Burn Notice

Last week Thursday was one of those days: The kind that gives you the choice of staring at the ceiling, or perusing your DVR in hopes of finding something worthwhile (but rarely finding anything).

After sifting through the various MythBusters episodes and my regularly recorded series', I came across something that had me utterly confused, "'Burn Notice'? The hell?" I hadn't heard anything about the show, so I thought, "Screw it, I'm bored, let's see if I can't squeeze some water from a stone." I can honestly say, I'm utterly impressed with the show. I was floored by the entire piece.

Jeffery Donovan leads a very talented cast as the 'burned' spy-turned-private-eye Michael Westen, a man just trying to figure out why someone would put a 'burn notice' out on him. (For those who haven't seen the show or the commercials a 'burn notice' is when a spy is cut off, no jobs, nothing.) Donovan's acerbic delivery and amusing narration pull the show together, and his on-screen chemistry with acting veteran Bruce Campbell really keep the laughs coming.

I'd highly recommend the show for those who like a mix of comedy and espionage.

This show has stylish, cheaply made and lots of fun. Donovan has a lot of charisma but Bruce Campbell and the other supporting cast really make this show pop. Miami is great location for this show. In the future it would be cool to see it move around season to season. The show is smartly written and avoids most of the spy standards. It would be nice if they reduced the amount of voice over. It tends to distract from the suspense, but it's not driving me nuts or anything.

I'll keep watching to see where this show goes, I think it has a lot of potential and is a great, light, fun summer watch.

USA appears to have a winner on its hands with this new summer show!

I recently finished Burn Notice and I to say that I ended up absolutely loving it. I watched it here and there when it was on but never really had the time to commit to watching it. I finally watched it all the way through and I couldn't binge it fast enough. I watched all 7 seasons in record time. I'm actually mad at myself for waiting for so long to watch this. I just had no idea it was as good as it was. It's definitely far fetched and not believable but if you can just turn your brain off you'll have a great time watching this. The main cast of Jeffery Donovan, Gabrielle Awar and Bruce Campbell (and Coby Bell starting in season 4) all do an incredible job. The all have such great chemistry between the 4 of them. If you're looking for a fun show to binge then give this a try...you won't be disappointed.

Which is a comment you will seldom find in my reviews.

First of all, the concept. The whole idea of a "burn notice" forcing a spy to take roots in a community is very clever. Really.

And the casting. I call this "Leprechaun Casting" because Donovan's career both before and even after the show was unspectacular. But in this part, in a successful series which ran for years, he was nothing less than brilliant. Almost as though elves pulled him out nowhere just for this role, and then disappeared into the forest with him after.

The setting is also clever, relying on an old Hollywood adage which says, to improve your odds, cast in a city that people wish they lived in. Check.

Even the voice-over works and works well. Voice-over seems like an easy thing to pull off, but in fact it isn't. Which is why it dropped out of favor in the 1940s and has been used very sparingly ever since.

Estrogen content? Check. Gabrielle Anwar, in a part which really is more a sidekick than a love interest, manages to "sashay" between scenes (yet another word I do not use often) and also manages to give the impression that she is on "slow simmer" even when all she is doing is mixing explosives or hot-wiring a car. (If you are a male reader, you will get that.)

Supporting cast? Bruce Campbell plays his role like he was already happily retired and the casting director begged him to come out of retirement just for this part, and then gave him permission to sit down and drink while delivering his lines. (Which may be the way it actually happened, I don't know).

I will confess it took about three episodes for me to get hooked. Like I said off the top, this is a one of a kind. But it is a fun ride.

Jeffrey Donovan is an engaging lead in an interesting program - which combines an interesting dramatic story line with a good balance of lightness and humor -- much like the outstanding "Monk," also a USA Network production.

The premise has been well-publicized; he's a crack covert operator, who's now been ostracized by his agency, and is seeking to learn why, as well as exist amidst the barriers they've erected in terms of his credit and finances, availability of former colleagues, and while he is under surveillance from multiple agency operatives.

During the course of this program, he also assists a man whose former boss - a powerful citizen - has placed both his livelihood and son in jeopardy.

Again, done with both serious drama and whimsy, this is a show which is a breath of proverbial "fresh air," especially among the lame quiz programs and reality shows impossible to avoid today.

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I entered this comment a year ago, upon seeing initial episode of the series. In continuing to watch, I've found Jeffrey Donovan's performances and character to remain interesting and engaging, the remaining cast excellent, and the episodes, overall, also interesting and well-written. Along with "Monk" and the recently-added "In Plain Sight," the USA Network is producing, in my opinion, better fare than the four networks.