"Burn Notice" Returns with a Bang...

How about we close out the week with a little.....

And with one of my FAVORITE TV show's return to the mid-season ring....






Burn Notice: "A Dark Road"

Info:

Writer: Matt Nix
Director: John T. Kretchmer


Starring--- Jeffrey Donovan (The Changeling, Blair Witch 2: Book Of Shadows, Touching Evil) Gabrielle Anwar (Wild Hearts Can't Be Broken, The Three Musketeers, The Librarian: King Solomon's Mines) Bruce Campbell Bruce Campbell (The Evil Dead, Xena: Warrior Princess, The Adventures of Briscoe County Jr) Sharon Gless (Cagney and Lacey)

Guest Starring: Tyne Daly (Judging Amy, Cagney and Lacey, The Enforcer)

Season: 3 (Second Half)
Airdate: 1/21/10
Year: 2010

Company: Fox Television Studios

The Basic Scoop, The Poop, The Lowdown:




Michael Westen (Donovan) the Miami-based burned spy with the most and Sam (Campbell) are hot on the trail of the man who mysteriously murdered his CIA contact Diego. Meanwhile Fiona (Anwar) brings Mike a new client, the widow of a good man killed in an auto insurance scheme. Mike has to go undercover as a redneck con man to infiltrate the insurance fraud ring while enlisting his mother Madeline ( Gless) to pump a lonely medical records office worker named Tina (Daley) for information concerning the fraud cases.

What's Pretty Good:




As always, this episode of BN doesn't disappoint with a solid mix of action, light comedy, intrigues, sex appeal, oh and I did mention action right? ;) There's a typical fits-in-with-Mike-as-doogooder main plot while picking up smoothly right where they left off with the shadow-spook-intrigues subplot that fits in with the overall ginormous plot that runs through the whole series.

(WHOA... that was a lot to digest, still with me so far people? :P )

As always with BN, the writers do a really nice job from season-to-season, season half to season half introducing new "villans" and "friends" in the spy world to keep Mike and the Gang busy, while not making it TOO obvious that this is a "transition plot device" it all seems plausible and engaging.

The characters are what bring you back to this series (not to mention the ACTION lol) and to be sure, Sam gets in enough salty zingers, and Fi gets to be her usual gun-toting wild minxy cat self...though with a BIT more of a tender side in this episode logically following her rescue by Mike and Sam in the Fall Half Finale. ( "Long Way Back" )

"A Dark Road" is aptly titled, for it plays off the Main episode plot, or the idea of a car purposefully being hit "on a dark road" while hinting at the graudual understanding of what Mike did all those years, as well as the road of sinister uncertainty for the gang that could insue chasing this new spook adversary.

What Sucks:




Not much really. Jeffrey as Mike going undercover as a North Carolina born con man is a BIT suspect, at least with his accent. For an actor who usually does a pretty good job of nailing accents, it'd of been nice if he had AT LEAST tried to affect a more accurate East North Carolina drawl instead of just a "generic" southern "redneck twang" implying incivility and ignorance. I guess the peeps behind the camera figured nobody would even know the difference between one southern drawl to another...and hey...they're RIGHT!





Overall Episode Grade: A-

Nothing special in the end, considering how much the peeps over at USA hyped up the "Return of Burn Notice!!" in the advertising...

But then again, it doesn't HAVE TO BE!

It's Burn Notice for crissakes...it's practically a synontm for the word "awesome" anyway. (Seriously, the next time you want to say something is awesome or totally RAD...just say "Dude, OMG, how very Burn Notice of you!" ;) )

For fans already you will remain in the spy fold, for those who could be new to the show...this isn't a bad place to start...GET ON THE BAND WAGON ALREADY!!

With all the crap on reality TV these days (Jersey Shore?? Madhouse??)

This is a show that DESERVES it's hype!

Week Recap on the Morrow...in the meantime, Happy Friday!!!!