White Collar is stiff as ever!

White Collar is back and while not better than ever, it's at least not worse! I've settled into a nice zone with this show where I don't expect much and have my expectations met each week.
We left the show on a cliffhanger of sorts that could have been really interesting if USA put on shows that were really interesting. Instead everyone is friends, we all wear fancy shirts and there are some gratuitous attempts at conveying a lavish lifestyle that fall devastatingly short.
(Spoiler Alert) There was a chance that the agent guy, whose name currently escapes me, might have been a bad guy, but that isn't the case. Crazy twist, right? WRONG! The twist would have been provocative television, but instead we get the same buddy dramedy we always get on USA. Oh it could have been good...We could have had some Lost type stuff here, with Neil investigating his supposed friend and then we get some back story later on that explains stuff or something. Anything like that would have been amazing, but USA doesn't do serial dramas. They do episodic crap that they can churn out in the vein of a GM plant.
I'm so mad!!!!!
Maybe I'm expecting too much from a television show, when i want it to be the THOMAS CROWN AFFAIR. But this is supposedly the golden era of television when people swing for the fences. This feels like a sacrifice bunt or whatever the equivalent safe move is.
My overwhelming problem with White Collar is that I don't believe the world it creates. Not for a minute to I buy this world or the characters that inhabit it. Maybe you can say it is escapism, but this setup is a lame fantasy.
I want to embrace this show because there is a bit of mystery. The idea of CATCH ME IF YOU CAN as a tv show is cool, and its made better with this hidden conflict. This could be a good show on FX, except it is just a happy go lucky romp on USA. Whatever.