Burn Notice | |
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Genre | Drama Action |
Created by | Matt Nix |
Starring | Jeffrey Donovan Gabrielle Anwar Bruce Campbell Sharon Gless Coby Bell |
Ending theme | "I Don't Know Why I Love You" (The House of Love) |
Country of origin | United States |
Original language(s) | English |
No. of seasons | 6 |
No. of episodes | 94 1 movie (List of episodes) |
Production | |
Executive producer(s) | Matt Nix Mikkel Bondesen Jeff Freilich |
Producer(s) | Michael J. Wilson, Jason Tracey, Craig S. O'Neill, Mikkel Bondesen |
Location(s) | Miami, Florida |
Camera setup | Single-camera |
Running time | approx. 42 minutes |
Production company(s) | Fox Television Studios Fuse Entertainment Flying Glass of Milk Productions (season 3?present) |
Broadcast | |
Original channel | USA Network |
Picture format | 1080i (HDTV) |
Original run | June 28, 2007 – present |
External links | |
Website |
Burn Notice is an American television series created by Matt Nix. The show stars Jeffrey Donovan, Gabrielle Anwar, Bruce Campbell, Sharon Gless, and, beginning in the fourth season, Coby Bell.[1] The series premiered on June 28, 2007, on USA Network.[2][3] On April 15, 2010, the show was renewed for its fifth and sixth seasons. The sixth season, set to include 18 episodes, began on June 14, 2012.[4] On November 7, 2012, the show was renewed for its seventh season.[5]
The title of the series refers to the burn notices issued by intelligence agencies to discredit or announce the dismissal of agents or sources who are considered to have become unreliable. When spies are burned, their connection to an espionage organization is terminated, leaving them without access to cash or influence. According to the narration during the opening credits, the burned spy has no prior work history, no money, no support network?? in essence, no identity. The television series uses first-person narrative and frequent voice-overs providing exposition from the viewpoint of covert-operations agent Michael Westen, played by Jeffrey Donovan. The voice-over commentary is in the form of tips for fledgling agents as if for a training or orientation film.
After fleeing a blown operation in Nigeria and being kidnapped and beaten, Westen finds himself in his hometown[6] of Miami, Florida. He is tended to by his ex-girlfriend, Fiona Glenanne, but he has been abandoned by all his normal intelligence contacts and is under continuous surveillance with his personal assets frozen. Extraordinary efforts to reach his U.S. government handler eventually yield only a grudging admission that someone powerful wants him "on ice" in Miami. If he leaves there, he will be hunted down and taken into custody. If he stays, he can remain relatively free. Consumed by the desire to find out who burned him, and why, Westen is reluctantly drawn into working as an unlicensed private investigator and problem solver for ordinary citizens to fund his personal investigation into his situation as a blacklisted agent.
Westen invites his old friend Sam Axe to assist him, while Fiona invites herself to join them. With the occasional assistance and sometimes hindrance of his mother, Madeline, Westen battles an array of such criminal figures as mobsters, gangs, con artists, murderers, thieves, arms traffickers, kidnappers, money launderers, and drug traffickers. At the same time, Michael must follow the trail that leads him to the people responsible for his being burned, and later finding out why.
The series juggles these two narratives; the overall series dealing with why Michael was burned, and individual episodes focusing on the cases he works for clients.
The thing about the relationship with Fiona is...They are two people who really don't have anybody else they can be with. Anybody else is going to be afraid of what Michael does, and it sort of turns her on, and anybody else for Michael is going to be uninteresting. He is attracted to her, but part of what we explore over the first season is they really are attracted with each other, and yet there is a reason they broke up. She is an incredibly chaotic person who just thrives on disorder... Violence is foreplay for her.
