Burn Notice - Season One

Description
Michael Westen is a trained spy who receives a "burn notice" for an unstated reason & effectively is fired. Penniless, he returns to his hometown in Miami and freelances while trying to find who burned him.

Burn Notice is a canny, clever comedy-thriller show about a covert operative with a heart of gold. Michael Westen (Jeffrey Donovan) is in the middle of a top-secret mission when he discovers he's been "burned"--basically, fired without warning. After barely extricating himself from danger, he wakes up in Miami, where the government has abandoned him and locked him out of his own bank account. To make ends meet, he takes on private detective jobs (helping an old lady who's fallen victim to a con artist; rescuing a young girl who's being tricked into white slavery; helping a mother whose son has been kidnapped by the boy's father... only it turns out the father is the rightful parent and the "mom" is an assassin sent to kill him--a nice guest star appearance by Lucy Lawless, Xena: Warrior Princess), while trying to figure out who burned him and why. Westen tries to remain clinical in his approach to these problems, but he always ends up protecting the helpless with his sophisticated spy skills. Over the course of the first season, he gradually uncovers a mysterious conspiracy that plans to use his talents for their own nefarious ends. Burn Notice deftly mixes the old and the new. The old: Our hero has a hot ex-girlfriend (Gabrielle Anwar, Scent of a Woman), a goofy sidekick (cult hero Bruce Campbell of the Evil Dead movies), and a meddling mom (Sharon Gless, Cagney & Lacey) who help and hinder him in his investigations, as well as a MacGyver-esque skill for making deadly devices out of common household products. The new: A media-savvy way of deconstructing the tricks and techniques of spies and government agencies, often resulting in smart and highly entertaining plot twists. Donovan, handsome but cheeky, combines a light comic touch with a convincing secret agent cool, and the supporting cast fill their niches with aplomb. Their escapades are pretty breezy and occasionally skirt being glib, but most of the time the show finds an extremely entertaining balance between action, romance, and humor. The extras are few (some montages of characteristic moments from the series, including one of the many bikini-clad girls the Miami locale provides) and the commentaries, rather than covering entire episodes, just discuss a few select scenes from each show. Fortunately, the series itself holds up; imagine a cross between Magnum, P.I. and The Wild Wild West (the classic series, not the insulting Will Smith movie) and you're on the right track. --Bret Fetzer

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Stills from Burn Notice (Click for larger image)

Watchable if nothing else
The show is formulaic, but extremely fun to watch. The scenery is very pretty, and the dialogue is witty at times. You won't be thinking the entire time, but you'll enjoy yourself.

Burn Notice-season one
Good characters and lots of action. This is fun to watch and interesting to follow the plot lines. A lot of imagination went into the making of this series. I rate the series A-1.

Excellent
One of the best series around. Not only are the stories well plotted but the editing and pacing of the shooting is excellent as well. I love this show! Great for all ages!

Great Show
This show is a great suspenseful spy show with lots of MacGuyveresque qualities thrown in. Chemistry is great between all the actors. So much fun to watch. And the commentary is great fun to listen to on the dvd set.

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