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Burn Notice: Difference between revisions
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[[File:BurnNotice.jpg|frame|I'll need a few cell phones, some C4 and my sunglasses.]]
{{quote|''My name is Michael Westen. I used to be a spy, until..."We've got a [[Title Drop|burn notice]] on you. You're blacklisted." When you're burned, you've got nothing: no cash, no credit, no job history. You're stuck in [[Miami|whatever city they decide to dump you in]]. You do whatever work comes your way. You rely on anyone who's still talking to you: a [[Trigger Happy]] ex-girlfriend; an [[Old Friend]] who used to inform on you to the FBI; family too -- [[Anything But That|if you're desperate]]. Bottom line: As long as you're burned, you're not going anywhere.''
|'''[[Opening Narration]]'''}}
''
▲{{quote|''My name is Michael Westen. I used to be a spy, until..."We've got a [[Title Drop|burn notice]] on you. You're blacklisted." When you're burned, you've got nothing: no cash, no credit, no job history. You're stuck in [[Miami|whatever city they decide to dump you in]]. You do whatever work comes your way. You rely on anyone who's still talking to you: a [[Trigger Happy]] ex-girlfriend; an [[Old Friend]] who used to inform on you to the FBI; family too -- [[Anything But That|if you're desperate]]. Bottom line: As long as you're burned, you're not going anywhere.''|'''[[Opening Narration]]'''}}
▲'''''Burn Notice''''' is a [[USA Network]] original series which debuted in 2007. Jeffrey Donovan stars as series protagonist Michael Westen (no, not [[wikipedia:Michael Weston|that one]]), an American spy who has been blacklisted by the government (the titular "[[wikipedia:Burn notice (document)|burn notice]]"). Michael's burn notice happens right in the midst of a covert mission; he barely escapes, passes out on a plane, and eventually wakes up in Miami. Michael is lucky, though: he has family, friends, and an old girlfriend there.
Michael doesn't have any money or income, and he can't exactly get a job recommendation from his former employers -- to make ends meet, he reluctantly accepts clients from around the Miami area and works to help them with their problems under the table. These problems usually involve saving said clients from various life-threatening situations, mostly of the "good guy gets deep in debt to bad guys" variety. While these tasks take up the majority of an episode, time is also spent on Michael's various attempts to figure out who in the government burned him (and why), as well as his interpersonal relationships with his friends and family.
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** The congressman Maddie blackmailed in "Past and Future Tense".
* [[Choke Holds]]: Michael Westen is adept at the blood choke. His victims rarely cry out, but they rarely have time. It's almost his signature move for taking out people who don't deserve injury.
* [[CIA Evil, FBI Good]]: Subverted. We at first think that the CIA is evil because of Michael being burned. But in later seasons heroic CIA operatives and [[Reasonable Authority Figure
* [[Clear My Name]]: The new plot since {{spoiler|Michael's [[Artifact Title|Burn Notice]] was lifted}}.
* [[Cliff Hanger]]: The focus is on the [[Myth Arc]], with only one two-part [[Villain of the Week]] episode.
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* [[Companion Cube]]: In the S3 summer finale, anyone else feel a stab of fear when {{spoiler|Mike asks Sam for the keys to the Buick?}}
* [[Confusion Fu]]: Frequently used by Michael to get that split second advantage when someone has a gun on him or is otherwise threatening someone. Telling someone the safety is still on, that his (not-)girlfriend is pregnant or starting to talk about cat magazines are good ways to temporarily sow confusion.
* [[Con Crew]]: Sam is the Fixer; he provides Michael with the tools he needs to do his work, as well as using his many "buddies" to get info from legal channels. Unlike most fixers, Sam actually does do fieldwork too.
* [[Con Men Hate Guns]]: Sometimes played straight (with white-collar crooks who often have hired muscle to do such unsavory deeds for them), but averted with others, as one con-man had a customized gun and was very willing to use it.
* [[Conspiracy Theorist]]: Spencer in "Signals and Codes". He's also [[The Schizophrenia Conspiracy|legitimately mentally ill]].
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* [[Evil Mentor]]: (Dead) Larry Sizemore, Michael's former mentor, who faked his own death in Bosnia and is now a [[Psycho for Hire]] [[Professional Killer]] whose solution to ''everything'' is [[Kill'Em All]]. Larry also likes to invoke [[Not So Different]] in regards to himself and Michael. Particularly notable in the season 4 finale when Larry wonders where all the darkness and anger Michael had went. On par for being the evil mentor, Larry also laments that Michael is losing those things that made him do bad things with a smile and so good at his job.
