No show is perfect, but I think if any television show is close to perfect, it's Burn Notice. It's a descendant of the A-Team, Mission Impossible, MacGuyver, the Fugitive, and yet transcends its ancestors so thoroughly as to rise to a whole new level of eff-star-star-star-ing cool!
The show tells you its premise in the opening credits, and you can pick up any episode in any season and not be totally lost. The writers have a way of weaving the complex story into exposition dialog so seamlessly and effectively, that the actors have to do very little to make it convincing. Of course, the acting is so phenomenal that they make it totally convincing, and sometimes unnoticeable.
So what is Burn Notice? Michael Westen was a spy for the US, when for reasons unknown, he was blacklisted, or 'Burned.' He was dumped in his home town of Miami, disavowed, and alone. Somehow he managed to reconnect with his old girlfriend Fiona (An IRA guerrilla with a taste for explosives and reckless violence) and an old NAVY Seal buddy named Sam, played by Bruce Campbell in one of the best Bruce Campbell roles ever devised. While he spends his time trying to find out who burned him and get his old job back, he takes side jobs where he helps people who are in trouble, sometimes for money.
My description does this show no justice. Let me list a few things Michael Westen has done that are beyond awesome: Used spray cans and a microwave to make a quick bomb as an escape. Convinced a Bank Robber to run for his life by having Bruce Campbell convince him he was about to be killed. Super-glued a psychotic drug-lord in a drug lab in the middle of a firefight so the police could get him. While on the run, in a swamp, he set up an ambush and took out the hit squad trying to gun him down. Bullet-proofed a car with phone books. Jammed a long-range listening device with a vibrator taped to a window.
Of course, the leading lady, Fiona, played by Gabrielle Anwar, is no slouch herself. Not only can she easily and effectively match his on screen presence, sometimes she can overtake it. Not to mention, for a woman just turned 40, she's as sexy as sexy can get. Those desperate housewives, real life housewives, forget them. She blows them all away, possibly literally if she's got her sawed-off shotgun and C4. Any woman who can mix up molotov cocktails while sipping actual cocktails without batting an eye is perfect in my book.
Adding Bruce Campbell to the cast was a stroke of genius. He plays Sam Axe, a retired NAVY Seal and occasional spy who enjoys mojitos, beer, and the ladies. It's a perfect fit for Bruce. It just raises that level of awesome one more level.
Last but not least, there's Sharon Gless, who plays Michael Westen's mother. Though nagging and always disapproving, she is capable of being a formidable force herself. She was recently nominated for an Emmy for her role, and I hope she gets it. This show deserves awards. It might not be high art, but it does what it does better than anyone has ever done it before. It's intelligent, gripping, funny, serious, and such a well-rounded, well done show. I keep trying to think of criticisms, but even the things that seem like they would get annoying after a while keep getting turned and twisted in inventive ways, like the voice overs, or the names and titles of the secondary characters.
I'm very critical of a lot of things, but Burn Notice... Yes, I rate this as a perfect ten. Maybe because it's just my kind of show, but I could watch this show for days at a time and never get bored. To me, that's a perfect show. Even if you've seen it a thousand times, you still enjoy watching it, that's a perfect show.
The show tells you its premise in the opening credits, and you can pick up any episode in any season and not be totally lost. The writers have a way of weaving the complex story into exposition dialog so seamlessly and effectively, that the actors have to do very little to make it convincing. Of course, the acting is so phenomenal that they make it totally convincing, and sometimes unnoticeable.
So what is Burn Notice? Michael Westen was a spy for the US, when for reasons unknown, he was blacklisted, or 'Burned.' He was dumped in his home town of Miami, disavowed, and alone. Somehow he managed to reconnect with his old girlfriend Fiona (An IRA guerrilla with a taste for explosives and reckless violence) and an old NAVY Seal buddy named Sam, played by Bruce Campbell in one of the best Bruce Campbell roles ever devised. While he spends his time trying to find out who burned him and get his old job back, he takes side jobs where he helps people who are in trouble, sometimes for money.
My description does this show no justice. Let me list a few things Michael Westen has done that are beyond awesome: Used spray cans and a microwave to make a quick bomb as an escape. Convinced a Bank Robber to run for his life by having Bruce Campbell convince him he was about to be killed. Super-glued a psychotic drug-lord in a drug lab in the middle of a firefight so the police could get him. While on the run, in a swamp, he set up an ambush and took out the hit squad trying to gun him down. Bullet-proofed a car with phone books. Jammed a long-range listening device with a vibrator taped to a window.
Of course, the leading lady, Fiona, played by Gabrielle Anwar, is no slouch herself. Not only can she easily and effectively match his on screen presence, sometimes she can overtake it. Not to mention, for a woman just turned 40, she's as sexy as sexy can get. Those desperate housewives, real life housewives, forget them. She blows them all away, possibly literally if she's got her sawed-off shotgun and C4. Any woman who can mix up molotov cocktails while sipping actual cocktails without batting an eye is perfect in my book.
Adding Bruce Campbell to the cast was a stroke of genius. He plays Sam Axe, a retired NAVY Seal and occasional spy who enjoys mojitos, beer, and the ladies. It's a perfect fit for Bruce. It just raises that level of awesome one more level.
Last but not least, there's Sharon Gless, who plays Michael Westen's mother. Though nagging and always disapproving, she is capable of being a formidable force herself. She was recently nominated for an Emmy for her role, and I hope she gets it. This show deserves awards. It might not be high art, but it does what it does better than anyone has ever done it before. It's intelligent, gripping, funny, serious, and such a well-rounded, well done show. I keep trying to think of criticisms, but even the things that seem like they would get annoying after a while keep getting turned and twisted in inventive ways, like the voice overs, or the names and titles of the secondary characters.
I'm very critical of a lot of things, but Burn Notice... Yes, I rate this as a perfect ten. Maybe because it's just my kind of show, but I could watch this show for days at a time and never get bored. To me, that's a perfect show. Even if you've seen it a thousand times, you still enjoy watching it, that's a perfect show.