Michael Westen is a trained spy who receives a "burn notice" for an unstated reason & effectively is fired. Penniless, he returns to his hometown in Miami and freelances while trying to find who burned him.
Burn Notice is a canny, clever comedy-thriller show about a covert operative with a heart of gold. Michael Westen (Jeffrey Donovan) is in the middle of a top-secret mission when he discovers he's been "burned"--basically, fired without warning. After barely extricating himself from danger, he wakes up in Miami, where the government has abandoned him and locked him out of his own bank account. To make ends meet, he takes on private detective jobs (helping an old lady who's fallen victim to a con artist; rescuing a young girl who's being tricked into white slavery; helping a mother whose son has been kidnapped by the boy's father... only it turns out the father is the rightful parent and the "mom" is an assassin sent to kill him--a nice guest star appearance by Lucy Lawless, Xena: Warrior Princess), while trying to figure out who burned him and why. Westen tries to remain clinical in his approach to these problems, but he always ends up protecting the helpless with his sophisticated spy skills. Over the course of the first season, he gradually uncovers a mysterious conspiracy that plans to use his talents for their own nefarious ends. Burn Notice deftly mixes the old and the new. The old: Our hero has a hot ex-girlfriend (Gabrielle Anwar, Scent of a Woman), a goofy sidekick (cult hero Bruce Campbell of the Evil Dead movies), and a meddling mom (Sharon Gless, Cagney & Lacey) who help and hinder him in his investigations, as well as a MacGyver-esque skill for making deadly devices out of common household products. The new: A media-savvy way of deconstructing the tricks and techniques of spies and government agencies, often resulting in smart and highly entertaining plot twists. Donovan, handsome but cheeky, combines a light comic touch with a convincing secret agent cool, and the supporting cast fill their niches with aplomb. Their escapades are pretty breezy and occasionally skirt being glib, but most of the time the show finds an extremely entertaining balance between action, romance, and humor. The extras are few (some montages of characteristic moments from the series, including one of the many bikini-clad girls the Miami locale provides) and the commentaries, rather than covering entire episodes, just discuss a few select scenes from each show. Fortunately, the series itself holds up; imagine a cross between Magnum, P.I. and The Wild Wild West (the classic series, not the insulting Will Smith movie) and you're on the right track. --Bret Fetzer
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Stills from Burn Notice (Click for larger image)
Customer Reviews:
Avg. Customer Rating: 5.0 / 5.0
Burn Notice burns into favorite shows list:
My mom mentioned Burn Notice to me one day, and my first thought was: please: not another show. I was flipping through the channels one day while bored at home and saw that Burn Notice was on. I started to watch it but because the episode was in the middle of season one, I was completely lost about what was going on. While I was on Christmas break, I noticed that my mom had bought the first season so one afternoon, I plugged the first disc into my computer. I didn't realize what a surprise I was in... more info
Action, humor, and a Good Guy who is actually Good:
The best part of this show, in my opinion, is that the "Good Guy" is actually a good guy. He has ethics, and in doing the right thing avoids doing the wrong thing. Let me explain what I mean. Pick an action hero, pretty much any will do, and they are the good guy, right? Well, sort of. If the "Bad Girl," the one who just killed some innocent person, throws herself at our hero, he'll do the honorable thing and have sex with her, and then turn her in. Wait, honorable? Or our hero will engage in a... more info
Wow, James Bond has finally returned, and he's on TV:
I am more of a CSPAN or History Channel watcher than USA, but this show is something special. I remember "it Takes a Thief" and Michael Westin makes Alexander Munday look like an amateur in almost every way. He's always betting on both his instinct and intimate knowledge of how people act in stress situations.
I had a swimming coach who once said "In a stress situation, you revert to what you know best" This show illustrates what taking that understanding to the Nth degree produces.
Michael's... more info
second season, please! (and third and so on):
Definitely one of the best shows that are around. Love the dry humor and the adaptability of all the heroes. Never saw Donovan before so he was a very pleasant surprise. Gabrielle Anwar is simply wonderful as Fiona - her cheerful bloodthirstiness has something rather innocent in it and thus adds to the general merriment. Sam, Mom and the little brother are also good (the brother is definitely better clean shaved).
It would be interesting to see where all the relationships go in the second season -... more info
