Well, Burn Notice has certainly cranked up the quality as its season draws to a close, hasn’t it? After those early tedious weeks Jeffrey Donovan’s Michael spent trading insults with Moon Bloodgood’s Det. Paxson, it’s been a relief to see a far more intriguing character, Ben Shenkman’s Strickler, come to the forefront.
As the only man Michael thinks might be able to clear his name, Strickler, “agent to the spies,” is an amusing hustler who gets results. More importantly, Burn Notice has been on a hot streak of fast, funny, exciting episodes. A few weeks ago, the episode entitled “The Hunter” featured a lot of Michael’s trademark weapons improvisations and fight scenes set in the Everglades. Last week’s “Shot in the Dark” boasted a fine guest-star turn by Better Off Ted’s Jay Harrington and a classic Burn plot: Michael taking a 13 year-old boy as a client to fend off his abusive stepdad (Harrington).
And last night, Rescue Me’s Callie Thorne showed up as a devious villain who put Fiona through an emotional wringer. She, in turn, did the same to Michael. The season is building to the climax of two storylines: Michael getting closer than he ever has to having his burn notice lifted, and, perhaps, losing Fiona’s affections in the process.
Next week,Tyne Daly will show up in some stunt-casting that’ll pair her with Sharon Gless — Cagney and Lacey reunited. I hope that sweet idea doesn’t get in the way of some serious resolution to a solid season.
Did you watch Burn Notice last night? What did you think?
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I was thinking the same thing as Ken about the Shenkman character. I always like the money laundering character as well – especially his interaction with Maddie.
Bring back Callie!
Great episode last night. Barry as a client worked out great. I’ve got this sneaking suspicion that Strickler may be working for the same organization as Carla and “Management,” but I could be wrong.
I always enjoy Burn Notice, even the ‘boring’ episodes, but I will admit that the last three episodes have been really fantastic. I love the emotional tension between Fiona and Michael, especially since Michael seems really affected by it. And Strickler is a great addition. I’m looking forward to the summer finale, though I don’t think this counts as the end of the season–previously seasons have seen Burn Notice takes a few months hiatus and then return with around 6-7 more episodes to wrap up the season.
Burn Notice is literally the only show on TV that hasn’t hit a rough patch yet. Week-to-week it has morphed into an action-packed, can’t-miss show. The writing and the acting has been spectacular, with special mention to Gabrielle Anwar. She has really risen to the occassion and brought a whole new dimension to Fiona this season — the sensitive, emotionally vulnerable woman suddenly wears her heart on her sleeve. It’s been a treat to watch.
And Ken, just a heads up – Tyne Daly’s episode won’t air until the back half of the season resumes in January. She’s in 3.10.
I’d say Better Off Ted is another show that has had no rough patch. Re: Burn Notice, If Michael does things to please Fiona, he’ll become as crazy as her.
Love the show, thought the past few episodes have been great. One complaint though, the MGD 64 ads thrown right into the middle of each episode. Come on, seriously? They are just pointless. The closeup on the bottles as Sam is packing. Just dumb. Not even witty, please stop.
When are we going to get an official Burn Notice TV Watch? Last night’s episode was so dark and intense and twisty! Come on, it’s a leader in the ratings, it’s a quality show … It deserves more than a half page “did you see it?”
Last nights episode was terrific, last week and the week before were the weakest. The kid with the abusive father was a little too close to the save a kid chestnut they used on Elian and the kids being hunted by the car thieves. We get that Michael has a soft spot for kids. A little more serious focus on Sam would be good. He’s always the guy who knows a guy and always Sammy gettin hammy. He could be as interesting a character as Fi.
Totally agree! Show has made all the right moves as the season progressed. I’m especially glad to see Michael and crew on some “serious” missions rather than helping some sick little kid with his HMO or whatever. Things w/ Fiona are getting borderline whiny, however. So though I hate to see the show (and my Thursday mojito nights) end, it seems like a good time for the finale and I trust ‘em to do it well.
Was I the only one confused on why, if Callie was the ‘boss’, would she tell them where the houses were, and practically allowing the team to unravel her plan?
Good point … maybe she thought Passport Guy would take them out in a hail of gunfire?
Well – think about all the voiceover “advice” Michael gives about what a good operative does. Part of that is using enough “truth” in your cover story to be convincing. I think Boss Callie probably thought they weren’t smart enough to know how to disable the “burn safe” – so that they’d realize they were at the “right” place – but not actually get their hands on any documentation. That was a risk that backfired on Boss Callie – because they were pro enough to be able to salvage the documentation. I don’t think she had counted on that – and it was a real miscalculation. They were the “better” pros.
Why is there no full TV Watch for Burn Notice?
Last night’s episode felt fresh and compelling and tragic … I sense a hard time ahead for Michael and Fiona. Though I do love his singlemindedness, and they way they communicated outside the door after he hit her … powerful stuff.
Callie Thorne is terrific. She recently also had a guest spot on this summer’s new “Royal Pains” – so the USA Network has been twice blessed.
I generally love this show, but I spotted Sheila as the bad guy pretty quickly. No background check on her to verify her identity, call to “son” not on speaker, things added up quickly.
