Recent Articles
‘Burn Notice’ delivers its brand of cool via ice-cream truck
Jul 9, 2008 Burn Notice Leave a comment
From Entertainment Weekly:
What’s the first thing that comes to mind when you think about USA’s Burn Notice? That “Sun. Surf. Espionage.” tagline? Or maybe vanilla ice cream?
Apparently, USA’s publicity department would say the latter, because—unable to bring New York to Miami, or get us regular Joes into the CIA game—they promoted the show’s season 2 premiere by parking a blue Mister Softee truck outside our Broadway office yesterday afternoon. We loved the free vanilla on a hot hot day, but couldn’t help wondering, doesn’t Michael (Jeffrey Donovan) prefer yogurt? And where, for the love of Brisco County, is Sam? Then again, the promotion is only one-third as wacky/random as that time Matthew McConaughey drove across country in an Airstream trailer advertising Sahara.
(P.S. Be sure to check out my own Burn Notice mini-TV Watch on Friday mornings here at PopWatch, starting this week and all summer long. And if you want to read in true Burn Notice-style, peruse it over a breakfast of Strawberry Dannon).
(P.P.S. If you’re a Burn Notice newbie, read Gillian Flynn’s season one review by clicking here; and come back to EW.com on Thursday morning, where you’ll find my BN “Cheat Sheet” gallery!)
‘Burn Notice’ . . . the cure for the summertime TV blues
Jul 9, 2008 Burn Notice, Reviews Leave a comment
Thank goodness we have each other.
Last week we all collectively lamented how reality TV dominates the television schedule during the summer. I don’t know about you but I kind of found it therapeutic to know so many TV viewers out there shared my reality TV pain.
As with any genre, there’s good reality TV (I can’t wait for Project Runway to return next week), bad reality TV (Big Brother is back for a 10th season Sunday. Repeat after me - I promise not to get sucked in. I promise not to get sucked in. We need to support each other on this one.) and ugly reality TV (honestly do you understand that people actually loan out their own children for the series The Baby Borrowers. It defies comprehension.) And ugly reality TV seems to run rampant during the dog days of summer. It’s a pretty awful TV landscape out there.
Thankfully, this week we have three new scripted shows to celebrate (okay one is only available online but we’ll take what we can get this month, don’t you think).
A look at the -hooray!- non-reality TV coming your way:
More Burn Notice Interviews
Jul 9, 2008 Burn Notice, Co-Stars, Interview Leave a comment
By Ian Spelling for UGO
Burn Notice is one of those super-cool shows with a modest, but loyal fan base. The USA Network series will kick off its second season on July 10, and everyone involved hopes that, based on its critics’ darling status, USA’s amped-up promotional campaign and on good, old-fashioned fan-to-fan word of mouth, Burn Notice will attract a wider audience in year two. For those unfamiliar with the slickly shot show, it stars hottie (or so my wife insists) Jeffrey Donovan as Michael Westen, a discredited cover-ops agent who’s forced to cool his heels in Miami, his hometown, trapped there with no money, no job, no link to his handler, and always under surveillance.
So, while trying figure out who screwed him over - or more accurately stated, burned him - and why, the ever-resourceful Westen keeps busy as a spy for hire and a private investigator. Among those in Westen’s circle are his ex-girlfriend Fiona (Gabrielle Anwar), once an IRA operative; longtime pal Sam (Bruce Campbell), a sleazy, fun-loving womanizer and former operative; and Madeline (Sharon Gless), Westen’s chain-smoking, tough-love, hypochondriac momma. The amiable Donovan and the quip-happy Campbell recently took to the phone for a conference call. UGO was on the line and joined in the fun. Here’s some of what went down:
‘Burn Notice’ has it all but the hype
Jul 9, 2008 Burn Notice, Reviews Leave a comment
By TIM GOODMAN
SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE
Though “Mad Men” got all the hype last summer — and $25 million in advertising will ensure that the same thing happens again this year — a rival cable series actually performed significantly better in the ratings and has become a cult hit. Unfortunately, entering its second season, USA’s “Burn Notice” is still the little show that people haven’t heard of. It’s not on magazine covers or buses or billboards. It’s got the ratings, but not exactly the raves.
Word of mouth, and increasing acclaim, is changing that, though.
“Burn Notice,” which starts Thursday (and won’t compete head to head with “Mad Men”), is the rare show that gets its tone right from the start and then runs with it. This is no easy feat on basic cable, a niche in the TV universe that often finds itself in a struggle to be better and different than network television (without the same money), and to be nearly as good and nearly as different as pay-cable channels (without nearly the same money).
Burn Notice Season Premiere Review
Jul 9, 2008 Burn Notice, Reviews Leave a comment
By Ted Cornelius for UGO
Pretty hard to believe that things actually get worse for “burned” covert-operations agent Michael Westen (Jeffrey Donovan) after last season’s cliffhanger finale. Thought dead by his associates and family, and no closer to finding out who issued the Burn Notice on him (i.e. the official dismissal or discredit of an agent, leaving them stuck where they are and without assets), we last see Westen sealed up in the back of a tractor trailer, with no idea what to expect.
But as mentioned, things heat up - and quick - for Westen. Season 2 (debuting Thursday, July 10 on the USA network) opens as he literally walks into a gun fight, surrounded by dead bodies and a unknown hog-tied man as police sirens wail in the distance, clearly on their way to the scene of the crime. His only help is a mysterious woman on his cell phone, explaining what his “assignment” is in order to drop his Burn Notice.
