Michael Westen
Created by Matt Nix

From spy to eye. When the tough get burned, the burned get going...

When spies get fired, they don't get a pinl slip or a form letter from human resources. They get a "burn notice" and became untouchable.

In the USA Networks original series Burn Notice, Jeffrey Donovan plays MICHAEL WESTEN, a former CIA operative who, in the middle of an overseas operation, is burned by the agency. With no funds and and no clue as to why he's suddenly persona non grata in the intelligence community, he hightails it to his hometown of Miami, where he works as an unofficial P.I., drawing on his Special Ops training to use to help those who the police can't or won't help, as a way to fund his ongoing personal investigation.

He is helped and hindered by his once -- and maybe once again -- girlfriend Fiona, a trigger-happy ex-IRA operative played by Gabrielle Anwar. Also on board is his best friend and former partner Sam Axe, a boozy party animal and would-be ladies' man who also currently an informant for the FBI, dispatched to keep an eye on Michael. Sam's played with considerable aplomb by cult film fave Bruce Campbell, while Michael's manipulative mother is played by Sharon "Cagney and Lacey" Gless.

It's probably the best new crime With no choice but to return to his hometown of Miami., With no choice but to return to his hometown of Miami., show of the 2007 season and gets a lot of comparisons to Magnum P.I., though I'm more apt to liken it to The Rockford Files.  Heady company either way. 

UNDER OATH

• "I'm not quite as crazy about the show as Glen is, but I do find this frequently quite entertaining, a bright shiny diversion. And he's right to liken this to both Magnum and Rockford. Michael's deadbeat, lying brother Nate is certainly (and possibly intentionally?) reminiscent of Rockford's Angel Martin, and there's something of the off-kilter chemistry of Magnum and his crew in the antics of Michael, Sam and Fiona, with Michael's mom playing the Higgins-style straight-man-with-an-agenda role. The show also recalls Miami Vice, not just in the slick but shabby setting, but in it's glib, stylized tone."
  (Kevin Burton Smith)

TELEVISION

• BURN NOTICE
  (2007-08, USA Network)
  Created by Matt Nix
  Created by Matt Nix
  Writers: Matt Nix
  Directors: Jace Alexander, Sanford Bookstaver, Colin Bucksey, Rod Hardy, Paul Holahan, David Solomon
  Executive producers: Mikkel Bondesen, Matt Nix
  Co-executive producers: Nick Thiel, Jeff Freilich
  Line producer / producer: Terry Miller
  Supervising producer Mere Smith, Alfredo Barrios Jr.
  Starring Jeffrey Donovan as MICHAEL WESTEN
  Also starring Gabrielle Anwar as Fiona
  Bruce Campbell as Sam Axe
  Seth Peterson as Nate
  and Sharon Gless as Madeline Westen (Michael's mom)

• Season One...Buy this DVD set
• "Pilot" (June 28, 2007)
• "Identity" (July 5, 2007)
• "Fight or Flight" (July 12, 2007)
• "Old Friends" (July 19, 2007)
• "Family Business" (July 26, 2007)
• "Unpaid Debts" (August 2, 2007)
• "Broken Rules" (August 9, 2007)
• "Wanted Man" (August 16, 2007)
• "Hard Bargain" (August 23, 2007)
• "False Flag" (September 13, 2007)
• "Dead Drop (Part One)" (September 20, 2007)
• "Loose Ends (Part Two)" (September 20, 2007)
  
  
• Season Two
• "Breaking and Entering" (July 10, 2008)
• "Turn and Burn" (July 17, 2008)
• "Trust Me" (July 24, 2008)
• "Comrades" (July 31, 2008)
• "Scatter Point" (August 7, 2008)
• "Bad Blood" (August 4, 2008)

NOVELS

• Burn Notice: The Fix (2008; by Tod Goldberg) ...Buy this book

RELATED LINKS

• Burn Notice
  The official USA Network site.

Report respectfully submitted by Glen Davis. Additional info by Kevin Burton Smith.