My new favorite show,
Burn Notice, is on tonight. First, can I say how much I love cable's recent trend of creating new shows for the summer? A couple of summers ago, I got hooked on
The Closer and
Psych. Last year, it was
Saved, which hasn't returned and I don't know if it will, actually. Which is too bad because...hello, deeply flawed characters everywhere. Loved it. I've kind of fallen off of
The Closer--it was more interesting when Brenda's love life was all messed up, in my opinion--and
Psych is not as good as it was last season (though still better than the first season, I think).
Burn Notice, though, sets my little television-watching heart all apitter-patter.
First, the premise, a spy, though more of a freelance spy than one associated with the CIA or other organization, gets cut loose from his job. No one will take his calls, no one will acknowledge his existence. He has been disavowed, to use M:I language. They, whoever they are, have also frozen his assets, destroyed his credit history and put him on every watch list known to man. But they don't want him dead, at least not yet. He doesn't know why any of this is happening, and, of course, he can't get anyone to tell him. And he finds out at the worst time possible--when he's trying to convince some major bad guy to take an official payout to leave some oil rigs alone. The guy finally gives up his account numbers for the payout and when Michael, the main character, goes to call it in, they tell him he's been burned. No other information available, no help to get him out of a very sticky situation. He has to rely on his own cleverness, which is part of my attraction to the show. He can't really trust or rely on anyone else--even those people who are helping him (his mother, ex-girlfriend and an ex-associate with the FBI who is obligated to inform on Michael's every move) have their own agendas that may or may not work against him.
In writing, it's always best if a character finds him or herself a corner with no way out. That's when things start to get interesting. I love it. Also, Michael's mother, a role played magnificentlyby Sharon Gless (Was she Cagney or Lacey? I can't remember), is amazing. Equal parts manipulative and caring--and impossible to tell which is which until it's too late. Bruce Campell (of Evil Dead fame) plays the ex-associate and does so with great relish. He's fantastic.
The individual episodes focus on odd, private investigator-type jobs he's taking in order to make ends meet while he's searching for who put the burn notice out on him and why. He's so clearly reluctant to get involved onthese cases because they are, in a way, child's play to someone who does the kind of work he does, or did. And yet, he's obligated by the need for money and his sense of morality, oddly enough. In reference to the skills need to catch a particular criminal, I think there's a quote from the show that goes something like this, "Spies are just criminals with a government paycheck."
The writing is pretty snappy. And I'm a sucker for a good voiceover. Can't help it. It's the closest thing in television to first person (which is what I almost always write). Some of his opening lines are good, too, in my opinion. This is a paraphrase, but close to the opening lines of the pilot:
"Covert operations involve a lot of waiting around. You want to know what it's like being a spy? It's like sitting around in your doctor's reception area, 24/7. You sip some coffee, flip through a magazine...and occasionally someone tries to kill you."
Awesome. Follows the writing rule of three, catching you off-guard with the third item in a list.
Or, how about this one, (Thanks to The Watcher Column in the Trib for catching and transcribing this--read her whole article
here.):
"Spend a few years as a covert operative, and a sunny beach just looks like a vulnerable tactical position with no decent cover.....I've never found a good way to hide a gun in a bathing suit."
Of course, you're not getting the perfect, dry tone of Jeffrey Donovan by reading it here, so check it out tonight. USA, 9:00, central time. : )
Me in the middle there, for once listening quietly instead of yammering away. : )
The panel--from L to R: Mike Brotheron, Doug Ferguson, Jim Yelton, Stacey Klemstein, Jack Snyder
