The Best Show on TV?
No, it's not So You Think You Can Dance or any other reality show.
It's Burn Notice-the show I like to think of as the anti-24. Why? Because it's SMART. Yes, it's violent and action packed with attractive people starring in it. But it's intelligent. Michael Weston used to be a spy, until he got a Burn Notice and was kicked out of the organization (presumably the CIA, although it's never named). He washed up in Miami, taking on jobs that use his skill set, while trying to find out what happened and trying to get his job back. He has a couple of friends to help out-ex-Navy Seal Sam and ex-girlfriend Fiona, and old IRA terrorist, who is as good with a gun, bomb and artillery as anyone you can find. And Mom, who never quite knows what her son is doing, but is as supportive and sarcastic as she can be.
but why the anti-24, you ask? Well, let''s use the recent episode called The Hunter as an example. Michael gets kidnapped by an old enemy, Fi and Sam have to track him down and they have very little time to do it-and they have a colleague of the bad guy tied up in Mom's garage. What would Jack Bauer do? Shoot his kneecaps? Burn him in some tender places? Hurt him so much he HAS to blurt out where Mike is? All this and more-but Sam and Fi leave the guy tied up in the garage and Mom goes in to talk to him. A friendly face, with some food works wonders and soon the guy spills all he knows. You'd never see Jack Bauer doing that. Or last week's episode Friends like These-where the team tries to track down a missing ledger for a friend. Again, they have the bad guy (well, girl, although they don't know it at the time) tied up and are ready to do whatever it takes to find the ledger.
Except this is the voiceover "torture doesn't do any good-it only makes people want to tell you what you want to hear. A friendly face and some food works wonders". Or how about the episode called fearless leader, where the three pose as wannabe criminals to get to the big boss-so they can turn him into the cops? The guy they befriend to help them in turns out to not want them to become criminals-and Michael Weston, the used-to-be-spy, in turn tells him their whole plan and they work together to get the bad guy. How smart is that? What kind of turnabout is that?
Watch this show-it's smart!
And the best line of it this year so far? It goes to Mike's Mom Maddy (played by the great Sharon Gless) "Oh look-it's Fiona! She NEVER shows up when there's trouble". Priceless delivery on what is to me, yes, the best show on TV right now.
It's Burn Notice-the show I like to think of as the anti-24. Why? Because it's SMART. Yes, it's violent and action packed with attractive people starring in it. But it's intelligent. Michael Weston used to be a spy, until he got a Burn Notice and was kicked out of the organization (presumably the CIA, although it's never named). He washed up in Miami, taking on jobs that use his skill set, while trying to find out what happened and trying to get his job back. He has a couple of friends to help out-ex-Navy Seal Sam and ex-girlfriend Fiona, and old IRA terrorist, who is as good with a gun, bomb and artillery as anyone you can find. And Mom, who never quite knows what her son is doing, but is as supportive and sarcastic as she can be.
but why the anti-24, you ask? Well, let''s use the recent episode called The Hunter as an example. Michael gets kidnapped by an old enemy, Fi and Sam have to track him down and they have very little time to do it-and they have a colleague of the bad guy tied up in Mom's garage. What would Jack Bauer do? Shoot his kneecaps? Burn him in some tender places? Hurt him so much he HAS to blurt out where Mike is? All this and more-but Sam and Fi leave the guy tied up in the garage and Mom goes in to talk to him. A friendly face, with some food works wonders and soon the guy spills all he knows. You'd never see Jack Bauer doing that. Or last week's episode Friends like These-where the team tries to track down a missing ledger for a friend. Again, they have the bad guy (well, girl, although they don't know it at the time) tied up and are ready to do whatever it takes to find the ledger.
Except this is the voiceover "torture doesn't do any good-it only makes people want to tell you what you want to hear. A friendly face and some food works wonders". Or how about the episode called fearless leader, where the three pose as wannabe criminals to get to the big boss-so they can turn him into the cops? The guy they befriend to help them in turns out to not want them to become criminals-and Michael Weston, the used-to-be-spy, in turn tells him their whole plan and they work together to get the bad guy. How smart is that? What kind of turnabout is that?
Watch this show-it's smart!
And the best line of it this year so far? It goes to Mike's Mom Maddy (played by the great Sharon Gless) "Oh look-it's Fiona! She NEVER shows up when there's trouble". Priceless delivery on what is to me, yes, the best show on TV right now.
posted by SHbookworm at 1:58 PM
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