It isn't that it was bad - it wasn't - it's just that it wasn't what I expected. I mean, you're fresh off a breakout first season and you've been gone an entire year, wouldn't you think you'd want to start out with a bang? Yet the second season premiere of Burn Notice all but ran in place. It was decent, but nothing special.
The worst thing about it was the lack of its trademark humor. The first season played like Dashiell Hammett's Spring Break, with snappy, tongue-in-cheek dialogue, lots of hot bodies, and plenty of light-hearted fun amidst a storm of bullets. If this premiere is any indication, things are going to get heavy - and by "heavy," I mean lots of explosions, lots of car chases, and lots - and lots - of squinting.
Michael Weston just doesn't look right without shades.
We've gone from warm hues and cool pastels across bright beaches to dark interiors and cheap, European fabrics. Michael Weston looked like a fucking coke dealer throughout this entire episode! Further, Sam's humble, Regular Joe persona was played as bumbling comic relief and Fiona was used simply as eye candy. In fact, the only character that stayed true to form was Michael's mother - and that's because she was always an overly-needy sad-sack.
The very, only scene in this episode that played as well as every episode from last season was the closing. Why? Because we saw that patented Michael Weston smirk that imparts the entire character. Up to that point, there was nothing to smirk about!
Burn Notice needs to keep the humor, keep the wit, keep the frothy fun, and downplay the "dark and dangerous world of super-secret spy-types." This episode took itself far too seriously. It reminded me of X-Files when it jumped the shark; I half-expected Cancer Man to pop-out from around one of those dark corners and tell Michael he was an alien.
It's only the second season - do we really need to delve this deep into the backstory this soon? Is the rest of the season going to be this dour?
© C Harris Lynn, 2008
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