Spies don't get fired; they get burned. Michael Westen receives a "burn notice" while on assignment in Nigeria. Dumped in his Miami hometown with no money or resources to his name, Michael works as a freelance spy/private investigator to fund his investigation into who burned him and why.
Spoiler: 4x01: "Friends and Enemies" To stop an impending terrorist threat, Michael is drawn into a rather dubious alliance. He also helps Sam and Fiona run interference between a lawyer and lawless biker gang.
Well the biker gang case was pretty lame, and they sure wasted a Michael Ironside appearance, but hopefully the actual spy plot goes somewhere. Looks like they also added a fifth name to the main cast list (the guy who Michael got burned).
God, I hope next week's episode has more going for it. I agree the biker plot was pathetic but then so was the arms dealer plot. What a waste. Seasons 1 and 2 are the only ones I've enjoyed. I guess all I can do is hope someone rehires the old writers.
Some of the biker stuff was a bit...lame, frankly, and yes, they completely wasted (no pun intended) Michael Ironside's appearance. However, there were some things set up in this one that look like they will pay off interestingly in the next episode. This, overall, was just average, but I think it was clearly just set up for what's to come.
At the beginning I was hoping for a whole "mythology"-episode with Michael and his new friend, then came the robin hood plot of the week with the poor man's biker gang (has none of the writers ever seen an episode of Sons of Anarchy?)... meh. I guess the show is just too episodic for me which is a shame because I love all of the characters.
I really liked the episode actually. And I like the character of Vaughn, I think they could do a lot with him revealing info to Michael over the course of the season. The double mac10 scene was awesome.
Didn't catch today's episode yet, but the last one... yeech. This is the first time I've ever not finished an episode of Burn Notice. Just terrible in almost every way possible. I'm starting to get the feeling that maybe this show is done.
This one was leaps and bounds better than the season premiere, but it's probably something they can't and won't do every week. Granted, it was the formula -- 90% job, 10% spy burn stuff -- only the job was also spy stuff. So they definitely won't be able to maintain the high of this episode.
Good episode. I hope having Jesse around means more spy burn stuff, 4 seasons in I'm getting impatient when it comes to that story arc...
I think we're going to see more spy stuff too. We're seeing Vaughn with all sort of interactions with Michael and I think the encounter with Sam Fisher in the premiere shows that Michael can still hold his own in the field and they'll be using them a bunch. Sure looks like Jesse is involved if you watch the previews for this week's episode.s My problem with that would be that I'm not sure how much they can keep Sam and Fi around if it;s all Mike trying to get back from being burned...I thought they were both on point in the season premiere.
The more they talk about renditioning people into secret offshore prisons, the more it reminds us of real world villainy. It make Mike a disgusting human being for wanting to get back into the game. This is particularly true since there isn't a shred of evidence that Mike's commando shenanigans, as opposed to actual intelligence collection and analysis, has ever done anything except cause misery to its victims and blowback damage to the US. Going further down that road isn't attractive.
Spoiler: 4x03: "Made Man" When dangerous mobsters threaten a port worker, Michael takes on the case. With Jesse, Michael also looks for intel on an underground-artillery operation.
Hmm. I'm interested to see how things work out with Jesse. I'm assuming at some point Jesse will figure out or be told that Michael is the one who burned him.
Normally I don't mind the larger mythology storylines each season, but this one isn't really doing much for me. "We've got to find out who released Simon" just doesn't seem all that compelling a mission to me so far. Although the idea of Michael being teamed up with another burned spy does have potential, so hopefully that will be a bit more interesting...
The last time he teamed up with a burned spy was Michael Shanks. Have any of the villains from the standalone job episodes ever come back? Because this seems like the perfect guy who would return to seek revenge on Sam.
There was that one white-haired guy from the airport hanger---can't remember his name. And then there was Larry, the Tim Matheson character. He was in two episodes, I think, but not back to back. They need to have another baddie come back for vengeance. Miami isn't THAT big, after all. It would only make sense that some people would eventually come looking for him.