TV is the New Reading

‘Burn Notice’ is a welcome return to summer lineup

Part of the joy of summer is the return of gloriously well-written summer short-timers. They’re only a dozen or so episodes each, but that’s part of their charm, given how well they’re written and how brilliant they are.

Sharing the joys of the season are “Saving Grace” and “The Closer” on TNT, and “Monk,” “Psych” and “Burn Notice” on USA.

“Burn Notice” returned two weeks ago with Jeffrey Donovan as benched superspy Michael Westen. The second season opened where the first season left off, with Michael trapped in a box trailer he’d been forced to drive his friend’s car up into in a chase on the open highway.

The truck he was trapped in stopped and there was a lot of shooting outside. The dust cleared to reveal a frightened computer technician who Michael’s new handler – a voice he knows only as Carla – needs to get some information from – or rather, from inside the tech’s organization.

And Michael is trapped. First, getting information from one paramilitary organization and giving it to another is a truly iffy enterprise. How’s it going to be used and who’s going to get hurt by it? After all, no one as well-armed and well organized as Carla’s people is using the information to build a better ice cream cone.

Secondly, what influence did Carla have in getting him burned – Michael’s spy status is suspended as long as he’s “burned” – and how can doing her bidding get him reinstated?

These are all lovely philosophical questions Michael has absolutely no time for because he’s been given impossible deadlines and no reasonable alternate leads. And when he finally does meet Carla, he realizes it too late to demand the answers he needs.

Heading into the second season, Michael is not significantly better off than he was in the first season. His support structure of friends and family and the colorful community of South Beach, Miami, provide a great backdrop for capers and adventures while he tries to get reinstated as an International Man of Mystery, but for now, he can’t leverage any answers out of either his former bosses or his newest best contact.

So all Michael can really do is get the computer guy through the job and reunited with his family so as to at least limit the amount of damage he’s doing in the process.

However, the closer he gets to having answers, the more mysterious they seem to be, and there’s plenty of explosions, adventures and excitement along the way, so I for one am intrigued to see where they’re taking the story next.

“Burn Notice” airs at 9 p.m. Thursdays on USA.

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