JeffreyDonovan-related stories
Posted Aug 10th 2009 3:02PM by Allison Waldman
Filed under: Industry, Ratings, Reality-Free, Burn Notice
A lot of times, the news about ratings isn't good. Or not good enough, so shows that you care about have to hope for the kindness of TV executives to give that show more time to improve or find a new time slot or something ... just to survive. That's why it's such a pleasure that
Burn Notice did great in the ratings for the summer season finale last Thursday. According to the numbers, 7.6 million total viewers were glued to the set, the most eyeballs for any scripted TV shows that night.
Continue reading Great news for Burn Notice
Posted Aug 7th 2009 1:43AM by Allison Waldman
Filed under: Episode Reviews, Reality-Free, Burn Notice
(S03E09) Wow! Talk about a powerful finale. There were a lot of plot points and emotional issues addressed, and if you had any question about Michael's true loyalty, this show answered it.
Burn Notice goes on hiatus -- is that what they call it? -- till the winter, and it's going to be a long rest of the summer and fall waiting for the story to resume. There was change in the air, what with Michael inching closer to a return to the CIA -- or so it seemed. More on all that and the blistering finale after the jump.
Continue reading Burn Notice: Long Way Back (summer finale)
Posted Jul 31st 2009 2:32PM by Bob Sassone
Filed under: Sports, Celebrities, Reality-Free
They've had Seth Green, Shaq, and ZZ Top already, and now
Monday Night RAW has another special guest this Monday. Guess who.
a. Jeremy Piven
b. Jeffrey Donovan
c. Dule Hill
d. Jeff Goldblum
e. Anthony Bourdain
The answer.
Posted Jul 31st 2009 3:02AM by Allison Waldman
Filed under: Episode Reviews, Reality-Free, Burn Notice
(S03E08) In the latest Michael adventure, our hero was hell-bent on getting back into intelligence work – nothing new, really. However, that meant dancing with Strickler, a foxtrot that Fiona was reluctant to take part in ...
More on Fiona's vulnerabilities after the jump. Meanwhile, another job popped up when Barry, money launderer and occasional member of the Michael troupe of operatives, called in all his favors and became the client.
Continue reading Burn Notice: Friends Like These
Posted Jul 29th 2009 12:03PM by Jason Hughes
Filed under: Other Drama Shows, Pickups and Renewals, Reality-Free, Burn Notice
USA has to be rather pleased. Last week, the
top rated show on cable was Burn Notice. And their newest series
Royal Pains is hanging in there impressively in fourth place, creating a powerful Thursday night lineup. As a reward, word has it that
USA has renewed both Burn Notice and Royal Pains.
I first fell into
Royal Pains because I have this bizarre fascination with the Hamptons. I hadn't even heard of it until a few years ago, and now it's just fascinating to me. Here's a place full of people I will never get to mingle with, living and partying somewhere that I will never go. It's
Lifestyles of the Rich & Famous with a plot.
Burn Notice I've not watched because I didn't jump in when it first started (regular readers may remember that I have a thing about that), though I should probably just get over it and check it out. It has Bruce Campbell in it, and he's always a blast and I've heard nothing but good things about it. Regardless, it's more good news for cable broadcasting while the networks keep crying away the summer.
Posted Jul 24th 2009 10:02AM by Allison Waldman
Filed under: Episode Reviews, Reality-Free, Burn Notice
(S03E07) Burn Notice usually stays on the fun side of spying. This episode was all about getting back to doing a Robin Hood job, and since it tapped into Michael's psychology so perfectly, it added a good dollop of emotion to the fun.
And there was also that preview from last week that left fans gasping. Was one of the gang of three going down? Fortunately, in the world of spoilers and such, if that were true it would have been all over the net. Fortunately, it was all part of the con. More on that after the jump.
Continue reading Burn Notice: Shot in the Dark
Posted Jul 17th 2009 7:55AM by Allison Waldman
Filed under: Episode Reviews, Reality-Free, Burn Notice
(S03E06) It seems like this season of
Burn Notice has been all about friends and family. You know, like the cell phone deal. Michael has been relying more and more on family -- and yes, that means Fiona and Sam to me -- and picking up new friends week in and week out. As Michael has pointed out a few times, he's more valuable as a friend than an enemy. By the time we reach the end of the summer, Michael may have to throw a party to celebrate the new friendships he's made.
We also now know what can stop Michael Westen in his tracks; a Taser to the neck. Yes, for one of the few times, bad guys got the jump on Michael and he was snatched.
Continue reading Burn Notice: The Hunter
Posted Jul 10th 2009 10:08AM by Allison Waldman
Filed under: Episode Reviews, Reality-Free, Burn Notice
(S03E05) Michael Weston met Michael Westen. How cool was it that
Burn Notice cast actor Michael Weston -- remember him as the private eye who helped
House last year? As a psycho/math genius/code breaker/pattern spotter named Spencer Witawski, he was sort of a detective here, too, good enough to have tracked down Michael and become the latest client.
As integral episodes go, this was a major one. Major for Michael and his desire to return to government work and major for the status of Fiona and Michael's relationship. And did I mention that it was a major league great show, too? More after the jump.
Continue reading Burn Notice: Signals and Codes
Posted Jun 26th 2009 9:33AM by Allison Waldman
Filed under: Episode Reviews, Reality-Free, Burn Notice
(S03E04) That pesky
Detective Paxson of the Miami PD continued to be a thorn in Michael's side, to the point that Michael decided it was time to extract her from his life. To get Paxson -- one royal pain in the butt who doesn't believe that Michael's one of the good guys -- Michael concocts a plan to help her close her case against Rick Matheson, a real bad guy.
