'Burn Notice' Returns with Pleasures and Frustrations Intact



A good formula can be a show's salvation. It can also start to seem, after a while, like an albatross.

The flashbacks that 'Lost' employed seemed so clever when the show began. Of course, midway through season 3, they started to grate when they were clearly being used to stall for time. 'Lost' was able to pull out of that slump, though, by changing up the game plan and finding new and different ways to remix and reconfigure its storytelling elements. As the flashes evolved, so did the show.

'Burn Notice,' which returns 10PM ET Thursday on USA, doesn't copy 'Lost's' formula, which a a dozen island experts could never codify even if they wanted to. In any case, 'Burn Notice' is comfortable telling fairly straightforward Robin Hood tales about Michael Westen and his merry little band of justice-dispensers.

Still, as was the case with 'Lost' circa early 2007, a formerly enjoyable central element of the show has begun to feel like a muddled, repetitive afterthought.

'Burn Notice's' ongoing story thread concerns former spy Westen's ongoing attempts to clear his name, and at this point, I can't find it within my heart to care much about any of those burned-spy reindeer games, even though they used to give the show a pleasing boost back in the day. That day feels like a long time ago.

Thanks to the rigidly enforced USA rule that a show's mythology can't be front and center for too long, we've usually gotten the "Who burned Michael" stuff in dribs and drabs over the years. It's all been so piecemeal and lackluster over the last year or so in particular that I'm not even sure who's who and what's what in that realm any more. There's a 'Previously on' segment at the start of Thursday's episode, but it reminds viewers of characters who barely made an impression the first time around.

The problem is, the burned-spy plot has become a labyrinth that doesn't actually have an exit. There's always one more roadblock, one more obstacle, one more task to be checked off a list before Michael's ever-receding redemption can take place. That part of 'Burn Notice' used to give the show higher stakes, but those stakes have drained away the longer it's taken to get to any kind of real payoff -- which seems like it's never coming.

It doesn't add urgency when everyone around Michael can see that he appears to quite like his new life as a freelance problem-solver. Sure, Michael's unrelenting desire to clear his name is a core element of the character, but his new life seems to bring him a certain amount of contentment, if not whatever passes for pleasure in his world. It's beginning to seem like Michael pursues the people who burned him because the show requires him to, not because it still truly matters that much.

Yet it's still quite possible to enjoy an episode of 'Burn Notice,' which, when it clicks in every other arena, can be good fun. When Sam, Michael (Bruce Campbell) and Fi (Gabrielle Anwar) are put through their problem-solving paces in a solid story of the week that features a memorable client and/or villain, there are definitely pleasures to be savored (I'm definitely looking forward to the upcoming episode that features both Jay Karnes and Tim Matheson; Brennen and Larry are the show's most delectable recurring characters). It's usually enjoyable to see Jeffrey Donovan take on a new undercover persona in each episode, and the show's combination of dry humor and meat-and-potatoes action-adventure is often enough to carry the day.

The villain of the week is melodramatic and predictable in Thursday's episode, which also features Jesse, yet another burned spy (one who does not exactly double the pleasure in that department). Still, I can't quite quit 'Burn Notice.' It may not be what it once was, but every season, the show still offers up a some winners. Given how much residual affection I have for this show, that may just about suffice.




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