Review: 'Burn Notice' - 'Bloodlines': Like father, like son
Family secrets come to the surface when Michael's mom helps on a case
Sharon Gless and Jeffrey Donovan on "Burn Notice."
Credit: USA
A quick review of last night's "Burn Notice" coming up just as soon as you steal my watch...
After the premiere, I suggested it might be a few weeks until we find out what the new status quo is. With "Bloodlines," it feels like we might already be there. And, if so, it's unsurprisingly not too different from the old status quo: Michael still takes on regular cases (and now has a bit more support in terms of money and material from Jesse's fancy new private security gig), while the passages of each episode that used to be devoted to Michael chasing the people who burned him instead feature Michael doing random odd jobs for the CIA.
At least for this week, I quite liked this iteration of "Burn Notice," as the case of the week mainly became an excuse for Michael and Maddie to deal with some old family demons - and for Sharon Gless to get a showcase that she'll inevitably use as her Emmy submission if she gets nominated again a year from now. Gless and Jeffrey Donovan always work so well together, and if there were moments where the tension between them felt a little melodramatic, that's the key "Burn Notice" tends to record in. And Fi scaring the CIA asset back into his wife's arms was just fun.
What did everybody else think?
Alan Sepinwall has been reviewing television since the mid-'90s, first for Tony Soprano's hometown paper, The Star-Ledger, and now for HitFix. His new book, "The Revolution Was Televised," about the last 15 years of TV drama, is for sale at Amazon. He can be reached at sepinwall@hitfix.com
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Login or create a HitFix account Login SignupStan
July 1, 2011 at 9:33AM EST Reply to CommentYeah, I don't know if "melodramatic" is the word I'd use for it, but I think the interactions between Donovan and Gless showed the limitations of Burn Notice. Just the way it's structured and written (and perhaps because it's on USA), it couldn't really convince me that Michael's and Maddie's scenes were as dark as they wanted to convey them.
Overall I liked it, and I could stand with a couple episodes where I'm not being completely confused by a larger story arc about mysterious government agencies.
milaxx
July 1, 2011 at 9:47AM EST Reply to CommentI like it. Jesse's security gig being the way they get jobs allows ua t have enough of the old structure to keep things familiar.
I don't ask too much of my USA shows and this still feels right to me. Gless is awesome as always.
Stu
July 1, 2011 at 10:08AM EST Reply to CommentSo, I've got this long-held theory that Maddie is eventually going to admit that she was once a spy herself. She's just too good at this stuff, as she proved again last night. - Stu
chip_christian
July 1, 2011 at 10:10AM EST Reply to Comment2 really solid episodes in a row
Liz
July 1, 2011 at 10:43AM EST Reply to Comment"Is there not enough tension because Michael's chummy with everyone and has access to so many resources? Would you rather the show not try to contrive tension and just step back and let us see Michael, Sam and Fi at work? If there are no more big bads, will you miss them?"
The season is working for me so far. I'm interested enough in the new dynamic (Michael finally getting what he thought he wanted all along, the rest of the team adjusting to the situation) that I don't yet miss the tension provided by conflict with the Carlas and Vaughns and other big bads of the world.
Besides, I'm guessing things the status quo won't last forever.
As far as the possibility of a Burn Notice that focuses solely on Mike, Sam and Fi...what would that look like for you? Skip the major story arcs and go with the case of the week? If so, I don't know. As frustrating as a couple of the major arcs have been for me, I do enjoy the hell out of the big, high-stakes finales.
About last night's episode: Sharon Gless did such a good job last night. Wow.
Liz
July 1, 2011 at 10:52AM EST Reply to CommentOh hey, question for the Burn Notice fans with better memories for details than I: we've known for some time about Michael's abusive father and the impact that had on the family. But do Sam and Fi have any idea? Last night's episode caught me by surprise, because Fi in particular didn't seem to realize what Michael and Maddie were talking about when she said she'd been through this before.
Jesse I do remember an episode-i'm not sure what it's titled-that Sam implies knowledge of Michael's abusive father. It's where this teenage boy becomes the client because Michael finds him trying to kill his father because he is abusive.Michael finds this case particularly important, and Sam says something along the lines of "Okay i get it, a little boy has an abusive father, i know it hits close to home for you. I'll help". So i think they DO know about it, i just think they were just so caught off guard by the fact that Maddeline compared michael to his father. hope this helps :)
July 1, 2011 at 12:21PM ESTJenn I think they do. In the Season 3 finale, Michael tells them that Maddie had asked him to come straight home, and that it was what she used to say when his dad was on a bender and she wanted him to stay away from the house. I wonder if Maddie's comment about what she hadn't seen in a while was supposed to refer to Michael losing his temper or being aggressive rather than a reference to his dad.
