TV We Like: Burn Notice
Author: Stephen Gerding
July 14th, 2008
USA is home to a handful of TV shows worth watching, to one degree or another. Monk, Psyched and In Plain Sight are all entertaining enough series, though they do all get by more on the charm and charisma of their actors more than they do on the complexity of their plots and innovative storytelling. In short, fun, quality fluff, perfect viewing fodder for the in-between time of the regular television seasons.
It’s interesting to note, then, that USA’s Burn Notice, the one series that feels as though it might feel at home on a major network right alongside House or Law & Order, just debuted it’s second season last week and saw a major bump in viewers. Via Cynopsis:
The second season debut of USA Network’s Burn Notice drew 5.39 million viewers, and a 1.8/6 A18-49 rating, according to Nielsen. Those numbers represent a 35% jump in total viewers over last year and a 20% increase in the key adult demo.
Pretty impressive, but not too surprising. The show’s concept - US spy gets “burned,” decides to find out who screwed him over and helps out local Miami residents in trouble a la Magnum as he goes along, is simple enough to understand. Like the other USA shows, the cast is insanely charismatic - Bruce freakin’ Campbell is the sidekick - but the writing is actually a notch above the show’s network siblings. In fact, a few tweaks here and there to the direction, and I could see Burn Notice on a network like FX or even HBO, to be honest. Either way, BN = more than solid, genuinely quality summer TV viewing - watch it.
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2 Responses to “TV We Like: Burn Notice”
July 14th, 2008 at 8:06 am
For those that are old enough to remember, is it just me or has USA created a new renaissance of cheesy but entertaining tv shows?
Kind of like the heyday of the late 70’s-early 80’s (Rockford Files, Hart to Hart, Starsky & Hutch, CHiPs, etc). Things never get too serious or tense, people die but it’s never the main characters and things are usually wrapped up by the end of the episode, except for the occasional 2-part special. Whatever it is, I like it.
July 14th, 2008 at 7:56 pm
This show I can almost say with certainty is getting its juice from Bit Torrent - who has USA anyways?
OK big props for casting Bruce Campbell and the still slinky Gabrielle Anwar who I gushed over in the 90’s. And I love the lead (he was the dick in Hitch) and a fun premise…
John Galt is right it feels very 80’s to me, which is part of its charm - the Miami backgrounds are great too. The first season started off strong but kind of ran out of ideas towards the end - I know its called Burn Notice but if that is the only secret of the show its really One Notice.
I’ll tune in for the next few and see where it goes.