Burn Notice/Headscratchers: Difference between revisions

* Michael's vague and, at times, near nonsensical ethics and the contradiction between it and his desired occupation. Alright, so when we are first introduced to Michael, he's a valued hotshot spy, doing all that entails for the U.S. government covertly, such as wiring money to prop up a brutal African warlord just to protect some U.S. oil fields. Not exactly high heroics there. When compromised, he takes the two goons into the bathroom and calmly and efficiently shoots them dead. Which makes sense, of course, because he has to escape etc. But then later as the series progresses, he shows this sometimes bizarre [[Technical Pacifist|unwillingness to kill]]. Usually, that choice makes a lot of tactical sense for the current job, but every now and then it verges into Wall Banger territory, especially when sometimes it seems like Michael doesn't even shoot to kill in self-defense against trained cold-blooded [[Mooks]], as if that were somehow wrong. He kills Strickler certainly, since its the only way to save Fiona in time, but with his activities, you would really expect that to happen a bit more often. He seems to take some kind of self-righteous offense when side characters like older spies or even Jesse kill, as if they are somehow in the wrong, though, mercifully, he's thanked Fiona the multiple times she has killed for him (she seems to have the highest body count of the four in-show). Later, though, with the CIA, his aim seems to have improved, albeit barely, when he executes a few guards to infiltrate a compound. Also bothersome is the show's, at times, annoying reliance on [[Big Damn Villains]] to get Michael out of sticky situations without somehow compromising these principles, such as Larry killing Brennen, but such instances really should beg the question, "So what would Michael have done if the villain HADN'T been there do that for him?" Sometimes the answer is pretty much the same since it was the only real way out. I understand he has come to decide to fight hard against the degradation of his own morality via [[Evil Mentor|Larry's influence]] or the [[Evil Counterpart]] of Simon, but his overarching goal the whole time has been to get back to his old job working as a spy for the government (at least till he needed answers to the conspiracy more)--even though, realistically, if he returned to that job he would no longer get to take only the "ethical" jobs anymore--there would be more wetwork ops, more dealings with people who kill, defrauding and economic exploitation, repressive surveillance and, of course, supporting a government that routinely kills in the hundreds of thousands. Yeah... You know the stuff that governments do in order to stay in power. But yet he seems to have complete [[Moral Myopia]] on the subject, despite Fiona's, an acknowledged anti-government radical's, repeated attempts to say [[What the Hell, Hero?]] to him for it. And this combined with the fact that Michael appears unable to explain exactly *why* he has to do it so much--at first it seems like that he is just in it for the money and being able to use his skills to break the rules but get away with it (and he accepts jobs with a lot more selfish cynicism back then), but then later vague hints of some super patriotic desire to be a "good guy" to fight for whatever crop up, but those strike a dissonant tone with Michael's character, then later those two seem to be dropped when Madeline says maybe "it's just how he fits into the world" and it seems like he doesn't really know for sure, other than wanting the operational support and assets available to a professional spy rather than scraping by. I think Nate probably hits closest to the mark when he compares it to an addiction--Michael is addicted to the work. A very personal, even self-centered motivation that explains Michael's choices at least. Really a case of Just Bugs Me.

* In the Season 4 ep "Neighborhood Watch," is it just me or did Maddie come off as a bit of a [[Jerkass]] for siding with the doctor who had so much [[Honor Before Reason]] that he came almost came across as a [[Karma Houdini]] for ''not'' getting shot? Yeah mom, its very important to stand up to bullies yourself, but your Aesop falls a bit short when you remember that said bullies were casual murderers and your friend could have done slightly less than jack and crap in the situation without Micheal doing 99.99999% of the work. And the part about the bullies coming back next time even worse than before is somewhat unlikely since Micheal's plan would have involved said bully being chased down by a '''very''' angry cartel with no possible connection to said doctor, so [[What the Hell, Hero?|what the hell, Maddie?]]

** Except she's almost always portrayed positively or neutrally. She makes mistakes (like when she accidentally misjudged the size of an explosive charge that one time) but very rarely is she shown as unambiguously a bad person. Hell, Michael has more [[What the Hell, Hero?]] moments than she does, and he's the main protagonist!