As I wrote when I started the “TV Post-Mortem” posts, Burn Notice is one of my favorite current TV shows. I actually came into it a little late, sometime around the middle of the second season, but one of the nice things about Burn Notice is that it’s the kind of show which is accessible and easy to pick up. Michael Westen is a spy for the CIA who has been blacklisted for crimes he didn’t commit (the “burn notice” of the title is the notice given to drop all contact with him.) Cut off from all resources, his financial assets frozen, he is stuck in his home town of Miami. He reconnects with his mother (Sharon Gless), his weapons-crazy ex-girlfriend Fiona (Gabrielle Anwar), and his friend Sam Axe (Bruce Campbell). Later (season 4) the team is joined by Jesse Porter (Coby Bell), a spy that Michael inadvertently burns himself. Michael’s goal in the series is to find out who burned him, get his revenge, and hopefully get back into the CIA’s good graces. In the meantime, he takes on odd jobs for money, helping out clients who have been victimized but who have no other means of helping themselves. Often this involves explosives, but it always involves using his spy training, which is narrated by Westen as he goes along.
The show typically runs for a few months in the summer, then takes a break and runs for a few more months in November and December. The second half of the fifth season just concluded tonight, and as always, it’s set things up for the next season in an explosive manner, both figuratively and literally. So, spoilers ahead, it’s time to look back. Continue reading →
The nature of Burn Notice‘s split season can have a bit of a funny effect on the memory. When I’m waiting six months for the new season to start, it feels like it’s taking a long time to arrive. And yet, as I write this post-mortem on the sixth season, it doesn’t feel like it’s been an entire year since I wrote one on the fifth.