Matheson was a one-note Rock look-alike, without Dwayne Johnson's charm. Mostly Matheson was a scumbag who deserved to be brought down.
Tommy, on the other hand, wasn't really a nasty moke. He was broadly hammed up by former
NYPD Blue star Nick Turturro, and turned out to be Michael's way into Matheson's organization.
Continue reading Burn Notice: Fearless Leader
Posted Jun 12th 2009 9:40AM by Allison Waldman
Filed under: Episode Reviews, Reality-Free, Burn Notice
(S03E02) I love Sam Axe, which is another way of saying
Bruce Campbell makes watching
Burn Notice a pleasure. Especially an episode like this one that was all about the chemistry between Sam and Mike when working undercover on a case with a nut job criminal intent on leaving Michael swimming in a pool of his own blood.
It's not just Sam that keeps me coming back for more from this show, or the tense but compelling subtext between Fiona and Michael's "is it love?" relationship. By and large,
Burn Notice is smart TV. It shows me scenes I haven't seen before on other shows or on the big screen. More on the specifics after the jump, so if you don't want to know because you haven't watched yet, be warned.
Continue reading Burn Notice: Question and Answer
Posted Jun 5th 2009 10:27AM by Allison Waldman
Filed under: Episode Reviews, Reality-Free, Burn Notice
(S03E01) You knew from
last season's finale that Michael taking the plunge into the Atlantic from a helicopter, thus turning down an offer to work with Management in some organized ops position, he was taking a big chance. The leap was a metaphor and the danger for Michael Westen was about to increase exponentially.
Well, in this opening episode, it's clear that creator
Matt Nix has upped the volume for
Burn Notice. In
Spinal Tap terms, we're at eleven, and that's more than ten. For Michael, a five-mile ocean swim in suit pants was just the kind of discomfort trained operatives have to learn to endure. When he landed on Miami Beach, one of the busy, bikini-clad girls and kids making sand castle types, he was all in. But no rest for the weary. In short order, Michael was on the run and in a world of trouble.
Continue reading Burn Notice: Friends and Family (season premiere)
Posted Feb 6th 2009 10:13AM by Allison Waldman
Filed under: Episode Reviews, Reality-Free, Burn Notice
(S02E12) "That's the thing about spies. You never know who they are." -- Michael
Michael Westen with money troubles? Boy, now you really know how bad the economy is when a burned super spy has to dig up a job to keep himself in Armani suits. Actually, I thought it was a refreshing change of pace that Michael actively pursued an assignment rather than just wait for somebody to come along -- to Sam or Madeline or Fiona -- who needs help that seemingly only Michael can provide.
What was weird is that for much of the episode, the case was much less important than the subtext between Fiona and Michael. This is an interesting development and so different from other classic TV pairings. Watching Fiona and Michael you don't wonder if they'll ever do it, because they've done it. No, you wonder what the heck does it mean and how do they deal with the emotions stirred up by Fiona's near death and Michael's reaction to possibly losing her?
Continue reading Burn Notice: Seek and Destroy
Posted Jan 30th 2009 10:29AM by Allison Waldman
Filed under: Episode Reviews, Reality-Free, Burn Notice
(S02E11) "The one who burned you is closer than you think." -- Fiona
A year ago, the idea of anybody doing anything for a pair of 50-yard line tickets to watch the Miami Dolphins play football would have been a joke. Fortunately for
Burn Notice, the Fins won the AFC East and are relevant again. Therefore, Sam's Good Samaritan act -- which got a major boost when Fiona got involved -- had a decent payoff, beyond the idea of them doing something nice for a friend.
Were you thinking
Men in Black when you saw Fiona, Sam and Michael in their uniform black suits complete with sunglasses and heavy weaponry? They really do find a way to make the three of them seem like a much more formidable force. Even more than the old
Mission: Impossible team, Michael, Fiona and Sam are like the IMF trio deluxe, with each of them more than able to handle adversity. More on that adversity after the jump.
Continue reading Burn Notice: Hot Spot
Posted Sep 19th 2008 8:01AM by Paul Goebel
Filed under: Episode Reviews, Reality-Free, Burn Notice
(S02E09) "What do you see up there? A mastermind petting a Persian cat?" - Sam Axe
So , as you might expect from the finale, Michael is very close to solving one of this season's mysteries. It seems the only missing pieces of the puzzle are who is the sniper's target and does Michael want to save them?
I can only imagine that the target would have to be a really bad person in order for Michael to overcome his inflated savior complex. If Osama Bin Laden ends up as a passenger on the ferry, he'll probably let the hit go down. Anyone else, however, is going to have to be a game day call.
Continue reading Burn Notice: Good Soldier (summer finale)
Posted Jul 20th 2008 2:27PM by Allison Waldman
Filed under: TV on DVD, Reality-Free, Burn Notice
I'd like to think that I'm the kind of person that gets in on cool things at the start, you know? There's just something about jumping on the bandwagon that's less attractive than being able to say, "Oh, yes. I was into that from day one." So, while I can proudly declare that I was a charter member of the
Mad Men audience, I was late to
Burn Notice. I missed the boat on
Burn Notice, okay! There, I said it.
Fortunately for me, I've had the chance to catch up. I even got to
visit the set. The USA Network rebroadcasts and occasional marathons have helped -- hooray for DVRs -- but I really think it was the
Burn Notice Season One DVD set that filled in all the blanks. Reasonably priced and recently released, the set has become one of my favorites, as had the tale of Michael Westen, professional spy who has been inexplicably fired -- burned -- and dumped in Miami. There's a lot to like in this show, and in this DVD set.
Continue reading Burn Notice Season One - DVD Review
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