Season premiere review: 'Burn Notice' - 'Scorched Earth': Factory man
What did everybody think of Michael Westen and friends' return?
Jeffrey Donovan as Michael Westen in "Burn Notice."
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When "Burn Notice" wrapped up its previous season back in December, I wrote that while I still enjoyed the show as a summer diversion, it had been telling the same kinds of stories for so long that I'd run out of new things to say about it, and had lot some emotional investment along the way. So unless this new season presents an unexpected masterpiece at some point, I'm going to be watching but not writing.
But since I got to see the season premiere in advance, I wanted to at least take the temperature of the room on where the show is right now. Many of you agreed with me on last season's finale — not that the show had gone awry, but that we'd seen it all before, many times. Did the seven months away rekindle your passion for Michael, Sam and Fi, or are you still feeling the same ennui I am? How did you feel about the way the Anson and Fiona stories played out in the premiere? Do you buy that Michael would be this reckless for the sake of Fi? Were you happy to see the return of an old face? How did you feel about the introductory narration finally including Jesse?
Have at it, folks. Again, barring something special, I'll be back around mid-season finale time.
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June 14, 2012 at 10:16PM EST Reply to CommentMeh. Glad to have the show back but will enjoy it more when they get away from the anthology stuff and do more stand alone episodes.
I vaguely remember the guy interrogating Fi, but I can't remember how he fits into the story and don't really care to look him up. Plus, Anson didn't have that much of a lead on Sam and Michael, so it's hard to believe he was able to kill a guard, hide, and wire an entire building to blow up just on the fly.
sepinwall He was an FBI agent investigating Michael way back in (I think) season 2, until he and Michael got caught up in a bank robbery and he got to see Michael's vigilante routine in action, and decided to cut him some slack.
June 14, 2012 at 10:20PM ESTRobinson Alan: Actually, he was CSS (Central Security Service), not FBI.
June 16, 2012 at 3:22PM ESTWar Chief Shake Zula And he first showed up season one to harass Michael. Michael actually had to threaten to destroy his career to back off the first time.
June 17, 2012 at 7:27PM ESTHe came back in season two after getting evidence he needed to take Michael down w/ him, only to come to a new respect w/ him after the bank robbery.
Tumnus
June 14, 2012 at 10:16PM EST Reply to CommentShow is just getting better to me. Michael vs Anson is better than "who burned me?!", and Fi doesn't look to be getting out anytime soon. Can I vote review the show? Until BB is back, there's not much better on.
Fin Alyn
June 14, 2012 at 10:34PM EST Reply to CommentAfter tonight, I'm still in the "Not into it as I once was" camp. Anson is ridiculous. He's a cartoon villain, not someone who should be on Burn Notice. He wasn't this effective when he had the whole old bad guy operation behind him. I'm waiting for him to put on a cape and start flying around one episode soon.
Agent Bly, from Season 1 was the "hard ass" FBI guy brought in to make Mike more reasonable, but who Mike blackmailed into leaving Miami. He came back in Season 2 when he caught Barry helping Mike track down money illegally, and now thought he had equal leverage against Mike. Then the bank robbery happened, and they called a truce.
vinny Actually Agent Bly IS NOT FBI...he's CSS. Part of the intelligence arm of DOD.
June 15, 2012 at 4:29AM ESTFin Alyn Now he's CSS. When introduced he was FBI
June 15, 2012 at 11:34AM ESTMike n.
June 14, 2012 at 10:35PM EST Reply to CommentI like that Michael and Fiona are going to be away from each other for a while this season because Donovan and Anwar have zero chemistry together. That part of the show has always been forced. Anson is a great villain because he's as smart as Michael, and that dynamic is also built best with limited shared screen time because it builds up the action and suspense. The side cases and stories are formulaic but necessary to drive the show forward while the main story arcs progress across the season.
svetlana I actually have to disagree with you. I think Jeffrey and Gabrielle have a lot if chemistry and I like them together. The person who in my opinion who has zero chemistry with the rest of the cast is Jesse. I wish they hadn't added that character, so boring.
June 15, 2012 at 4:32AM ESTBlake
June 14, 2012 at 10:38PM EST Reply to CommentThere's simply nothing better on right now. So that helps.
My wife loves the show; she loves Fiona, and it's beautiful. She was happy with this episode. I like it enough to have enjoyed watching it with her. Not everything can be "Breaking Bad."
Blake Something occurred to me overnight: They can't keep Fiona in prison long. The charm of the show is the interaction of the characters. If this was most dramas, the whole season arc would be about getting her out. But that would be a very unsatisfying season of Burn Notice.
June 15, 2012 at 11:25AM ESTThomegemcity
June 14, 2012 at 11:01PM EST Reply to CommentWrite a comment...great start perfect pick from 5's finale.
