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I Still Love 'Burn Notice,' But ...
by Bob Sassone, posted Jul 8th 2010 6:00PM
I feel as if I have to put a disclaimer at the start of this article, so here goes:I LOVE 'BURN NOTICE!'
Now that we have that out of the way, can I say that I'm beginning to fall a little bit out of love with it? It's like a woman that you start dating because she's fun and unpredictable and entertaining and pretty, and you just love the little quirky habit she has of eating Lucky Charms for dinner. But then you realize that she eats Lucky Charms for dinner every single night of the week. And suddenly you don't love it anymore. In fact, you're worried that it might lead to something bad.
That's how I feel about 'Burn Notice' right now.
I've always been a fan of these loner-hero-goes-up-against-the-bad-guys shows, and 'Burn Notice' is one of those them (even if he isn't a "loner" in the strictest definition of the term). But there's a problem embedded in these shows that's really hard to get rid of. You don't want to focus on the big back story -- in this case, who burned Michael, how is he going to get his life back, etc -- then you have to have "case of the week" episodes that have nothing to do with that plot (or very little to do with it).
So every week, while Michael is investigating the latest big bad guy who holds the key to his life, he gets dragged into helping some ordinary citizen who owes money to the mob or someone who is dating an abusive thief or someone who needs help getting their kids back. And most of the time it's not a case he wants to get involved in, it's someone that knows Sam or Fiona or his mom, and Michael sighs and gets all frustrated but agrees to help the person even though it's going to cut into time he could be working on his own things.It's starting to get silly. And the silliness I can handle, but it's also becoming predictable and boring. It's not quite the same thing as what happened on 'The X-Files,' when you sat and wondered why the hell they were bothering to investigate some relatively minor mystery when, you know, they just found out that aliens have a plan to take over the world.
But it's still a situation where you just want them to focus on the burn notice aspect of the show, the spy angle of the show, the Jesse-got-burned aspect of the show instead of the weekly plots where the team helps the little guy. It's always done with style and great cinematography and explosions that go BOOM, but it's getting tedious after three plus seasons.
Here's how I would shake up things on the show.
1. Forget about the title and make him a full-time spy again. Maybe it's time for the whole "burn notice" thing to go away. Completely end that angle and have a big season-ender where Michael gets to be a spy full-time again and goes on regular spy missions (with Sam and Fiona as his freelance help). Wouldn't that be a lot of fun? It would reinvent the show and open up dozens of possible plots.
Hey, if ABC can keep the title 'Cougar Town,' even though that show has gone beyond all that, then USA can do the same with 'Burn Notice.'
2. Get him out of Miami. It's a great location and above I praised the cinematography, but wouldn't it be great to see Michael go on an assignment in New York City or Hawaii or London? When the show started it was logical that he was stuck in Miami, even interesting because we wondered how they would make the show intriguing if they never leave the area. And for a few seasons it was fine. But now it's time to let Michael get on a plane or a train and go some place else.
3. Less case-of-the-week, more big picture. This is always a tricky juggle, because some fans don't want to see the big plot as the main plot every single week. But this show is about something specific (hence the title), and this show should be much more about the spy world than about helping the son of Michael's mom's friend.
Besides, half the time Michael doesn't even get paid for his work so I wonder how he affords all that yogurt.And I'll also add that when 'Burn Notice' ends, I'd love to see Bruce Campbell with his own show. I'd watch 'Sam Axe.' Just don't call it 'Axe' because that will just make people think of lame cologne.
What do you think -- is 'Burn Notice' burning out?
[Follow Bob on Twitter.]
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