—Matt Nix
Season | Timeslot (ET) | # Ep. | Premiered | Ended | TV Season | Viewers (in millions) |
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Date | Premiere Viewers (in millions) |
Date | Finale Viewers (in millions) |
|||||
1 | Thursday 10:00?pm (June 28, 2007 ? September 13, 2007) Thursday 9:00?pm (September 20, 2007) |
12 |
|
4.0[8] |
|
4.8[9] | 2007 | TBA |
2 | Thursday 10:00?pm (July 10, 2008 ? March 5, 2009) | 16 |
|
5.39[10] |
|
6.1[11] | 2008?2009 | TBA |
3 | Thursday 9:00?pm (June 4, 2009 ? August 6, 2009) Thursday 10:00?pm (January 21, 2010 ? March 4, 2010) |
16 |
|
5.99[12] |
|
4.32[13] | 2009?2010 | TBA |
4 | Thursday 9:00?pm (June 3, 2010 ? August 26, 2010) Thursday 10:00?pm (November 11, 2010 ? December 9, 2010) Thursday 9:00?pm (December 16, 2010) |
18 |
|
6.62[14] |
|
5.11[15] | 2010 | 6.69[16] |
5 | Thursday 9:00?pm (June 23, 2011 ? September 8, 2011) Thursday 10:00?pm (November 3, 2011 ? December 15, 2011) |
18 |
|
5.17[17] |
|
2.89[18] | 2011 | 6.21[19] |
6 | Thursday 9:00?pm (June 14, 2012 ? November 8, 2012) Thursday 10:00?pm (November 15, 2012 ? December 13, 2012) Thursday 9:00?pm (December 20, 2012) |
18 |
|
3.87[20] |
|
N/A | 2012 | TBA |
The first season, consisting of 12 episodes, follows Michael's investigation into the identity of the man who burned him. It also introduced the main characters: Fiona, Michael's ex-girlfriend; Sam, a former Navy SEAL and Michael's best friend; and Madeline, Michael's hypochondriac mother. The season saw many appearances by Agents Harris and Lane (Marc Macaulay and Brandon Morris), two FBI agents sent to keep tabs on Michael. They were eventually replaced by Agent Bly (Alex Carter), who in turn was removed from Michael's case. By the end of the season, Michael has discovered the identity of the man who wrote his burn notice, Phillip Cowan (Richard Schiff), only to see him killed. Michael later is contacted by a mysterious woman, ending the season on a cliffhanger.
The second season, consisting of 16 episodes, depicts Michael's struggle to discover more about his new "handler" and use her to get to the people that burned him. The season begins with Michael meeting Carla (Tricia Helfer), the woman on the phone from the previous season. He begins a professional relationship with her after she begins bringing him clients. Meanwhile, Madeline begins getting closer to learning about Michael's secret life. By the season finale, Fiona kills Carla, and Michael meets "Management" (John Mahoney), the leader of a professional black ops syndicate. After telling Management that he wants out, Michael leaps from a helicopter and into the ocean, effectively ending their relationship as well as the "protection" that Management had secretly been providing for Michael.
The third season, consisting of 16 episodes, shows Michael in his quest to have his burn notice lifted. The season begins where the previous left off: Michael swims back to Miami, where he is met by Michelle Paxson (Moon Bloodgood), a Miami police detective who is intent on bringing Michael down. After he finally convinces her to stay away, Michael is approached by Tom Strickler (Ben Shenkman), an agent to the spies. Strickler claims that he can have Michael's burn notice lifted, but at a very high cost. Michael eventually must kill Strickler instead to save Fiona's life. In the meantime, Michael begins meeting Diego Garza (Otto Sanchez), a CIA agent who gives Michael information about his burn. However, after Strickler's death, Garza is murdered, and Michael is nearly back to square one. Later, Michael is confronted by Mason Gilroy (Chris Vance), a freelance psychopath who once worked for Strickler and confesses to the murder of Garza. Gilroy asks for Michael's help with an operation, and Michael, not wanting to let Gilroy get away with anything, follows. He discovers that Gilroy is attempting to break a high-risk felon out of prison. After Gilroy's murder, Michael learns the identity of the prisoner: Simon Escher (Garret Dillahunt), the man who committed the crimes for which Michael was framed. In the final scenes of the season, Michael is arrested and taken to a mysterious room.
