Feel the Burn (Notice)

I've held off from reviewing Burn Notice so far, because I'm embarrassed I'm so far behind (the GLW got me Season 2 for my birthday, which I'm watching on my daily commute, and loving every single second).

Burn Notice. My friend Adam recommended it to me years ago, and to my shame, I never quite got round to seeking it out. I mean, it hasn't exactly got a title that jumps up and bites you on the cojones has it?

And then while I was flicking through my digital channels this year, I stumbled across it. Those idiots at Fiver (almost as stupid a name for a channel as SyFy) had plonked it secretly, and randomly, on the Thursday night schedule, (which is kinda appropriate for a spy show) and then proceeded to show the first two seasons in one go.

So what's it about? Watch and learn, friends, watch and learn....

So, superspy Michael Westen (Jeffrey Donovan) is on a search to find out who got a Burn Notice placed on him - and as the video above says, it's not just a matter of being sacked. Westen is frozen out, left penniless, blacklisted, oh, and his movements are limited to the greater Miami area. If he tries to leave the city to hunt down his tormentors, they'll send a hit squad out to kill him.

So, he has to take on odd-jobs - mostly undercover stuff - for peanuts, to cobble together the cash to pay people to find out information. He sort of has a client of the week, so to speak.

I know, I know, I know, It sounds like Magnum PI with a spy twist.

What sets Burn Notice apart, is what I call the "useful spy shit" you learn every episode. For example:



Evil, but superb.

I can't get enough of these! Bam! lets have another one!



Every episode of the show is peppered with these little gems of wisdom. Are they real? Who knows?

Do they work? Let's see.....



This shit works, man ...awesome, dudes......I particularly like the imaginative use of an oven glove, and the mess they made of mom's kitchen (not forgetting dad's toolbox).

With all this "useful spy shit" every epsiode, I can just about forgive the Michael Westen character for being a bit overconfident and pompous at times.

It's funny, but his type of character seems to be almost exclusively popular in the USA. Indulge me for a second - consider Seinfeld, or any character played by Adam Sandler, or even Ray Romano's character in Everybody Loves Raymond. All comedy examples, sure, but they all have a single unifying trait.

At the end of the day, they're smug, want to be smartest guy in the room, and someone else ends up being the butt of their jokes. It doesn't travel well, particularly in the UK, where we don't have a soft spot for - how can I put it? - arrogant dickheads.

And the character of Michael Westen would fall into this category if it wasn't for the brilliant supporting characters who are his weakness. He wants to be the aloof superspy, and he clearly left Miami years ago (Grosse pointe blank-style) to reinvent himself, but unfortunately, he cares about his friends and family.

And what a lineup! Gabrielle Anwar is unrecognisable here from her early 1990s soppy roles, as Michael's trigger-and-bomb-happy, former-terrorist ex-girlfriend, Fiona (and I thought some of my ex-girlfriends were psycho......) It's a dream of a part for any actress, and she's brilliant at it.

Bruce Campbell  (the main man of the Evil Dead movies - and also one of my favourites, Bubba Ho-tep) is also fantastic as Michael's gone-to-seed green beret friend, Sam. And the third, and finest casting coup was getting Sharon Gless (yes, Cagney herself) to play Michael's mum.

At different times, you can almost feel Westen's exasperation with the demands of these three (in Sam's case, it's usually financial, and in the case of Fiona and his mum, emotional, which, frankly, is not good for a spy). And yet, he needs their help to find out who burned him. 

The one part that is unconvincing is when Michael Westen goes undercover. The actor Jeffrey Donovan, bless him, is useless at accents. His British accent is mind-bendingly bad, his texan one is OTT-mental and he can't even do a Boston accent....

But if you ignore that, the show's packed full of explosions, Miami locations, sharp editing, smart suits, sexy laydeez, and I say again, "useful spy shit"....no wonder the USA network boasts that Burn Notice is the number one cable show in the USA.

Oh...go on then, let's have one more useful spy tip.....



Just brilliant. I could listen to this stuff all day.

By the way, if you've missed it, Fiver's showing it again, right from Season 1, Episode 1, at 8pm on Monday 20th December onwards.