1.04 Old Friends

Summary and spoilers

Michael has to fend off a Czech assassin while he tries to work with his irresponsible brother Nate to track down Jenna, an 18 year old girl who has run away from home – and her worried dad – to be with her flashy ‘modeling scout’ boyfriend. The boyfriend, Brendon Diggs, has actually recruited Jenna into the Wilhelm Brothers escort service, and getting her out is not going to be easy. The Wilhelms have big – and sick – plans for Jenna – she’s about to be sold into virtual sexual slavery in Saudi Arabia – although she thinks she’s going there to model. Michael has one day to rescue her and fulfill the promise he has made to her dad.

Comments

Now that Michael is burned, there is no one to protect him. That’s the reason that the Czech assassin gives for his appearance…but it isn’t completely true. A little too late, mystery men show up and eliminate the assassin. So someone is protecting Michael, and keeping him on ice in Miami while they decide what to do with him.

There aren’t too many male actors with a smile as infectious as the one that Jeffrey Donovan sports as he’s walking through the Wilhelm’s party.

Burn Notice has a brisk, immediate pace. It is also not without some emotional depth as well. The relationship between Michael and Nate feels genuine, and Jenna’s return home almost brought a couple of tears to this reviewer’s jaded eyes.

Burn Notice Quotes

Fiona: Every third guy in a bar will tell you he’s a modeling scout.
Sam: Hey, I’ve used worse line…and succeeded.

Sam: Listen, Mike, um, I understand you got a situation, but…so do I. I mean, I’m covering for you, but if I lose my pension, you’re gonna be changing my diapers when I’m 95 and drooling.
Michael: Sam, I would never let that happen. I’d smother you with a pillow first.

1.03 Fight or Flight

Summary and spoilers

Michael’s landlord, Oleg, promises 4 month’s free rent if Michael can find out why his best waitress hasn’t left her apartment in a week. Cara, the waitress, witnessed a Lexus owner beat a pizza delivery boy after a car accident. She contacted police with the licence number of the Lexus, and since then, scary guys have been coming around her work, and a dead rat was nailed to her door. She and her daughter Sophie are afraid to leave the apartment.

Meanwhile, Michael infiltrates a conference and gets the name of a delegate whom he believes will have information on who burned him. Michael needs Fiona’s help for this; in exchange, he agrees to ask her mother for his father’s old Dodge Charger.

Michael meets with DeSantos, the man who is terrorizing Cara, but the situation escalates. A hit squad is on the way, but fortunately, Fiona is at Cara’s, and she gets rid of the men by lobbing a couple of Molotov cocktails at them.

Michael shelters Cara and Sophie in his mom’s garage, which he has cleverly turned into a safe house. Meanwhile, he talks to DeSantos’ lawyer, Bruce Gellman. This tactic does not work. Now, there’s a drug cartel-delivered death warrant out on Cara, Sophia, and anyone else who gets in the way.

Comments

Jeffrey Donovan looks a little like Jerry Seinfeld, and his voice has similarities, too. When he delivers lighthearted comedy lines, he sounds even more like him. It’s pleasant.

Burn Notice Quotes

Sam: Oh, c’mon, Mike! You got a sexy cocktail waitress that needs protecting and you send Fiona. What is she – 80 pounds? C’mon, Mike, look at this [flashes modest bicep] – guns of steel.
Michael: Well, I’ll tell you what – if there’s a situation that requires showing off your upper body and boozy flirting, you’re my guy.

Sam: How many were there?
Fiona: I don’t know, four. They took off after cocktail hour.

"Problem with the detonator? [holds up loose wires] I borrowed this when you went to take a leak."
- Michael to assassin

1.02 Identity

Summary and spoilers

Sometime in the past, two men have shown up at Madeline’s house, asking her questions about Michael. Michael also discovers that the house has been under surveillance. Clues exist to discover who is watching, and, more importantly, if they have anything to do with the burn notice. Madeline may have more information, but to get it, Michael must first help Madeline’s elderly neighbor, who was robbed and beaten by con artists. He also has to bring Fiona over for dinner to meet mom, too.

Michael doesn’t have much to work with when he visits the victimized neighbor. Her vague descriptions of the con artists are useless, but she does have one piece of evidence: the prize notice that the cons mailed to her. Michael uses this to track the printer where it was made, and then to find the con artist, Quentin, and his two young apprentices, Greg and Bonnie. Michael scams Quentin to gain his confidence, then tempts him with a moneymaking scheme based on annuities. With help from Sam and Fiona, Michael splits the gang apart, then attacks Quentin alone, grabbing his bank account details and redistributing all the stolen money back to the pensioners from whence it came.

As the show closes, Madeline shares a bit more information – the phone number that the men gave her to call if she heard anything from Michael. Michael calls the number, is told he should stay out of trouble. It looks like he might be under evaluation for some future mystery assignment.

Comments

Although there is some tension between Michael and Madeline, and between Sam and Fiona, for the most part, these people are learning to work together.

