Burn Notice - season 3 end

Well there is no question that a bunch of the loose endsa are getting sown up for the television show Burn Notice. The season ending episode was not a huge cliff hanger. It wasn't even a great episode. But it was very ominous.

As the episode starts we get a recap of the start of the series. We get a refresher in who caused Michael Westen (Jeffrey Donovan) to be in Miami. We see how everything has been a long trip ever deeper into the web that "Management" has woven.

Honestly I didn't find Simon, the main bad guy that was orchestrating events from afar for the season, to be all that impressive. He might have been a murderer, but so have several of the people on this show. Possibly even Westen himself.

What was interesting was how little we saw of Fiona (Gabrielle Anwar) and Sam (Bruce Campbell). Their roles were minor, almost side thoughts. True they did provide a critical bit of help through the episode, but they were just in the shadows and not really working with Michael. They were more like employees. Which is a dark forboding thing to notice.

Michael's mother, Maddie (Sharon Gless), on the other hand was quite prominent. She was the other side of the Westen personality. The side we have grown so interested in watching. She held out, resisting the pressure of the oppresive world of operatives to hold out hope and believe in the right thing.

That's what this episode was. A battle of what is right, and what is effective. Michael has to choose. And that was the choice he never truly made turning down Management the first time.

The first time was about the selfish interests of Westen. His misguided belief that he could just start over, back where he left off. His denial that he had to make a choice, because ultimately life is black and white not shades of gray.

3 times in this episode Westen had the chance to change his course. He could have taken a different path. He could have made a choice to do the right thing. But each time he did what was effective.

I surmised at the begining of this season, and a couple of seasons ago, that Westen was being set up. That the time off was really just a training exercise. A way for Management to mold and corrupt Westen so that he could ultimately embrace their offer. Slowly he changed, and finally too them up on the offer.

Thus we are left with a bigger cliff hanger than previously, without all the excitement and explosions. Michael Westen has isolated himself in the heart of Management. His friends have been pushed aside. His mother abandonded. He is walking the path that ultimately leads to the very people he struggled with in the beginning.

The last battle for Westen, and I think the last season for the series, will be the battle that he has with himself. He has gone too far to ever become a spy like he was before the burn notice. He no longer has the unconditional support of friends and family he once had. All that is left are the missions from Management, and the means by which he acheives them. Given time, the nature of the work is sure to eat at his soul.

I didn't like the way this episode ended the season. I do like the way that the story arc has finally beenset to close. I'm hoping that next season will be filled with this biggest battle. But you can see how all the actors are getting tired with their roles. The writers are running out of fresh places to go. This needs to lead to the season where either a monster is set loose, or is killed.

And somehow, either way, I don't think Michael Westen survives.

Burn Notice starts new season after a bang

The new season of Burn Notice on USA Network has started. Not with a bang, but the aftermath of one.



In last seasons cliffhanger we saw our favorite ex-spy virtually blown up, which can never be good for the spirit nor the body. And it wasn’t as we quickly see.

Michael () is in very bad shape. Injured he barely has enough time to assess his near death before he is under chase again. And he is not happy about it.

Now let me take a step back for a moment. I did not start out as a fan of this program. In fact, I rarely bothered to watch the initial episodes. But as this new season approached I had the chance to see several episodes back to back. Add to that the occasional episode I saw during the first run. Combined this has caught my interest.

One of the biggest factors for my interest is Bruce Campbell (Sam Axe on the show). I am a fan of his characters and find his presence on the small and large screen to be fun and comforting. He adds a bit of whimsy to his characters and any situation he is in. And for this show his character takes away from the drama and constant action without distraction. Without his character you would be left with a very bad version of James Bond in Miami.

One of the worst things about the show is Fiona (Gabrielle Anwar). Often called Fi, she is the other side of Bruce Campbell’s Sam. She is violent, short-tempered, and near anorexic. She is supposed to be an expert fighter and the ex-girlfriend of our star Michael. I can understand why she is an ex. With due respect she needs to eat a cheeseburger, or 20.

There is a difference of being skinny and looking anorexic to me. As she looks like slightly more than bones I am always amazed when she is in any physical confrontation, like when the wind is blowing. Let alone anytime she gets into an actual fight. Perhaps that is why her character is successful, no one would ever expect her to survive hitting anyone, let alone getting hit.

And of course I should mention Jeffrey Donovan playing Michael, our ex-operative seeking vengeance. He is played well as the balance between the 2 extremes of his cohorts. He is intelligent without feeling like the omniscient Bond. He practices often giving credibility to what he can do. The narratives that occur on the show (voiced by his character), explaining critical decisions or responses, make perfect sense and fill in otherwise obvious plot holes.

Another thing I like about the entire show is that everyone can be hurt. Being caught in an explosion leaves bruises, being punched can make you bleed. Nothing is worse than watching a character being beat down by 3 guys and standing up without a scratch, or being caught in an explosion and 5 minutes later running around as if they just got out of the gym with Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Back to the new season. It follows the usual theme of someone needing Michael’s help while he is sporadically interrupted by Carla. Though now Carla (Tricia Helfer – the 2 best thing about Battlestar Galactica) and Michael are seemingly aligned in learning who tried to kill him - thus hinder Carla’s interests. Carla, and perhaps a well-funded organization behind her, are responsible for Michael having lost his profession. Michael despises this group, and Carla, who enforce his subservience via threats on his family.

And as the show is progressing family is a bigger and bigger theme in our ex-spy’s life. In several episodes he has gone against his training and better judgment to come to the aid of children, and families, in need. This is his fatal flaw I believe. And I expect will be used against him at some point.

The season opening show was good. I won’t go further into details of the episode beyond the fact that it is again the needs of a child that motivates him. And that the mysterious Carla and her organization may not be as large or well-funded as we may have first thought.

The reason I am interested in this program is that it is intelligent. Yes there are explosions every episode, and yes most of the shots miss everything as if it were an episode of the A-Team. But Michael and the team think through their missions. It’s more akin to the original Mission Impossible than the average television fare.

Is the show absolutely compelling? No. But if you spend the time to catch up with the histories of the characters, you will find yourself interested in the on-going story arcs and subtlies of the program.

Burn Notice is not the best program on televison right now, nor the most watched (the 2 are not often related) but it is a worthwhile departure from the norm. It’s a program that you can watch and remember what you have seen afterward, which these days is hard to find.