First, if you haven't watched Burn Notice, you need to watch it.
Second, if you have watched Burn Notice, and you haven't checked out the official website, you must.
Here are some of the goodies you can find on the website:
Ask a Spy - These are extremely funny short clips (usually just a tad over a minute) of Michael answering questions like "How do I get a last minute dinner reservation?" and "What's the secret to telling a lie?" from a spy's perspective. They post new ones every week.
Sam's Stash - Slightly longer and slightly less frequent, these video clips are an interesting storytelling format juxtaposing Bruce Campbell's narration recounting spy escapades over heavily Photoshopped stills.
Writer's Blog - This is my favorite part of the entire site. The night of each new episode, the writer of that episode publishes a behind-the-scenes blog entry about the episode.
The Burn Notice companion website has the best online supplemental information I've ever seen for a TV show. I hope other series start utilizing the web in such an effective way. It is a shame the Burn Notice website uses a Flash interface that makes it extremely difficult to navigate to and find all these wonderful extras.
I haven't seen the cheesy promos, so I can't judge one way or the other in that regard, but I do give my complete endorsement of the show. I heartily recommend watching an episode and seeing what you think for yourself.
The series centers around, Michael, a spy, or...ah...former spy. Michael has been "burned," spy speak for fired. But he doesn't know why. Thus, the series arc is established. The quest for why he was burned. This quest is frustrated by the fact that the terms of his "Burn Notice" don't allow him to leave Miami. He is joined in Miami by his ex-girlfriend (also a rogue IRA agent) and a friend (played by Bruce Campbell) who's a washed out spy.
The series arc offers coherency to the series, but each episode is fairly self-contained. Michael usually finds himself in a situation where he can use his spy skills to help innocent people in Miami. The appeal of the series lies in that it is a reflection on or critique (I like to use the word homage) of the spy-fi genre rather than just another entry in the genre. The series takes the cliches of the genre and turns them on their head giving unique (and often humorous) takes on them.
When USA's "Burn Notice" de buted back in June, I wrote that there's "a potentially good show here," but that the writing needed to be punched up for that potential to be realized. As the first season comes to an end to night (9 p.m., USA), the writing's become so sharp that I'm really going to miss these wacky spies until they return next year.
As disgraced ex-spy-turned- freelance-do-gooder Michael Weston, Jeffrey Donovan has got ten more opportunities to show off his dry wit, and sidekicks Ga brielle Anwar (as Michael's gun- crazy sometime girlfriend Fiona) and Bruce Campbell (as even seedier ex-spook Sam) have got ten more prominence, making a likable, eccentric team.
It's not easy to pull off comedy, action and mystery all in the same show, but the two-hour finale -- guest-starring Richard Schiff from "West Wing" as the man allegedly responsible for Michael's current status -- balances them nicely, even plausibly using comic relief like Sam and Michael's mom (Sharon Gless) for serious purposes.
Plus, every week, Michael and his partners get their MacGyver on and find ways to beat the bad guys with items from the local hardware store. The finale finds them simultaneously dealing with government agents and a bunch of heroin-dealing ex-military types, and just when the odds start looking insurmountable, the drug dealers make the mistake of cornering Michael and Fiona in a machine shop.
Home
Calendar
Search
Register
Login
Logged