* [[Executive Meddling]]: A rare positive instance; [[Word of God]] has that some moments like the driving into the truck finale scene were a result of the USA network head challenging them to do something cool or different and subsequently having a back and forth exchange of ideas.
* [[Experienced Protagonist]]: All three of the central [[trio]] are experienced at their backgrounds, and Michael is even infamous enough to make Russian special forces uneasy. The only reason they're doing odd-jobs in Miami is that Michael has been victim of a grand conspiracy and is unable to get "normal" work.
* [[Expository Hairstyle Change]]: Whenever Madeline's hair is down, so is she.
* [[External Combustion]]: Done in season 1, ''by accident'', Sam calls the cell phone Fiona hooked up the baddie of the week's car, and causes the car to blow up.▼
* [[Failure Is the Only Option]]: The burn notice is the only thing that keeps Michael in Miami. [[Word of God]] is that because of the way the shows production process is set up, shooting outside of the Miami area is inconvenient to the point of impossibility (though they have shot in the Bahamas for a couple of scenes in season four, involving Fiona and Jesse, but not Michael). Therefore, it is doubtful the burn notice will ever be taken out of play.
** At one point, Michael was willing to risk it and got a cover ID from an old friend (a former contact who only showed up in two episodes, the first and hers as a client) to go to Washington; story contrivances had the people Michael wanted to see come to him right before he was going to get on the plane, thereby keeping him in Miami.
** He got out of Miami for the Season 4 premiere, but it's rather obviously still filmed in South Florida. In any case, after one trip to an undisclosed private holding facility and a generic jungle location, it's back to Miami in time for the first commercial break.
** As of the season 4 finale, it looks like this is
▲* [[External Combustion]]: Done in season 1, ''by accident'', Sam calls the cell phone Fiona hooked up the baddie of the week's car, and causes the car to blow up.
* [[Fake Buzz]]: Pretending to get drunk is one of the spy skills Michael has cultivated. Sam also pulls out the trick on occasion.
* [[Fake Crossover]]: A [[USA Network]] staple. In a commercial, Michael sends a care package to Hank from ''[[Royal Pains]].'' A care package that contained sunglasses, suntan lotion, and ''C4 plastic explosives''. Because "you never know when you might need a stable plastic explosive." ''To a concierge doctor!'' Hilarity ensues.
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* [[Groin Attack]]: Fiona shoots a thug in the crotch with a shotgun (It was only a [[Incredibly Lame Pun|beanbag]]) in episode 5x04 "No Good Deed" after he had been tossing Sam and Jesse around.
* [[Guile Hero]]: Three of them, actually, but Michael most of all.
* [[Gunman with Three Names]]: Sam [[
{{quote|''"I think we should call him Dennis Wayne Barfield for that extra serial-killer flavor."''}}
* [[Hand Wave]]: Arguably, the finale of Season 2/the beginning of season 3 handwaves the [[Fridge Logic]] of "Why doesn't Michael get the cops on him for doing crazy stuff constantly" and "Why don't more of his old enemies show up" by saying {{spoiler|[[Big Bad|The Management]] was "working some magic" to keep him off the radar; the moment he returns from meeting with them, he is set on by the police, and his bail is paid by someone else who's now able to locate him}}.
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** Though probably prettied up for TV, the production actually does have a retired spy on staff as a consulting producer. They'll usually come up with something and then ask him how he might do it.
** [[Show Runner]] Matt Nix films short commentaries for each episode online. He frequently mentions how each episode they usually call up Michael Wilson (Retired espionage advisor) or another specialist (ie an X Ray technician for the trunk x ray machine) so they can get things right.
** A subversion is in the show's theme. Yes there is a such thing as a burn notice. No it does not mean the [[Fridge Logic|entire CIA has a grudge against him]] nor that they would bother to do such things as vindictively freeze his bank accounts, as if he was a known terrorist. What it means is that information from a given source is no longer reliable. It could just as easily be that [[Mission Control]] is declaring that someone is a casualty and anyone else sending messages from him is a scam.
* [[Sibling Rivalry]]: Michael and Nate ''constantly''.
* [[Sibling Team]]: Michael and Nate, ''occasionally''.
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