TV Review - Burn Notice
Spy Show Returns to USA Network, June 4, 2009
Burn Notice stars Jeffrey Donovan as Michael Westen, a freelance spy who, in the pilot episode, works for various unnamed government agencies without being an official agent of any of them. While in the middle of an operation, he receives a “burn notice,” meaning he’s been blacklisted. Not only can he no longer count on any support from his employers, but his bank accounts are frozen and his identity virtually erased. He finds himself dumped in Miami, his support network reduced to essentially three people: his ex-girlfriend Fiona (Gabrielle Anwar), his buddy Sam (Bruce Campbell) and his mother Madeline (Sharon Gless).
Burn Notice: Season One & Two
The first season ran during the summer of 2007 on the USA Network, and quickly gained a following, no doubt due in part to the paucity of original programming during the summer. It’s filmed on location in and around Miami, which has the double benefit of being cheaper than L.A. while still providing lots of excuses for shots of bikini-clad women.
The structure followed a season-long arc of Michael trying to find out who burned him, while hiring himself out as a sort of one-man A-Team, which provided the hour-long plots for each episode. In the penultimate episode of the season, Michael meets a mystery man (played by the excellent Richard Schiff) who gives him to understand that the government isn’t behind the burn notice, but some kind of company or corporation. The season finale found Michael driving into a parked semi to meet the person who ruined his life.
The second season followed much the same pattern, although Michael’s interactions with Carla (Tricia Helfer), the woman fronting the organization that burned him, took up proportionally more time. The season ended with Michael confronting the “Management” of the corporation and leaping into the ocean from a helicopter, after having sent Sam, Fiona and his mother away.
Burn Notice: A Critique
The show is mildly entertaining, but it can’t compete with major network spy shows. Michael Westen is as agile and indestructible as Jack Bauer, but the stakes are never as high as on 24. The client-of-the-week structure helps avoid the ponderousness that took over Alias in its later seasons, but the wheels-within-wheels layering of the people behind the burn notice makes it seem likely that such ponderousness may be coming down the pike in season three.
And the writing is not as sharp, nor the cast as uniformly excellent (and attractive) as on Chuck, a show that refuses to take itself seriously and makes up for its giant plot holes with whip smart dialogue. It’s hard to overlook basic details (such as the fact that Michael never seems to take money for his work) when the show’s subtitles are the only thing making you laugh.
On the plus side, Donovan seems to be having fun. Without the apparently endless supply of wigs and costumes available to Sydney Bristow, Michael has to disguise himself primarily through accents, at which Donovan excels. (Too bad the same can’t be said for Anwar, an English actress playing an Irishwoman faking an American accent, neither of which is believable.) At some point, it’ll start stretching credulity that Michael can keep operating in Miami without all the people’s he’s screwed over getting suspicious (and that’s not even counting the enemies he made in his former life), but Donovan’s performance, and Michael’s weekly lessons in spy craft, for now make Burn Notice a fun, if forgettable, summer distraction.
Season three of Burn Notice begins on June 4, 2009. Season two will be available on DVD on June 16.
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