White Collar or Leverage?

So you are stuck on a island in the Pacific with a dvd and lcd monitor that work on solar power.  You have your choice of  being able to watch White Collar from USA network or Leverage from TNT.  First off we have the new contender White Collar.

White Collar is about the unlikely partnership of a con artist and an FBI agent who have been playing cat and mouse for years. Neal Caffrey (Matt Bomer), a charming criminal mastermind, is finally caught by his nemesis, FBI Agent Peter Burke (Tim DeKay.)

When Neal escapes from a maximum-security prison to find his long-lost love, Peter nabs him once again. Rather than returning to jail, Neal suggests an alternate plan: He’ll provide his criminal expertise to assist the Feds in catching other elusive criminals in exchange for his eventual freedom. Initially wary, Peter quickly finds that Neal provides insight and intuition that can’t be found on the right side of the law.

The plus of White Collar is that you have Matt Bomer of Chuckfame that does a real good job at the con artist roll.  Plus let us not forget that we have Tiffani Thiessen.  The stories are interesting, and the mid season cliff hanger was great.  I think the problem was that they wrapped up too much of that cliff hanger too quickly.  I would have liked to seen it drawn out a bit more.  We know a bit too much in my head.  Still a great show though and I look forward to see how the conflict between the two FBI agents works out.  You do also have Natalie Morales who I loved in The Middleman.

TNT set Tuesday nights on fire this past winter with the first season of this thrilling, fast-paced drama series starring Oscar® winner Timothy Hutton (Ordinary People). This summer, the gang is back with more elaborate scams designed to exact revenge against those who use power and wealth to victimize people. Hutton stars as Nate Ford, a former insurance investigator determined to bring down the kind of corrupt bigwigs whose neglect led to the death of his son. His highly skilled team includes Sophie Devereaux (Gina Bellman – Coupling), a grifter who uses her acting skills to corner her marks; Eliot Spencer (Christian Kane – TNT’s Into the West), a “retrieval specialist” with bone-crunching fighting skills; Alec Hardison (Aldis Hodge – Friday Night Lights), a gadget and technology wizard who keeps the team connected and informed; and Parker (Beth Riesgraf – Alvin and the Chipmunks), a slightly off-center thief adept at repelling off buildings or squeezing into tight places. Together, the team puts their energy, quick minds and keen intellects toward securing justice for society’s underdogs.

LEVERAGE, which is executive-produced by Dean Devlin (Independence Day, TNT’s The Librarian movies), has scored big in its first season, ranking as ad-supported cable’s #1 show in its timeslot.

Leverage has a lot more action and one of my favorite characters in Alec Hardison played by Aldis Hodge who you may remember as Voodoo from Friday Night Lights.  Parker played by Beth Riesgraf also does a kick ass job at the gymnastic thief.  Eliot Spencer cracks head with humor and Nate Ford (Timothy Hutton) does that mastermind, leader role well.  I could leave Sophie Devereaux’s character and we could also let the Nate Ford is an alcoholic fade to the back a bit.  They overdo that a bit. 

So what does everyone think?  Which would you choose?  I say Leverage.