'White Collar' is good TV fun

White Collar" isn't altogether an original idea. Heck, it isn't even a vaguely original idea.

But Friday's debut of this new series (10 p.m., USA) is so well executed it doesn't even begin to matter.

"White Collar" is about career criminal Neal Caffrey (Matt Bomer), who teams up with the career FBI agent, Peter Burke (Tim DeKay), who sent him to prison. Together, they tackle high-profile, white-collar criminals.

Sure, it's reminiscent of a lot of shows and movies that came before. Creator/executive producer Jeff Eastin readily admits he was influenced by everything from "Catch Me If You Can" to "48 HRS."

But the show is so well cast and smartly written that the entertainment value makes any comparisons beside the point. And the best part about "White Collar" is the characters themselves.

"It really is a show about the two guys and their interaction.… This is not just a procedural cop show," Eastin said. "We really get to dive in and discover things about these characters that you wouldn't on a normal cop show."

And "White Collar" does twist the conventions of this genre. You'd probably figure that these guys don't get along, but they do — something that was "hugely intentional," according to Eastin.

He didn't want the show to follow the pattern of movies like "48 HRS."

"They always end up in the same place. It's, like, at the very end of the show, now they're buddies. And you spend that initial two hours with these guys just butting heads," Eastin said. "It works great for movies. And for TV, these are two guys you want to go home and spend your Friday nights with. These are the guys you want to hang out with.

"And so the idea was — let's spend a little bit of time putting them at odds, but at the end, these two guys really, really respect each other. There's still a trust issue, but it's that respect and mutual admiration for each other where the show really lives."

And Neal and Peter are both intelligent and charming.

"Their skill sets are going to be slightly different … but they're always going to be the two smartest guys in the room," Eastin said.

There's a lot of smart casting that went on with "White Collar" as well. Tiffani Thiessen co-stars as Peter's smart, capable wife; Willie Garson as Neal's surprisingly well-connected informant, Mozzie; and Diahann Carroll has a recurring role as Neal's elegant new landlady/friend.

"White Collar" is just sort of good old-fashioned TV fun about unraveling crime capers. The kind of thing Neal used to pull off, and Peter has always worked to solve.