Miami is one of those great backdrop cities. I wouldn’t want to live there (too hot), but
it is exciting. I’ve visited many times.
Good food, great beaches, danger,
adventure and a wonderfully, stylish sleaziness that makes it distinctive. So, in the tradition or perhaps besting the
traditions of Miami Vice and CSI Miami, here is Burn Notice.
After I watched the first episode on Netflix, I wasn’t sure
I was going to watch a second. I didn’t warm to the main character. He possessed a cockiness that would have been
acceptable if there had been a level of charm to make the medicine go
down. In fact, the only character that
appealed to me was Sam, an affable everyman who was quite capable of deadly
force. I thought that was a nice touch. You kind of expect Clint Eastwood’s
characters to get mean if they have to, but not a nice guy like Sam.
I gave it a second chance. I was hooked. And after having a similar thing happen to me
with White Collar, I wanted to figure
out how I got the habit. How could I
become addicted to something that, in a way, didn’t seem all that special? This wasn’t Downton Abbey or The Wire for that matter. I’m sure smarter minds had the addictive formula
figured out a long time ago. But I was just discovering it.
It’s the tease. It doesn’t always work. Let me explain. I started watching The Killing. I was deeply impressed. The
acting and the story were multi-dimensional, the characters richly drawn and
wonderfully acted. There was a real
urgency in the way the story unfolded. There were enough twists to keep the viewer
guessing. We were left hanging at the
end of each episode. I was willing to
hang on. I’d wait until the end of the season if I had to. It was that good. Then, at the end of season, there was
nothing. Still no resolution. None. Nothing ended. We, the viewers, were to wait until the next
season.
Well, fool me once….
I didn’t go back. I felt like I
wasted my time. It’s the feeling you get
when you didn’t know you were starting a show that at the last moment, just
when you thought you’d get the answer, the screen goes dark and the words “To
Be Continued” appear. All tease. Suddenly
you are left in the lurch. You are not
satisfied, or at least I’m not. If it continues the following week, I might
tune in. But I’m pissed. In the case of The
Killing,” I’d been teased every week for weeks and I finally decided I’d let
the damned murderer go free. I didn’t
care anymore.
What both Burn Notice and White Collar do is give you some satisfaction while dangling
something more promising ahead. Fundamentally,
they give you a resolution to each episode while keeping you hanging on a
larger plot, or plots in the case of Burn
Notice. In fact, this more explosive light-hearted thriller actually takes
this idea one step further.
I hope this makes sense: In essence, each episode of Burn Notice deals with a minimum of
three plots, only one of which is resolved at the end of each episode. Another plot ends after maybe three or four
episodes. All the while the plot that is
the central premise — why has he been burned and who did it — continues not
only from show to show, not just throughout the first subplot, but also from
season to season. Add to all this a backstory of the main character as well as
the others and you have quite an intricate spider web. You just can’t break free.
Jeffrey Donovan
plays the smart-ass spy that nearly kept me from watching episode two. He is, however, one of the main reasons I
continue now. As a spy his job is to
play various other characters. He does
that well and, as I discovered, often with humor. This show, much like White Collar, doesn’t take itself seriously. In one episode, Donovan does Eastwood’s Dirty
Harry or any character Eastwood plays — a few simple, threatening words said in
a low growling whisper. Hilarious. At one point they also unite Cagney and Lacey,
though not as Cagney and Lacey, but as elderly women friends. Maybe this is
what they would have been like once they were on a police pension.
Unlike White Collar,
though, Burn Notice is violent. And none of the characters are more violent
than the lead’s scantily clad girlfriend Gabrielle
Anwar, whose answer to any problem is either “shoot them” or “blow them up.”
Lots of people get shot. Lots of people and places get blown up. (With
several seasons behind them, it’s amazing there are any buildings left in
Miami.) They must have a big budget. The
third main character is Sam. Bruce Campbell, as I mentioned at the
top — who just might be Marshall from How
I Met Your Mother at mid-life, but much deadlier — is excellent.
The stories can be a little corny and repetitive especially
if you are watching them in marathon fashion as I am. But this isn’t Pulitzer
Prize material anyway, just absolutely well-done action drama that hits all the
right notes. And Miami couldn’t be any
more inviting than it is here. I’m ready
to go back. I hope the show can stay
there. Reportedly there has been some
trouble between the show’s producers and the civic powers in that sunny Florida
city that might have prevented a seventh season. Late reports indicate an
agreement has been reached. A seventh season in Miami is possible.
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