The fourth season, consisting of 18 episodes, follows Michael as he begins working for the people who burned him once again. As with most other seasons, the fourth season begins immediately after the events of the previous. Michael, still in prison, is visited by Vaughn (Robert Wisdom), a high-ranking member of management. He serves as Michael's new handler, bringing Michael various jobs and even participating in some. Over the events of the season, Michael inadvertently burns a spy himself: Jesse Porter, a counterintelligence operative. Michael eventually reconnects with Simon, who directs Michael to a telecommunications magnate named John Barrett (Robert Patrick). After luring Barrett to Miami, Michael discovers that a coded Bible contains a complete list of the people who burned him. Jesse soon discovers that Michael was the one who burned him, leading to a rift between the two. Michael later is forced to kill Barrett to save himself, but loses the Bible in the process. Eventually, Sam and Jesse are able to reclaim the list, and decide to give the list to Marv (Richard Kind), Jesse's old handler. However, Marv is killed by Tyler Brennen (Jay Karnes), one of Michael's old foes. Now in possession of the list, Brennen hires another of Michael's enemies, "Dead" Larry Sizemore (Tim Matheson), to help track down the people on the list. Instead, Larry kills Brennen, which signals Michael's betrayal to Vaughn. Vaughn returns to Miami to have Michael, Fiona, and Jesse killed. However, Sam and Madeline are able to track down a congressman (John Doman) who is able to call for help. Michael is finally taken to Washington D.C. where he is met by an unidentified man (Dylan Baker) who proclaims, "Welcome back."
The fifth season, consisting of 18 episodes, begins six months after Michael successfully rejoins the CIA as a consultant. The man from the final scenes of the fourth season has been identified as Raines, and, along with Max (Grant Show), Michael begins hunting down and arresting all of the people on Simon's list. However, while pursuing the final man on the list, they discover that the man is dead, leaving many mysteries unsolved, perhaps forever. Even though no names remain on the list, Michael is still consumed with "inconsistencies" he has found in the files regarding his burn notice. Michael continues to work with Max until Max's murder, for which Michael is framed. Michael begins to pursue the real killer while simultaneously dodging any suspicions from Dani Pearce (Lauren Stamile), Max's replacement. After clearing his name on Max's murder by forcing the confession (and subsequent suicide) of the real killer, Michael finally comes face to face with the man who burned him: Anson Fullerton (Jere Burns), who is blackmailing Fiona to get Michael to do what he wants. After Michael and his team are repeatedly forced to commit crimes and complete increasingly dangerous missions on Anson's behalf, Fiona turns herself in, freeing Michael to pursue Anson without concern for her.
The sixth season, consisting of 17 episodes,[21] begins with Fiona's arrest. An old nemesis, Agent Bly (Alex Carter), interrogates Fiona after she is arrested. Anson is now on the run after a failed attempt at capturing him nearly resulted in Sam and Agent Pearce being killed.
When Fiona gets to prison she makes a new friend, but this friend eventually ambushes her, stating that she was hired to kill her. Meanwhile Michael does work for the CIA agent who trained him, Tom Card (John C. McGinley), to gain visitation rights to see Fiona. He eventually gets to see her in the third episode of the season. On Michael's way out of the prison, he is slipped a piece of paper with the name of a guard who is working with Fiona's assassin and his address. When Michael, Sam, and Jesse track him down, they find him dead in his living room, having been killed by Rebecca (Kristanna Loken), a rogue agent working for Anson. She joins the team when they find out that Anson is using her brother as leverage.
Once they eliminate Anson's ability to blackmail Rebecca with her brother, she provides them with the information they need to track him down. The team finally captures Anson with the help of Nate in the episode "Shock Wave", but shortly after the CIA arrives, a gunshot from an unseen location hits Anson and Nate, killing them both. Fiona is released from prison at the end of this episode and helps Michael in his search for the man who killed his brother.
After a lot of tiring work, the team finds the initials "T.G." in the Pryon file on Nate's killer. The initials are revealed to indicate Tyler Gray (Kenny Johnson), an off-the-books soldier for the Pryon group. While obtaining these files, Agent Pearce and Jesse are caught blackmailing a Pryon employee; as a result, Pearce is relocated to Mumbai.