Bly playing the antagonist adds to the lot
All n all a good later arc for the season
of course Jerry is back fresh from justified doing what he does best being an asshole
laurieu
June 14, 2012 at 11:24PM EST Reply to CommentOk, i'm all in : michael pulling a gun on sam?, bly back?, anson getting away?....loving it!
Conatonc
June 15, 2012 at 12:43AM EST Reply to CommentBy sticking with the show through the end of the season last fall, I felt like I had given it a season and a half longer than it deserved. So I'm out, even though I generally really enjoy Jere Burns. In its first few seasons, Burn Notice had a kick to it that made it fun to watch nearly every week. But when Jesse was introduced, the whole "Michael burned him- when we he figure it out?" plotline cast a pall over the whole show that it's never really recovered from.
For a long time, Burn Notice's major problem was the wheel-spinning of the overarching storyline. That was annoying, but it only took up maybe 5-8 minutes of most episodes. Over the past couple seasons, though, as they've loosened up the overarching storyline, they seem to have encountered an even worse problem- the weekly plots aren't much fun anymore. And that's what's been slowly killing the show for me.
tag8833
June 15, 2012 at 1:29AM EST Reply to CommentBurn Notice was very entertaining, but the failure to execute the larger arcs drug it down. I game up a season or two ago. But, I guess absense makes the heart grow fonder, because I think I'm in for the upcoming season.
Still, I wish they would just give up on the larger arcs and do standalones. This is the only show on TV that I think would benefit from less serialization.
Rayme I agree. I had not realized how much I liked the helping parts of the show and disliked the big boring bads.
June 15, 2012 at 1:56PM ESTcgeye
June 15, 2012 at 1:33AM EST Reply to CommentI think part of the fantasy that BN successfully brought off -- that these violent people were suddenly moral and acceptable members of society, because they used their skills for the Little Guy -- wore off when they burned Jesse. It was plain to see, after all the machinations about Management and the layers of bureaucratic suck that burned Michael, that these were terrorists, in the eyes of the rest of the world, who weren't in rendition by Episode 2 solely due to some Big Bad protecting them. Jesse's presence made it plain that there were spies that followed the rules, and they were weaker than the ones who didn't. In the long-term, what message does that give us, about power, corruption and callousness? That's a theme even THE UNIT couldn't handle for a full run, let alone a candy-colored action romp.
That escapist bloom is off the rose, with Fi in jail indefinitely. Can any one of us say that an IRA bomber and worldwide arms dealer *doesn't* belong in jail? The problem is that BN isn't deep enough a show to actually *use* that imprisonment to make Fiona deeper. Anson didn't even need to set Fiona up -- all he had to do was patiently gather evidence of Fi's past crimes, then submit them to an authority that couldn't be bribed or dissuaded.
Long before the case-of-the-week became predictable, the writers gave up on why Michael was a barely-domesticated man who really didn't know how to be in society, but knew how to manipulate civilians enough to make a living. They hinted at it, with the Madeline episode that explicitly characterized Mike's father (and Mike, at heart) as abusive, but again, that got in the way of the explosions and jolly spirits. Anton doesn't matter, because we know, sooner or later, he will go away, and the characters we see every week really will not have changed. That's USA, for you -- reliable as a Viacom syndicated drama, recession and arc-proof.
RSG I too struggled with this aspect. When we are seeing them help others, i.e. doing things that law enforcement can't b/c they are not operating within the constraints of the law, I cared. Now, not so much. What I see now are people willing to terrorize others (even if only tangentially) so that they can get what they want/find information important only to them. They blow up buildings, people are killed or injured, or at least scared out of their minds (traffic crashes, random explosions and gunfire) and there are never any consequences. You can't have badass with a heart of gold who then does not care about the costs to the community around him.
June 15, 2012 at 2:30PM ESTAnd you can't have a former IRA terrorist/arms dealer as a sympathetic figure for too long. All I keep thinking about is how she sells arms to bad people, to do bad things, and we're supposed to care about what happens to them?
I can suspend reality a good long time in sci-fi shows like Battlestar or even some of BN's stand-alone eps. But it's gotten too much. We had a dead cop in last night's episode, a dead security guard and explosions on the highway. I may be out. And did anyone else notice how bad the directing/writing was? It was stilted and stiff, especially the CIA handler. UGH.
I fear it lost its soul with Jesse.
cgeye ... well, you *can* have characters who terrorize others for their own selfish goals, but then they'd better wear SAMCRO colors, and be bad-ass enough to know that every violent act takes them deeper under.
June 17, 2012 at 11:26PM ESTchuchundra
June 15, 2012 at 5:57AM EST Reply to CommentBleh. I never believed that Michael would dance like a puppet at the end of Anson's string. Michael being who he is should have realized early on what was happening, killed Anson and cut his losses.
