In Michael’s relentless, nonsensical quest to become a spy again, he has joined forces with bad guys, and now he’s gone too far. Thankfully, the show’s formulaic “case-of-the-week” structure, which is bookended by scenes that develop the season’s arc, has been broken up by a new recruit. As Sam puts it: “I am now officially the closest friend of a total psychopath. The third episode of the season, “Made Man,” deals with a mobster named Tony, but that’s where the similarities to The Sopranos end: Tony is just a run-of-the-mill mobster psychopath, accent and all. With a straight face, he points out the obvious: “Guys, guys, I have a loaded machine pistol in my hands and I have no idea what I’m doing.” In the next episode, “Fast Friends,” Sam warns Mike that their new client is not a team player-just as he marches into a mansion, guns blazing. In the season premiere, “Friends and Enemies,” Michael finds himself sitting in the backseat of Sam’s car, holding a Mac-10. Those looking for subtlety should change the channel.
As for Sharon Gless, she’s wasted as Michael’s sharp-witted, chain-smoking mother she’s there to wring her hands and give Michael a “human” side-a rarity for a show that usually despises any hint of emotion. At least Bruce Campbell, who plays a salty ex-SEAL named Sam Axe, is in familiar territory: As a B-movie star, he’s just hammy enough to pull off the snarky lothario type. Likewise, his cohort, Fiona, isn’t much more than a gun-crazy former flame, so Gabrielle Anwar simply walks around in sexy outfits with big guns (and the key demographics go wild!). He also jury-rigs devices on the fly, MacGuyver-style, all while his glib first-person narration breaks it down for the audience. All we really know about our hero, Michael Westen, is that he used to be a spy before the shadowy Management “burned” him, so all actor Jeffrey Donovan does is broadly play the clichéd spy: He swaggers through every scene, regardless of whether it’s with a family member, street tough, or covert assassin. Sometimes-especially in the spy game-appearances are everything, especially in a show where the plot is so thinly defined. After three seasons, Burn Notice has, like its characters, perfected its swagger: It uses tacky and often cheesy narrative devices to achieve an effect that, if nothing else, at least looks good. Such low-stakes diversions are creator Matt Nix’s forte. Each episode restates its premise, several times over, which makes it commitment-free television-the anti- Lost. The show is an instantly forgettable hour of anonymous entertainment, as superficial as the city’s clubbing scene. Easy, breezy, sexy Miami makes the perfect setting for Burn Notice, a show about hot, wisecracking ex-government agents trying to undo their forced retirements.
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