TV Review: Burn Notice on the USA Network

USA Network really hit the mark with its new television series 'Burn Notice.' When I first saw the advertisements for this show I thought to myself, "Oh boy, another 007 James Bond show, great." I figured it would be the same 'Cloak and Dagger' type show and would just try the same cheesy, overused concept of, new mission, and new love interest every week. The last decent spy show on T.V. in my mind was 'Get Smart.' For those of you keeping score, '24' is not what I would consider a 'spy' show, I believe it to be more of an action or drama series. The night of the premiere it just so happened that I found myself with an hour to kill and nothing particularly appealing on the TV schedule.

Michael Westen, played by Jeffery Donovan, is a spy who finds himself not only out of a job, but essentially a man without an identity, as he has been 'burned' his credit is frozen, his identity is flagged he is even under surveillance by the FBI (Losing his 'tail' provides for some lighter moments during the show.) He is back in his hometown of Miami Florida. While he tries to figure out why he is blacklisted he is more or less forced to put his numerous skills as an international spy to use for the type of people that tend to shy away from the police. He is aided by his on again off again girlfriend Fiona, played by Gabriel Anwar and his friend Sam played by Bruce Campbell. Sam is a former spy himself, a drunk, making a living leering and peering as a hack private investigator. He is also informing on Michael to the feds. Fiona is a former IRA operative who is trigger happy and just generally stubborn. Together this trio takes on the Miami underworld trying to make ends meet. The other key character is Madeline, Michael's mother, played by Sharon Gless. He spent he the majority of his adult life up until now trying to avoid this woman. Now he forced to confront the family issues he traveled halfway around the world to avoid. This provides for good underlying drama to the overall plot line of the series.