Burn Notice

Burn Notice is an American television series created by Matt Nix. The show stars Jeffrey Donovan, Gabrielle Anwar, Bruce Campbell, Sharon Gless, and, beginning in the fourth season, Coby Bell. The series premiered on June 28, 2007, on USA Network. On April 15, 2010, the show was renewed for its fifth and sixth seasons. The fifth season of Burn Notice will start on June 23, 2011.

Plot

The series title refers to the burn notices issued by intelligence agencies to discredit or announce the dismissal of agents or sources who are considered to have become unreliable. When spies are burned, their connection to an espionage organization is terminated, leaving them without access to cash or influence. According to the narration during the opening credits, the burned spy has no prior work history, no money, no support network — in essence, no identity. The television series uses first-person narrative (including frequent voice-overs providing exposition) from the viewpoint of covert-operations agent Michael Westen, played by Jeffrey Donovan. The voice-over commentary is in the form of tips for fledgling agents as if for a training or orientation film.

After fleeing a blown operation in Nigeria and being kidnapped and beaten, Westen finds himself in his hometown of Miami, Florida. He is tended to by his ex-girlfriend, Fiona Glenanne, but he has been abandoned by all his normal intelligence contacts and is under continuous surveillance with his personal assets frozen. Extraordinary efforts to reach his U.S. government handler eventually yield only a grudging admission that someone powerful wants him "on ice" in Miami. If he leaves there, he will be hunted down and taken into custody; whereas, if he stays, he can remain relatively free. Consumed by the desire to find out why he has been burned, and by whom, Westen is reluctantly drawn into working as an unlicensed private investigator and problem solver for ordinary citizens to fund his personal investigation into his situation as a blacklisted agent.

Westen invites his old friend Sam Axe to assist him, while Fiona invites herself to join them. With the occasional assistance and sometimes hindrance of his mother, Madeline, Westen battles an array of such criminal figures as mobsters, con artists, arms traffickers, kidnappers, money launderers, and drug traffickers. At the same time, Michael must follow the trail that leads him to the people responsible for his being burned, and later finding out why.

The series juggles these two narratives; the overall series dealing with why Michael was burned, and individual episodes focusing on the cases he works for clients.

Cast

The cast of Burn Notice.

left to right: Sharon Gless as Madeline Westen, Bruce Campbell as Sam Axe, Jeffrey Donovan as Michael Westen, Gabrielle Anwar as Fiona Glenanne

Jeffrey Donovan as Michael Westen: A covert operative who has been burned (identified as an unreliable or dangerous agent) who now finds himself in his hometown of Miami, unable to leave. With his assets frozen, he is forced to live off his wits and any small investigative jobs he can find while he searches for answers about who has burned him and why. Highly skilled and extremely clever, he can think on his feet, often improvising electronic devices and using ordinary items ranging from duct tape to cake frosting in highly unorthodox ways in order to complete a job. He has two black belts (or, as he puts it in one episode, "thirty years of karate") and is "rated with anything that fires a bullet or holds an edge." He has an uncanny ability to assume cover identities, working in numerous regional dialects and international accents. He believes that his unhappy childhood, largely at the hands of an abusive father, has helped to make him into a natural covert operative while also making close relationships difficult for him. He has a younger brother, Nate (Seth Peterson), who appears in several episodes. He presents himself as a cynic hardened by experience but occasionally reveals a soft, and sometimes vulnerable, side. His favorite food is yogurt, which is featured (or eaten by at least one of the characters) in each episode. He has a volatile relationship with Fiona romantically.

Gabrielle Anwar as Fiona Glenanne: A former IRA operative and Westen's ex-girlfriend. Fiona re-enters Michael's life when he is dumped in Miami and she decides to stay, quickly making herself valuable to him. Aside from serving as his explosives expert, she provides support to him on his investigations and, at times, assists him in missions to find out who burned him. In the pilot episode, she speaks with an Irish accent. In the second episode, she changes to an American accent, along with a change in her style of dress, in an effort to distance herself from her past and blend in, showing her own ability to adapt. She is both a complement to Michael and his match in many ways, both intellectually and tactically. Series creator Matt Nix has said about Michael and Fiona's relationship:

“ The thing about the relationship with Fiona is...They are two people who really don't have anybody else they can be with. Anybody else is going to be afraid of what Michael does, and it sort of turns her on, and anybody else for Michael is going to be uninteresting. He is attracted to her, but part of what we explore over the first season is they really are attracted with each other, and yet there is a reason they broke up. She is an incredibly chaotic person who just thrives on disorder...Violence is foreplay for her. ”

Where Michael is concerned, Fiona is not entirely willing to let go of their past relationship, which continues to simmer. In the latter half of season three, it is shown that the two of them are close to reigniting their relationship.