After the team finds out that Gray is hiding out in Panama, Card sanctions an off-the-books operation to take him down, with Agent Brady Pressman (Chad Coleman) taking point. When Michael finally captures him, Gray reveals that the operation is a sham: Card hired Gray to kill Anson and is planning a move that will kill Michael and his team. Unconvinced, Michael contacts Card and, after lying to Card that Gray escaped, Card tells Michael to stay where he is and that his operatives already have a lead on Gray. Shocked by the deception, Michael grabs Gray and escapes the building just minutes before an F-18 airstrike organized by Card levels the building. Unable to escape the circling F-18 in their getaway vehicle, Brady sacrifices himself by getting the team and Gray to move into the forest before he drives off as distraction. The jet destroys the vehicle, killing Brady in the process, while the team is left in Panama to ponder their next move with no resources on hand.
Michael eventually confronts Card, who kills Gray right in front of him. Michael then shoots Card in the head after realizing Card had used both Anson and Gray for unauthorized operations around the world, and was making plans to use Michael in the same way. This makes Michael and his team targets in a CIA manhunt.
Burn Notice: The Fall of Sam Axe is a prequel movie focusing on Sam Axe and is set before the events of Burn Notice, broadcast on USA on April 17, 2011.[22] It tells the story of Sam's days in the Navy SEALs leading up to him going to Miami and serves as a lead-in to the fifth season of Burn Notice.[23] Jeffrey Donovan directed the film and has a cameo appearance.
Since 2008, Signet Books has published a series of Burn Notice novelizations under their Obsidian imprint:
Title | Author | ISBN | Publication date |
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The Fix | Tod Goldberg | 0-451-22554-6 | August 5, 2008 |
The End Game | 0-451-22676-3 | May 5, 2009 | |
The Giveaway | 0-451-22979-7 | July 6, 2010 | |
The Reformed | 0-451-23200-3 | January 4, 2011 | |
The Bad Beat | 0-451-23409-X | July 5, 2011[24] |
The show is filmed on location in and around Miami, Florida. The show has a permanent set built in the former Coconut Grove Convention Center in Miami's Coconut Grove neighborhood where most of the show is filmed. In August 2012, the Miami City Commission and Burn Notice producers reached a tentative agreement to allow Burn Notice to film at the Convention Center for one additional year, allowing for a seventh season of production in exchange for significantly higher rent, an agreement that must be approved by the City of Miami.[25]
In 2011, David Raines, Scott Clements and Sherry Klein were nominated for "Outstanding Sound Mixing for a Comedy or Drama Series" for Last Stand at the 63rd Primetime Emmy Awards.[26] The pilot episode written by Matt Nix won a 2008 Edgar Allan Poe Award, honoring the best in mystery, in the category "Best Television Episode Teleplay".[27] David Raines, Scott Clements and Sherry Klein were nominated for "Outstanding Sound Mixing for a Comedy or Drama Series" for Burn Notice Series (One-Hour) at the 60th Primetime Emmy Awards in 2008.[26] Composer John Dickson won 2008 and 2009 ASCAP Film and Television Music Awards for "Top TV Series". Craig S. O'Neill and Jason Tracey were nominated for a 2009 Writers Guild of America, USA award for "Episodic Drama" (episode "Double Booked"). In 2010, the show received its first Emmy Award nomination for acting, as Sharon Gless was nominated for an Emmy in the category of "Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama".[28] Burn Notice has also been nominated for Favorite TV Obsession at the 37th Peoples Choice Awards.
Burn Notice is shown internationally on the following channels:
20th Century Fox has released the first four seasons of Burn Notice on DVD in Region 1. Season 2 was also released on Blu-ray.[31] The TV movie The Fall of Sam Axe has also been released on DVD and Blu-ray.
DVD Name | Ep # | Release Date | Additional Information |
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Season One | 12 | June 17, 2008 |
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Season Two | 16 | June 16, 2009 |
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Season Three | 16 | June 1, 2010 |
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Season Four | 18 | June 7, 2011 |
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The Fall of Sam Axe | Movie | July 26, 2011 |
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Season Five | 18 | June 5, 2012[32] |
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Season Six | 17 | TBA 2013 |
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