
• OT3: The fandom is fairly satisfied. Also averts Die for Our Ship, mostly due to Elizabeth's sheer awesomeness. The show itself also heaps piping-hot servings of OT3 subtext onto our plates.
• Retroactive Recognition: The music in the background of the bar in "The Portrait" was sung by Dan Avidan, who would later become known for his band Ninja Sex Party and being one-half of the Game Grumps.
• Special Effects Failure:
  • The end of the first season finale, when Kate's plane explodes.
  • The show’s attempt at hiding Tiffani Thiessen's pregnancy early in the second season was by shooting all of her scenes in front of an obvious green screen.
  • It's painfully obvious that the shot of the Eiffel Tower in the final episode is fake.
• Spiritual Successor: This is basically what happened during those bits in Catch Me If You Can when Frank was working for the FBI. Also has pretty much the exact premise of It Takes a Thief. In the finale, Neal even dresses up as a pilot, much like Abagnale famously once did.
• Stoic Woobie: From the slight indications you get, her missing sister seems to have really screwed her up, but Sara is one of the most composed characters and sounds matter-of-fact even when she's being vulnerable.

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