Burn Notice – Worth Watching

Written by Brent SmithcloseAuthor: brentsmith Name: Brent Smith
Email: brentasmith@gmail.com
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About: See Authors Posts (1) on July 22, 2009

Have you decided you don’t want to donate one second of your time to watching “The Philanthropist?”  And do you think a better Speidi vehicle might be a show named “I’m a Douche Bag Leave Me Here?”  Well it’s time to take some advice from Reverend Jackson and keep hope alive.

No, NBC Universal is not adding anything interesting to the seemingly bottomless cesspool of idiocy that is their network primetime lineup, but, after all, that’s why we shell out 80 bucks a month for cable.  On NBC Universal’s cable vehicle, USA Network, they may have actually found the right formula.

One of my favorite genres of storytelling in any medium is the espionage thriller.  The potential always exists for an exciting story, a thrilling good versus evil match up, and one bad mother of a protagonist.  However, it is all too often this story is corrupted by the anti-military worldview of writers, directors and producers.

While certain exceptions exist, the novelist Vince Flynn comes to mind, many times the storytellers present us with a view of the CIA and its clandestine employees not as patriots doing what it takes to protect their country, but as self-serving egotistical monsters desperately trying to enrich themselves at the expense of the people they’ve sworn to protect.

Whether it’s CIA case officers concocting assassination projects like Treadstone and Blackbriar in the Bourne trilogy, staging a terrorist attack and framing someone for it a la the Russell Crowe character in “Body of Lies,” or ineptly kidnapping and torturing the wrong man in “Rendition,” the message is clear: CIA bad.   But one new television show in particular is actually giving us another perspective.

“Burn Notice” is currently one of the hottest, most watched shows on cable.  It’s about a spy named Michael Westen (played by the very likable Jeffrey Donovan, well, at least likeable until he got that DUI yesterday – ed.) who after years of service in the CIA was involuntarily retired, a.k.a. burned, and dropped off in his hometown of Miami with no money, credit or job history.

Our main character is not without a support system.  The show’s supporting cast includes Michael’s ex-girlfriend Fiona Glennanne, a form IRA soldier who’d rather get detonators and C4 than a dozen roses, Sam Axe, a resourceful former Navy SEAL with a passion for beer, mojitos and wealthy older women, and Michael’s chain-smoking mother, Madeline, who can provide comic relief and show us that our super spy is can be a regular human being.  In each episode, Michael actually uses the skills and abilities he acquired in his former job to help good people in his community who have found themselves in bad situations.
Therein lies what I believe is the key to the show’s popularity.  While it has plenty of exciting action, humor and a good cast, having a main character who is a likable clandestine operative is the most refreshing aspect.

From time to time Michael does run into his share of shady characters from his past life.  The spy business can be a dirty one. When your main objective is to lie, cheat, kill and steal in the name of your country, no one should expect all the operatives to be boy scouts.  In fact our hero often accomplishes his goals via less-than-legal means, and in the newest season has ended up on the wrong side of the law for doing so.

The difference is he isn’t willing to sacrifice his principles, his friends, family or his country to succeed. The message is clear that Westen would rather continue his meager existence and find a way to get back into the service of his country than become an unsavory mercenary working for whatever drug cartel or rogue nation that could enter the highest bid.

Some people might say that “Burn Notice” presents an unrealistic and idealistic view of an individual involved in the clandestine arts.  But is it any more unrealistic to think there are good people in the spy world than it is to think they are all cold-blooded monsters?

Regardless of the psychological makeup of the real officers in the CIA it is unfair to draw any conclusions about them based on a movie or TV show.  However, if you like to be entertained and hold out hope there are some good “bad” men out there, do yourself a favor and tune in to “Burn Notice” Thursday nights at 9pm on USA Network.