Bruce Campbell as Sam Axe: An aging, semi-retired covert operative and former Navy SEAL. With a low amount of cash-on-hand to his name, Sam spends most of his time sleeping with rich, older Miami women in exchange for food and shelter. He and Westen are old buddies; Sam is also Westen's last, tenuous contact in the official spy community. He presents himself as "the guy who knows a guy," and Michael frequently relies on Sam's seemingly inexhaustible list of contacts. Sam also uses the alias "Charles (or 'Chuck') Finley" frequently during jobs. It is revealed in the pilot that he is also an FBI informant, reporting on Westen under duress. Knowing this, Westen is able to pass false information to the FBI through Sam, who is glad to become his double agent. At some point in the past, Sam foiled Fiona's attempt to sell a large shipment of weapons to a Libyan arms dealer, costing her a good deal of money. As a result, Fiona initially is very hostile towards him, but the two eventually become very antagonistic friends. Sam will occasionally ask her for advice concerning his relationships with women, and Michael has said that the two of them make a good team.

Sharon Gless as Madeline Westen: Michael's mother, "Maddie" is a chain-smoking retiree. Although attempting to keep a sense of gravitas and self-importance, she is family-oriented and fully supports both of her sons in times of need, as well as helping Michael with his clients. In the mid-season finale of the third season, she considers leaving Miami, but realizes her significance to his business. Until recently, she has had only infrequent communication with Michael, noting in the pilot that Michael has missed his father's funeral "by eight years." Michael does not relish her company. Despite this, her appeals for help are Michael's one great weakness, and she has the ability to persuade him to do as she wishes.

Coby Bell as Jesse Porter (season 4–present): A counterintelligence expert whom Michael unwittingly burns in the Season Four premiere. Michael accidentally burned him when he went looking for some classified files on a terrorist that Jesse had information on. It was Vaughn's plan to have him burned by Michael so that they could extract the information he had by any means necessary, but Michael declines, saying that "he'll get it his way." Jesse subsequently comes asking for Michael's help, not knowing that it was he and Vaughn who burned him in the first place. Michael initially declines, but subsequently does help him as a client to take care of a criminal named Khan who was trying to kill Jesse. After Khan is out of the picture, Jesse joins Michael's team, hoping to find and kill the ones responsible for burning him. He briefly considers killing Michael, after discovering it was Michael who burned him. He grudgingly continues to work with the team, but states that it is only to "do what is right," not because of any loyalty to Michael or the others. However, eventually Michael's mother tricks Michael and Jesse into sitting down with each other and they make up as friends again.

Prequel and tie-in novels

A prequel movie based on Sam Axe set before the events of Burn Notice titled "Burn Notice: The Fall of Sam Axe", was recently produced. The movie, broadcast on USA on April 17, 2011, tells the story of Sam's days in the Navy SEALs leading up to him going to Miami, and will serve as a lead-in to the fifth season of Burn Notice. Jeffrey Donovan directed the film and has a cameo appearance. The cast includes Chandra West, RonReaco Lee, Kiele Sanchez and John Diehl. West plays Donna, Sam's love interest. Diehl plays Sam's commander, Rear Admiral Lawrence, Lee plays Field Medic Ben Delaney, and Sanchez a humanitarian who doesn't trust Sam. Filming began in January 2011 in Bogota, Colombia.

Since 2008, Signet Books has published a series of Burn Notice novelizations under their Obsidian imprint:

Title Author ISBN Publication date

The Fix Tod Goldberg 0-451-22554-6 August 5, 2008

The End Game 0-451-22676-3 May 5, 2009

The Giveaway 0-451-22979-7 July 6, 2010

The Reformed 0-451-23200-3 January 4, 2011

The Bad Beat 0-451-23409-X July 5, 2011

Production

The show is filmed on location in and around Miami, Florida. The show has a permanent set built in the former Coconut Grove Convention Center in Miami's Coconut Grove neighborhood where most of the show is filmed.

Awards

The pilot episode written by Matt Nix won a 2008 Edgar Allan Poe Award, honoring the best in mystery, in the category "Best Television Episode Teleplay". David Raines, Scott Clements and Sherry Klein were nominated for "Outstanding Sound Mixing for a Comedy or Drama Series" for Burn Notice Series (One-Hour) at the 60th Primetime Emmy Awards in 2008. Composer John Dickson won 2008 and 2009 ASCAP Film and Television Music Awards for "Top TV Series". Craig S. O'Neill and Jason Tracey were nominated for a 2009 Writers Guild of America, USA award for "Episodic Drama" (episode "Double Booked"). In 2010, the show received its first Emmy Award nomination for acting, as Sharon Gless was nominated for an Emmy in the category of "Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama". Burn Notice has also been nominated for Favorite TV Obsession at the 37th Peoples Choice Awards.