And does Strickler remind anyone else a creepier Evan Lawson (Royal Pains)?
I was so made at Michael when he hit Fiona at the villa. I understand that he had to so that he could get “Natalie” into the bedroom and rescue Fiona from her, but, still, I had a major Michael-bashing fest.
Loved this episode! So fun to se Ben Shenkman on this show. It looks like he is having a blast playing this character. Really love Barry the money launderer, too. Great episode!
I really liked last night’s episode (as I did the episode the week before; more for the “making the bad guys think one of them was insane” plot than the “kid in peril” plot). I’m sad that it is almost time for the long hiatus. I comfort myself with the fact that despite or because of the hiatus, Burn Notice rarely has a lull/run of mediocre episodes. I’m looking forward to the mid-season finale!
I hate that Micheal slapped Fiona like that.Especially after they did that whole episode about domestic violence last week. It makes Micheal look like a total hypocrite.I hope they deal with the fact that he abused Fiona in a future episode
Well he did slap her to sell his part. And with all the times she’s been violent with Michael (for no reason other than emotion), you’d think she’d understand. But Ms. Anwar’s “you are a piece of work” response was absolutely chilling.
That was such a brilliant scene and that bit definitely gave me goosebumps! And basically slapped her to save her life which doesn’t make him a total hypocrite.
Kudos to JD and GA for playing that whole slap scene so well – Fi already on emotional skids with Michael & just going through hell with the CT character, it was too much and you could see that Michael realized it right away and felt terrible, that he could’ve played the part without making a fragile situation more fragile. Loved CT as the villian, she inhabited that character perfectly, Y her disappearance suggests she’ll be back. (Fingers crossed, she’s much more interesting than Brennan.) Shenkman is also great, & I just wish Michael wasn’t so single-minded. Fi’s instincts (Sam’s too) should really count for something to him, but he’s so wrapped up at getting back in that he’s not trusting her (them) like he should (and usually would – hence the ironic voiceover at the end about doing jobs with people you completely trust). All-in-all, an excellent eppy in an increasingly excellent season. Can’t wait to see how they do the Tyne Daly spot, it sounds great in theory, and since she and SG are such great actors, I hope it plays out well in practice.
Love all the shows.
Only weekly show I watch.
I thought (except for the whole Paxon debacle) the entire season has been really great. I wonder what will happen if Michael’s burn notice is reversed. Burn Notice is not the same without Miami. As for the slap, Michael was genuinely sorry. Callie (who I would love to see again) would have found out the whole thing was a ruse and would have gotten away with it.
What can I say? BURN NOTICE is one of my favorites. Always sorry to see a Season end.
Burn Notice and Royal Pains…that’s a one-two punch!
OK, I love the show…but what was the deal with all the women getting pimp-slapped this week? First the Amy girl gets punched by GA (just for the fun of it — gotta love Fi), then CT (which made no sense if she was the boss), then GA (which at least made sense to sell the life-saving part), then CT again, this time by Fi…did one of the bingo players slap SG when I wasn’t looking? Even BC took a hit to the head this week from the fall guy, and Sam was whining about his booty call getting ruined…not saying he was acting like a woman, but I’m just saying…know what I’m saying? Michael is slowly drifting away from being impartial and emotionally neutral, and I believe he is being separated from his team in order to achieve a darker end. It’s not just about getting back in, something is not right — Michael used his own mother for a job just a few weeks after his brother was kidnapped and shot by a vindictive Brennen!
Those of you who are upset about the GA slap missed an even better reason to be mad at Michael — WHY did he choose to go with Sam to get the ledger from Bike Guy and leave Fi to deal with a KNOWN KILLER on her own? Can’t blame Fi for walking on a simple photo job, it’s all too easy for Michael to prove his worth to Strickler and something is definitely up. Should be a good finale though.
Well – first of all – when Sam and Michael went to find the computer guy leaving Fiona with the captives – no one knew the woman was actually “the boss” and a “killer”. When they got to the computer guy – HE’s the one who told them that – and they immediately rushed back.
Secondly, the whole woman slapping thing – in both cases – was a ruse to make it appear that the man was the actually one in charge. When Michael slapped Fiona – you have to remember that Fiona had been presented to the captive woman as a potentially more “sympathetic” captor in hopes that she’d spill her guts to Fiona whereas she didn’t do that for Sam. The Theory was that two women being used as “tools” by strong men would “bond”. But the reality was neither woman was any guy’s “tool” – so it didn’t work at all.
And when Fiona punched the woman out – that was the two of them dropping their disguises.
Just wanted to say that… I TOTALLY LOVED MICHAEL’S HANDS ON FI’S CHEEKS!!! The looks that they exchanged gave me goosebumps! I absolutely LOVED that scene.
DOES ANYONE KNOW WHY THEY DIDN’T SHOW TYNE DALY IN LAST NIGHTS SEASON FINAL ON BURNNOTICE.MY MOM LOVES THE SHOW.SHE DIDN’T SEE HER IN THE EPISODE THEY SAID SHE WAS GONNA BE IN THERE & REUNITED WITH MICHAEL’S MOTHER.BUT DIDN’T SEE HER.YESTERDAY’S SEASON FINALE WAS GREAT!