I hate the heat and I mean HATE..THE...HEAT but yet I love how hot the weather is in Burn Notice, which is set in Miami, and is depicted so colorfully and as if it's its own character. It follows Michael Weston, who is/was a spy. And apparently an excellent spy at that and for reasons yet unknown to him and us, got a "burn notice" which means he's ousted completely. No bank account, no means to support himself, no passport, no job history, no records of anything, no nothing! His first love is being a spy, so he has an ongoing project of getting back in, having his burn notice revoked; trying to clear his name (as he was falsely accused of being a dirty spy).
The supporting characters just charm me, what can I say? His on/off girlfriend, Fiona, is an arms and explosives expert (and once an asset when Michael was a spy whom he obviously crossed the line from professional to personal). She loves him but his first love is being a spy, so she lives a less than contented life trying to help him become a spy again. There's his best friend Sam and any of you B movie lovers will recognize actor Bruce Campbell who is such a doll in this. He's a former CIA colleague, retired but has a lot of enforcement buddies who he can call on for inside info and secret files at any whim, it seems. Sam always has a way with the ladies. And probably the biggest scene stealer is Madelene ("Maddy") played by the formidable Sharon Gless. She's a chain-smoking, tell it like it is and glamorous mother to Michael (and his younger brother who has a recurring role). Seems Maddy kept the family together in spite of Michael's dad being physical abuse and maintains that their family life was happy. Michael would NEVER have actually lived in the same city as her (or the same country) had he not been burned and it's been interesting watching their touch-and-go relationship develop as they've helped each other and slowly grown closer.
So what do a gifted yet burned spy, an ex-IRA arms and explosives expert and a retired CIA agent with contacts in law enforcement and who can charm any woman have in common? They all have a distinct moral code and find themselves week to week helping out clients who need things done outside the law or on the down-low, all set in amazing Miami. Michael's a man "who will see what he can do" which means he'll take on a case, such as: running the evil mafia out of ghetto (so the nicer mafia can keep peace), finding scam artists who take advantage of the elderly and destroying them or trying to rescue kidnap victims and setting the kidnappers up to be busted by the cops.
This show just rolls over you like the warm water if you were sunning yourself on the white beaches of Miami itself. Plots are easy to follow, characters are ones you can get behind and find amusing (the clients can be so quirky) and there's TONS of actions; explosions, combat, fighting, battles. And what I find intriguing is the voice-over that we hear (done by the actor who plays Michael) explaining the trade secrets of being a spy as we see the team constructing undetectable listening devices, how to make explosions fake but look real and you get a real "ohhhh, that's how they do it (well how they supposedly do it, this is TV after all).
I think...if you like action, sun and engaging characters along with plots that aren't too hard to follow which include comic highlights, dramatic climaxes and sweet moments, then Burn Notice is worth trying out. Oh and it's in season 3 now and I'm not tired of it, not yet!
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