An Excellent Show, But…
When I first saw commercials for Burn Notice a couple of years back, it sounded like an interesting show. Jeffrey Donovan stars as Michael Westen, a top American spy who gets fired, or burned as it’s called in the espionage world, during the middle of a mission. When you are burned as a spy, you’re basically abandoned — your existence is denied, assets frozen, and you’re essentially hung out to dry. The first season did a great job of setting up Michael in Miami, where he meets up with an ex-girlfriend Fiona, played by Gabrielle Anwar. His old FBI friend Sam is played by none other than Bruce Campbell, and is also at Michael’s side as together the trio try to find out who burned Michael, and why.
At the end of the terrific first season, Michael has made contact with those that burned him, and the mysterious organization wants to meet. The second season begins immediately where the first season left off, with Michael in the back of a semi-truck trailer, waiting to reach his destination and come face to face with those that burned him.
Of course, things don’t go as planned and instead Michael is all but forced to work for the organization. Michael’s special talents are put to use right away as he must help Jimmy, a computer expert, break into a secure facility to retrieve some information from a hard drive. Jimmy is being forced to do this as well by the same organization that Michael is dealing with, as they have threatened his family and only with Michael’s help can Jimmy and his family escape tragedy.
The second season of Burn Notice follows a similiar formula that was setup in the first season, and it’s a formula that works extremely well. In just about each episode, Michael agrees to help some private citizen out of some kind of jam, be it a money problem or threats, or anything that Michael, Sam, and Fiona can put their abilities towards. Meanwhile, the trio continue to edge closer and closer to the truth of the organization and why Michael was burned in the first place, as well as what plans the organization has for him. Like other successful shows, this combination of short term story (one that starts and ends within an episode) coupled with an overarching story line that lasts a season or multiple seasons, is very potent and addictive to the viewer. Of course, there are also other sub-plots like the relationship between Michael and Fi that changes as the season goes on. That said, if you’re like me, you’ll set aside a day or two, consecutively if possible, and blaze through these episodes because they are all just that damn good, and each episode leaves you with an appetite for more.
Speaking of episodes, season two has sixteen. I won’t bother providing a synopsis for each episode as these are readily found online at sites like TV.com (not to mention they can spoil things), but at the risk of being as vague as possible, suffice it to say that all sixteen episodes are excellent. The reason behind this is that the show has such a solid and interesting foundation that is constantly advanced by superb acting, writing, and directing. Every episode contains, at the very least, some great spy themes including terminology, tactics, gadgets, martial arts, explosions — all that fun stuff, but there are also dramatic moments and plenty of great humor, too. Wildly entertaining, not only one the very best shows on TV, but one of my favorites of all time.
…Not A Great Blu-ray Release
This Blu-ray release of the second season is nicely packaged in a standard sized case that neatly packs in all three discs. The box art is great, the menus aren’t bad and are consistent across all three discs. About the only thing I didn’t like about the menu system is that you can only see one option at a time, be it “Play All,” “Episode Selection,” or “Special Features,” for example. I think it would have been better off if, like most menus, viewers could see all their options laid out in front of them without having to browse with the horizontal arrow keys to see their available options.
Anyway, while that’s not a major concern, the image quality is. Being such a new TV show, I was just expecting a very vivid and crisp picture, but it turns out to not be the case on this Blu-ray. A steady, as in nearly constant grain covers the entire frame, making for an immediately disappointing first, and sadly lasting, impression. As colorful as the show is, the colors felt subdued and lacked the vibrance I was expecting for sunny Miami (where the show takes place). Furthermore, lots of scenes, I think in an effort to fight grain, look blurred over — not terribly so, but noticeably so. I’ve seen worse quality Blu-rays, but the image quality for this second season of Burn Notice is not very good. As far as audio, a DTS-HD 5.1 audio track is used, and the quality is considerably better than the image quality; I don’t really have any complaints with it.
As for extra features, there are several on each of the three discs. These are:
Disc 1:
-Audio Commentary with six members of the crew for the episode Bad Blood.
-Deleted Scenes – Three episodes, Breaking And Entering, Trust Me, and Comrade all have some deleted scene material. For Breaking And Entering, you get a single scene lasting about a minute, in SD. Trust Me has three scenes totaling two minutes, also in SD, while Comrade clocks in with a single forty-three second SD scene.
Disc 2:
-Audio Commentary with four members of the crew for the episode Double Booked.
–Nixing It Up with Burn Notice – Show Creator/Director/Writer Matt Nix talks show for about fourteen minutes regarding a variety of things related to the show. Production footage is included while Matt talks about everything from the shooting schedule to locations used in filming to storyboards and more.
-Deleted Scenes – Episodes Double Booked and Do No Harm include some deleted scenes. All scenes are in SD once again, but you get three and a half minutes across two scenes for Double Booked and three minutes for three scenes for Do No Harm.
Disc 3:
–Audio Commentary on episode Lesser Evil with Matt Nix, actor Bruce Campbell, and Michael Shanks.
-Deleted Scenes – Truth And Reconciliation and Lesser Evil contain a single deleted scene each, in SD. These total thirty and twenty-five seconds, respectively.
-Gag Reel – My favorite extra feature, after the Nixing It Up one. This is a funny ten minute collection of bloopers and outtakes from the second season, with some of this being hilarious, while it’s all at least entertaining.
And with that, let’s wrap up…