Human Target + White Collar = Burn Notice

The Winter Olympics have thrown a wretch into my online TV show watching schedule – namely, the networks are not playing/uploading new episodes of  “Castle” and “Burn Notice” (my two favorite shows).

So Em and I decided to do what any good Hulu watcher would do – we decided to watching something else! 😛

250px-Human_Target_2010_IntertitlePocking around a bit, I stumbled upon a new show called theHuman Target” based up a comic book character of the same name. The premise of the show is that there is a bodyguard / security consultant named Chris Chance who so integrates himself into the lives of his clients so that the threat targets him instead of the client.

Sounds pretty cool….but it’s not really that good… 😕

Chance as a character is pretty flat – mainly he is a guy who has a death wish and loves adrenaline. These facts led to a guy who walks into dangerous situations with no plan, relying instead on luck and his gun. As I’m watching this, I kept thinking: “Michael Westen could do it better, smoother, and with less property damage!”

220px-White_Collar_(TV_series)The next evening we decided to watch White Collar on the advice of a good friend. Usually we always watch the show pilot first – as it always pays to watch episodes in order…however, the pilot for ““White Collar” was unavailable as the show has been on all season. Luckily, Wikipedia had a quick overview of the show premise so that we wouldn’t be too lost. 🙂

In a nutshell, the show is about a con-man (Neal) who gets caught by the FBI and is offered a job by them, helping to catch other white collar criminals. At the same time, Neal is trying to find his former girlfriend who is been held or controlled by someone with a 10-yr FBI pin. In other words, Neal is playing both sides – the FBI and his criminal contacts for his benefit.

In the episode we watched, Neal (the con-man) joins a group of stock traders who are manipulating the system to scam folks out of their money. At first everything is going smooth – Neal talks his way into the inner circle and is gathering information in an attempt to take them down. However, things go bad when the inter group of thieves starting fighting among themselves – leading to a tense confrontation involving some guns.

200px-Burn_Notice_logoAgain – while the show was ok – I keep thinking about how Michael Westen from “Burn Notice” would have handled the situation. Neal, while a smooth talker, does a horrible job at concealing his emotions (he thinks that his FBI buddy/boss whom he is working with on the job kidnapped his girlfriend), which almost gets him killed.

Michael, on the other hand, routinely cons his way (“White Collar”) into dangerous situations on behalf of clients ( “Human Target”). Only he does it with a ton of preparation and skill that results in the bad guys being forced to leave town, turn themselves in, or, sometime, die. Michael Westen is the perfect con-man who’s on the fly story crafting is amazing! Yet, he is good enough not to let emotions or other jobs interfere with the current project.

Basically, “Burn Notice” is ““White Collar” and  “Human Target” rolled into one power packed, smooth talking show.