‘Burn Notice’ . . . the cure for the summertime TV blues
Jul 9, 2008 Burn Notice, Reviews
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:
‘Burn Notice’ has it all but the hype
Jul 9, 2008 Burn Notice, Reviews
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
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.
Burn Notice Still Cooks!
Jul 9, 2008 Burn Notice, Reviews
Burn Notice’s first season concluded with former spy Michael Weston trapped inside the cargo trailer of an eighteen wheeler. When season two begins tomorrow [Thursday, USA, 10/9C], the little exercise in claustrophobia results in Weston [Jeffrey Donovan] being given an assignment – over the phone – by the mysterious Carla [Tricia Helfer] before the trailer is opened onto a scene of carnage. Spies. Whatcha gonna do?
Breaking and Entering, the second season premiere, deals with stealing information from a civilian military [mercenary] company. If it’s not done by a certain time, it will result in the death of the wife and child of the man who set up the firm’s security. The carnage that greets Michael when he clambers out of the trailer is what remains of the computer expert, Richie’s effort to flee. Plus, there’s always Michael’s manipulative mom [Sharon Gless], fellow ex-spy and buddy, Jack [Bruce Campbell] and ex-girlfriend/former IRA demolitions expert, Fiona [Gabrielle Anwar] to help and/or hinder. Topping that, Carla is one of the people who had Michael burned in the first place!
TV Review: No Sophomore Slump for ‘Burn Notice’
Jul 9, 2008 Burn Notice, Reviews
If there is such a thing as a summer blockbuster TV show, it’s USA’s Burn Notice, whose second season premieres this week (Thursday at 10/9c) with a bang–well, several bangs.
The show, which can be both hilarious and thrilling–often in the same scene–centers on former CIA superspy/current private eye Michael Westen (Jeffrey Donovan), a suave Miami transplant perpetually trying to figure out who’s behind his “burn notice” (a.k.a. blacklisting from the CIA).
And all the while, as he searches for his saboteur, Michael nonchalantly evades death at every turn and the many enemies he made during his tenure with the Agency.
Last we saw Michael, he was quite literally driving his car into an 18-wheeler as part of a plan that he’d hoped would lead him to the person(s) who “burned” him.
