The latest season of USA Networks hit show Burn Notice starteed last night. All the characters that we love are back, as is the main theme of the show. But somehow there seems to be something off.
The episode was the usual mix of Michael Westen (Jeffrey Donovan) going out to help some innocent from criminals that only care about money and a longer arcing background issue. In the first season that issue was finding out who burned him and ended his career as a spy. In the next season it was Westen trying to get back into the spy biz. Now its some unknown radical mecenary that wants to use Westen for some unknown reason or else all of the friends and family of Westen will go bye bye.
The concept is solid enough. It adds a flavor of danger and imminent need. But maybe its a touch too much like season 2 to feel original.
Let's leave that for the moment. The episode at hand had a woman whose husband was killed in a car insurance scam. He was doing it because the family needed money badly. Now the bad guys are thretening the family that if they don't sue the city, and hand over any restitutions, well you can imagine what will happen.
The team goes to work and with a mix of good timing, bad timing, and a touch of over the top acting (on purpose) the bad guys are outwitted in their own game. The only difference this time is that Westen's mother (Sharon Gless) was drawn into the plan. And in this she ws forced to act like the operatives that everyone else on the team has been. That means that a budding friendship was destroyed, and in terms without question, while placing this innocent's (Tyne Daly) job at risk.
But by the end of the episode all has worked out for the best. Even the relationship between Michael and his mother improves after he arranges things to ensure that his mother's former new asset friend will not lose her job.
And then we learn that the mysterious figure has a plan that Michael Westen and crew must do. The plan, and exactly who this is is still not clear. But it just feels so much like Carla at that arc's start.
In fact the whole episode felt like something I'd seen before. The actors seemed somewhat bored. It was nothing blatant or easily identified, but over the episode you just felt like this was all done before. It wasn't the usual crisp pace and more or less intense acting. It was just there.
Still there have been bad episodes in this series before. The writting has dropped off and an arc has had missteps before it became a interesting foreground storyline. But the question remains if season 4 is just after the peak of the show. Did it jump the shark by saving Fiona (a still too thin Gabrielle Anwar) and killing (literally) Westen's chance at getting back into the official operative world?
As a fan I won't judge the series yet. As a ctitic I have my doubts at what might be next. Either way, the next 2 or 3 episodes at the most will likely reveal what state the show is now in and what future it might have.
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