July 1, 2011 at 12:29PM ESTDougMac I think they do, but it's one thing to know something second hand and an other to see how it impacts people first hand. Them seeing Maddie's reaction was probably a real eye opener to the severity of things.
July 5, 2011 at 12:13AM ESTIt's also a nioce thematic mirror to Maddie. it's one thing to know that Mike has a bit of his father in him and to know he sometimes torures and kills people (even if it is for the greater good), but it is a whole different emotional intake to see it firsthand.
Scott Rosenberg
July 1, 2011 at 11:39AM EST Reply to CommentI really enjoyed both plotlines of the episode, though I thought Fi's way of handling the physicist was a bit over the top. However, I found it a bit surprising and odd when the writers decided that Sam and Fi really didn't know about Michael's abusive past. While I can't specifically site an episode where he talked about it to either of them, the show has always dealt with it openly, and I'm surprised that his best friend and lover would both be completely in the dark about it. As Michael once said in voiceover, when you're in deep cover, you're best playing yourself, just with some of the details changed. That he would have gotten Fi to fall in love with him in Belfast and not have mentioned it seems strange.
Lee
July 1, 2011 at 2:44PM EST Reply to CommentI loved Maddie's John Locke (of LOST) tribute when she shouted at Michael, "Don't tell me what I can't do!"
webdiva Huh. Is that **really** a 'Lost' tribute -- or just a much, much older line that countless women have screamed/bellowed at their too-pushy or controlling men?? I vote the latter: it's exactly what I'd say, and I **HATED** 'Lost.'
July 4, 2011 at 4:36AM ESTJim
July 1, 2011 at 3:28PM EST Reply to Comment**Would you rather the show not try to contrive tension and just step back and let us see Michael, Sam and Fi at work?**
Yes, though if they do want to bring in tension, do it with the return of John "Management" Mahoney, without, as Stan says above, making it a whole elaborate conspiracy thing. Mahoney could come back to hire/work with the team.
The show has felt a little off to me these first two rounds. Not enough Sam, I think.
Mark Kawakami
July 1, 2011 at 4:57PM EST Reply to CommentFor the first act, I was thinking that the main plot was almost entirely a plot Burn Notice had done before (rescuing trafficked women from a gangster for a concerned relative). And they have, but really that's not what this episode was about, it was about the relationship between Michael and Maddie. Once that became clear, I liked the episode a lot more.
I'm surprised what a dark place it went to, this is probably the closest any USA show will ever get to having a storyline that I'd all "troubling". But that being said, I'm also a little disappointed that they didn't explore it a bit more. Michael probably should have been a bit more reluctant to place his mom in the positions she had to be in, and even more so to have to strike her, and he should have had a harder time dealing with a guilty conscience afterward. Not that he was cavalier about any of it, but this is by far the most emotionally complex any storyline involving Maddie has been, so these aren't the notes to underplay.
xbrooklyngrrl I agree; this was a surprisingly dark episode for a very formulaic show -- I quit watching it for a long while, Iit kept seeming like the same episode over and over -- but they kind of drifted away from the aftermath of what Michael and Maddie went though. And I also didn't buy the fact that neither Sam nor Fi was aware of his past....
July 2, 2011 at 10:24PM ESTBlake
July 2, 2011 at 11:56AM EST Reply to CommentA nice change-of-pace season for them would be to have almost all standalone episodes -- which is really what they do best -- while slowly introducing a big bad for next season. Perhaps Michael's CIA friend could turn out to be a plant, or something?
Neeek
July 3, 2011 at 2:29AM EST Reply to CommentIs it just me, or does the show need a new opening credit sequence?
Kujo
July 3, 2011 at 4:18PM EST Reply to CommentThis season's off to a much better start than the last two. I think this was one of the stronger eps in a while.
I like the emotional depth they went into regarding Mike's father. This is the most they've exposed, and it showed a side of Michael, and his mother that we really haven't seen on this show yet.
I'm liking the slight new structure so far, though I look forward to Michael going on more serious CIA side missions. The lighter tone was acceptable due to the darkness of the subplot.