08.00 Burn Notice
Burn Notice. Season 2, Episode 11. "Hot Spot" Michael, Fiona and Sam try to run a gang of car thieves out of Miami.
I can't think of a show that is more fun to watch than Burn Notice. It's cool and I love it. This episode set some sort of ratings record by beating NBC and I could not be happier. Anyone who sampled the show last Thursday is definitely going to come back for more. It's a slick show, driven by great characters and - right now - there isn't a show on TV that is more fun to watch. You cannot have more fun in front of a TV.
Case in point: Michael, Fiona and Sam dress up as the coolest-looking gang of car thieves ever to grace a TV screen and proceed to unleash a barrage of bizarre stunts on the members of a rival gang in a effort to run out of town (to save the client-of-the-week). Scene after scene is delightful, as is the 'sting' at the very end when they finally provoke the gang into (what appears to be) an attack upon a much more powerful gangster. This is one of my favourite elements of Burn Notice: when Michael is able to make the Bad-Guy-of-the-week do something stupid that makes an even worse Bad Guy (who knows nothing about Michael) mad at them. In this way, Michael is able to walk away and let somebody else finish the job. Often it is implied that the bad-guy-of-the-week will be killed by their new enemy. Michael's hands are clean, the case is solved and the client-of-the-week is saved.
If all this episode had going for it was a fun case-of-the-week it would still be a great hour of TV. But this episode had a lot more: ongoing developments with Carla and ongoing developments with Michael & Fiona...
Carla is the recurring bad guy, with ties to the people that burned Michael in the show's pilot. She's had cameos in a few episodes so far this season, but she takes a larger part in this episode and - at this point in the story - she seems less in control of events that she previously was. It's apparent at this stage that other forces are at work... and Carla is scared. Showing this side to Michael (and to the viewers) makes her seems less scary, more vulnerable, more interesting...
Then there is the stuff with Fiona...
The final minutes of this episode are among the very best that the show has ever done.
About five minutes from the end of this episode, Fiona stumbles into a trap and when Michael arrives at the scene he panics and assumes that Fiona has been killed in a house fire. Distraught, he returns home to find... Fiona waiting on him: not thinking he knew anything about the fire and totally shocked to find Michael so upset.
The ongoing love story here: we all know Michael loves Fiona but he's not very good at expressing it, so they never make a go at having a relationship. Except now, overcome with emotion, he - for once - can't hold back, he can't repress his feelings: he takes her in his arms for one of the most romantic love scenes I've ever seen on TV.
I not only love the fact that happened, but I love the way that it happened. But in terms of how it happened for the characters, and in terms of how it happened in the closing minutes of Episode 11 when we had no reason to expect it. It really took me by surprise. And it was very romantic.
Gabrielle Anwar is very sexy as Fiona, but she's more than sexy. Because of Anwar Fiona is utterly lovely and her unrequited love for Michael makes her vulnerable and much more likable. Thanks to Jeffrey Donovan we can see that Michael adores Fiona but we can also believe that he cannot bring himself to express it. Until now. I'm not sure what direction their story will take from here on in, but I cannot wait to see the next chapter...
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Fri, Jan 30, 09 - Burn Notice