He has to to know what happens in situations like these where the blackmailer pushes for more and more. It always ends badly. I can't believe he'd ever go along with it.
I'm not a fan of the way Michael acted this episode. I can't believe that he's be that out of control. It totally blew my suspension of disbelief.
Also, what the hell is with USA and the timing of their shows. My DVR always cuts off the end. Last night I missed the last minute or so of Royal Pains and tonight it chopped off the end of Burn Notice.
I'm thinking of just skipping the DVR and downloading the shows so I can at least see the ending.
Dezbot I always pad the recording times of shows now, as it seems most of them go over. Doesn't your DVR allow you to do that?
June 18, 2012 at 10:48AM ESTchuchundra It only lets me do that when I record each show individually. If I have it set up to record "all first run on this channel", I have to take the time settings the DVR gives me.
June 18, 2012 at 11:57AM ESTYes, #FirstWorldProblems, but it doesn't change the fact that Cablevision's DVR stinks.
George
June 15, 2012 at 10:55AM EST Reply to CommentActually Agent Jason Bly was first introduced in the 1st season and was working for the NSA at the time. He came back in season 2 to get the black mail file back from Miachel. He had a fetish for cutting people's couches.
jenfullmoon
June 15, 2012 at 2:31PM EST Reply to CommentThe problem this episode suffered from, big developments aside, was that (a) they weren't going to get Fiona out of jail--indeed, nobody even tried--and (b) you knew darned well they weren't going to catch Mason. So it was kind of hard to stay interested knowing it was a losing battle for an hour.
But that said, I wasn't expecting the faked-Michael-death scheme from Jason Bly, or that Maddie killed her first bad guy. So that was nice.
dexx For me, I found that it was easy to stay interested despite knowing that he wasn't going to catch Anson because even if I know what will or probably will happen in a show or movie, I find that I still am able to enjoy seeing how events play out (unless something absolutely sucks). I'm probably a rarity.
June 15, 2012 at 6:23PM ESTjenfullmoon Usually I am fine with that too. It was just really bothering me this time though. Maybe because this was the first episode and thus it felt like there wasn't that much suspense to it when you knew it was a guaranteed loss.
June 15, 2012 at 6:53PM ESTWatamelon
June 15, 2012 at 11:29PM EST Reply to CommentI really had to suspend my disbelief that anson had enough forethought to have bombs with him to plant at a random factory on a random road when he was forced out of his car. How come Michael is always a step ahead of everyone else (at least he used to be) but then Anson comes along and is always two steps ahead. One of the fun aspects to Burn Notice was that Michael was so experienced he was always ahead of everyone. He was professional and wouldn't let his emotions get ahead of him. And he had morals that he wouldn't mess with, lines he wouldn't cross. Let me say that again. LINES HE WOULDN'T CROSS. Gah, sorry. It's way out of character for Michael to suddenly lose his moral compass just for Fiona. And how is it that Anson can bring out the most emotional version of Michael possible?! Ok. I'm done.
Swearin
June 16, 2012 at 9:14AM EST Reply to CommentI never liked Jesse as a character, and I'm ambivalent about the actor who plays him. I liked when they cut back his appearances when Jesse got the new corporate job, so having him in the intro now legitimizes him as a full-fledged member of the team, and that disappoints me.
I mean, his whole purpose is to fill in on jobs or do favors to pickup the slack for the other, better team members (when Michael was forced to moonlight for various bad guys, or consult for the CIA, or consult for the CIA on behalf of bad guys, or to help because Fiona is gonna spend a few episodes in interrogation/prison).
Dwayne Mendoa
June 17, 2012 at 6:10PM EST Reply to CommentIn a world where even Michael Westen's CAR doesn't die for very long, what you're trying won't work. Please stop.
Dwayne Mendoza In a world where even Michael Westen's CAR doesn't die for very long, what you're trying won't work. Please stop.
June 17, 2012 at 6:11PM ESTDezbot
June 18, 2012 at 11:14AM EST Reply to CommentDid the seven months away rekindle your passion for Michael, Sam and Fi, or are you still feeling the same ennui I am?
Dezbot Did the seven months away rekindle your passion for Michael, Sam and Fi, or are you still feeling the same ennui I am?
June 18, 2012 at 11:15AM ESTDezbot Okay, never mind, I don't know what's wrong with the site. I like the show the same as ever. Jeez.
June 18, 2012 at 11:16AM ESTdwhit110
June 19, 2012 at 5:22PM EST Reply to CommentI liked a lot of things about the season premier. Too often Burn Notice wraps up any cliffhangers too quickly (think Michael and the CIA wiping out the organization who burned him in Ep 1 Season 5.) I was happy to see that there remains some tension with Anson on the run and Fi in jail, and that our immediate attention from those storylines weren't diverted by a needless "client of the week" story.