USA Network is putting out shows of this type lately, and in some ways it’s a welcome change from what few non-reality shows the networks are creating these days. Burn Notice is certainly edgier, including more skin, more language, and more violence the usual. It’s somewhere between HBO and NBC, and the actors are attractive enough to pull it off. Set in the fast life in Miami, the show stars Jeffrey Donovan, a relative unknown (guest star on Crossing Jordan, Law & Order and several other TV shows), as Michael Weston. Weston is an ex-spy for the CIA who’s been given a “burn notice”–he’s been blacklisted.
He sets out on a mission to find out who burned him without any money, useable identification, or trusted colleagues to work with. He’s forced to stay in Miami and take private investigator-type jobs to make the money to live. A former girlfriend (the beautiful and recently resurfaced Gabrielle Anwar, best known for The Three Musketeers and For Love or Money) shows up to work alongside him. She’s an aggressive, forward illegal arms dealer named Fiona, and she wants Michael back. The sexuality between the actors is a key facet of the show, as is the emotionless approach Michael expresses at the beginning of the season. As he begins to work with ordinary people in order to get them out of predicaments (blackmail, kidnapping, robberies, and the like), we see his facade start to crack and a bit of empathy come through that crack. After so many years of being compartmentalized and ruthless, living his work rather than just doing it, he’s got a long way to go.
Michael provides casual, smoothly interjected voiceovers to define for the viewer the lingo used in the spy world, as well as to explain how he makes bombs and other useful devices out of everyday items like a mop and caulk. There’s no trying to work that information into the dialogue here, a technique that can feel forced and create a real challenge for the writers. Instead, it’s overt and full of trade secrets that show the background research done by the writing team.
Much of the show hinges on the swaggering confidence with which its characters and the script move forward. Donovan has no problem carrying this out for the strong male lead. His designer-dressed character easily anchors the show. It is entertaining and Alias-like to watch Michael and Fiona assume varied identities to carry out their missions. The writing is slick and fast-paced, but includes so much double-crossing and introduction of new characters every episode that it can be hard to follow. The editing is full of freeze frames, titles and other techniques used in classic shows. Sometimes it comes across as smooth, other times it feels like it’s trying too hard to be like Ocean’s Eleven.
Attachment to the characters takes longer to generate than is prudent for most shows, so it’s possible viewers would lose interest before the storylines are established enough for viewers to stick with them. Eventually it did happen, but not until several shows in to this 11-episode season.
Special effects and fight scenes were plentiful in this high-action series. Lots of explosions, guns, and well-choreographed violence.
Burn Notice was entertaining, but by no means a must-see. It’s full of eye candy and, while it is an action show, is also a mystery with plenty of twists and turns. It’s worth checking out an episode or two online, where the entire first season is available.
The set includes a feature called “Get Burned,” which is commentary with the show’s makers and stars on every single episode. It’s divided up by individual scene, so the viewer can skip around to see what they had to say about a particular fight sequence, special effect, or dialogue scene. Features also include original audition footage for both of the stars, a gag reel, and a collection of all of the “skin” revealed throughout the season–female, only.