This particular episode bears some small resemblance to another one of my favorite television shows, Hustle. Now I can see why Sharon Gless is in the cast. She’s very sincere in her scenes with Michael regarding the theme of family.

Memorable Moments

There’s a cute little homage to Sharon Gless’s former starring role on the long-running TV series Cagney and Lacey when Sam and Fiona reuse those names when posing as detectives.

Burn Notice Quotes

" [voiceover] Sometimes you have to decide just how committed you are to pretending you are who you say you are. [to Quentin] Anyone ever tell you you’re bad at makin’ friends? Paco said you had some issues, but I like to give people a chance. Just the way I am. This is what happens: you’re gonna get us out of here, because I like Miami, and I’m not goin’ back to jail. So if those cops even look at me, we’ll see how many slugs we can put through your liver before they take me down. I’ve got 20 bucks on 4; you wanna take the over or the under?"
- Michael

Michael: Tell me about the men who came to the house.
Madeline: Um, they asked about you – how often you come to Miami, whether you have any friends here, and – they asked if we were close.
Michael: You and me. What did you tell them?
Madeline: I told them that you were the perfect son – that you always wrote me, you called me all the time, and that the most important thing to you was family. I told them that, and they wrote it down.
Michael: Why did you tell them that?
Madeline: I don’t know, Michael. Just seemed nicer than the truth.

Bonnie: It’s that couple that broke into the boat.
Sam: Good afternoon – Miami PD. I’m Detective Cagney, and this is Detective Lacey.

Madeline: Wait! There’s one more thing. Those men who came to the house, asking questions – they gave me this. They asked me to call them should you come to Miami or try to contact me.
Michael: Did you contact them?
Madeline: No, Michael, I did not. Family comes first.

1.01 Pilot

Summary and spoilers

Michael Westen is a covert operations agent who has been burned – cut off, wiped off the grid, no one answers his calls, and his accounts are frozen. Unfortunately, he discovers this while in the midst of negotiating a local peace accord with a violent gang lord in Nigeria. One beating and a quick escape later, he stumbles onto a plane and wakes up in bed in Miami, Florida. Seated next to him is his ex-girlfriend Fiona. Michael is trapped in Miami with no money and no car while FBI agents track his movements. This might be someone’s way of making an example out of him, punishing him, or prepping him for another job, but for now, all he can do is pick up work where he can. He takes a job as an investigator to track down a batch of painting stolen from Mr. Pyne, a rich real estate developer. The main suspect is Javier, a seeming honest caretaker. Through the course of his clever investigation (some of which involves breaking, entering, and safecracking), Michael discovers that Pyne stole the paintings himself for the insurance money.

Comments

My prime motivation for watching and reviewing Burn Notice is what I call actor loyalty. In this case, the actor is Bruce Campbell (Sam Axe), the crown king of cult. My first exposure to Campbell’s chiseled Hollywood-star looks and nonchalant line delivery was in the Evil Dead trilogy, with my favorite being the third in the series, the very loosely coupled and much lighter Army of Darkness (1992). Bruce has put on a little weight, and, in the first episode at least, it’s hard to tell if he’s a bit disinterested or if that’s just the character he is playing, but he also manages to deliver some great lines in his inimitable way. I’m looking forward to him growing into the character.

Likewise, I think the entire cast will improve as they learn their characters and get used to playing off each other. It’s a tough ask for a group of actors to come together and make believe they have known each other for years. Those first few episodes of a television show are always a little choppy in this area, and most shows will improve after about a half-dozen episodes. A clever writer will script the early episodes to give the characters some time to get to know each other. This was done here (perhaps purposely): although Michael has known many of these people for years, he has also been away for years – so if they are a bit uncomfortable and stiff around each other, it makes sense.

Jeffrey Donovan (Michael Westen) brings tremendous poise and charisma to the role. He has to, as he is on camera about 80 percent of the time (at least, in the pilot episode, he is). His swagger, everyman good looks, and cheeky James Coburn-like smile make his perfect to play the role of a spy with a strong moral streak.

I’m not sure how much veteran TV actress Sharon Gless (Cagney and Lacy) will bring to the show as the stereotypical, cloying, annoying, chains-smoking hypochondriac mother.

Fiona (Gabrielle Anwar) is an interesting casting choice. She plays the ex-girlfriend who is also an ex IRA terrorist. Michael was aware of this and was not accepting of her violent side, although I suppose he put up with it in exchange for the passionate sexual relationship that was also part of the deal. It looks like Fiona still has feelings for Michael, and he for her, but he has enough problems to deal with now. Of course, with Michael stuck in Miami indefinitely, there’s no way for him to fully escape from his mother or his ex-girlfriend – or the brother that threw a phone book at him when they last met.

Burn Notice Quotes

"Southern Nigeria isn’t my favorite place in the world. It’s unstable,  it’s corrupt, and the people there eat a lot of terrible-smelling preserved fish."
- Michael

"Point is, blackmail is a little like owning a pit bull. It might protect you, or it might bite your hand off."
- Michael