TV Review: Third Season of USA’s ‘Burn Notice’ Starts Still on Fire

CHICAGO – Very few sophomore seasons have ever ended as strongly as USA’s very good “Burn Notice” did earlier this year. Michael Westen (Jeffrey Donovan) learned that the people that burned him may also have been protecting him. The entire concept of the show was turned on its head and the great John Mahoney (recently seen on “In Treatment”) made a memorable appearance. Oh yeah, it had a sweet jump from a helicopter too.

Television Rating: 4.0/5.0

The third season of “Burn Notice” picks up immediately after that incredible season two finale with Michael swimming to shore and immediately being chased again, having to don a disguise, break into a room, make an untraceable phone call, and pull of another amazing escape. Seriously, this guy is like MacGyver for the ’00s. But a lot cooler.

Jeffrey Donovan as Michael Westen, Gabrielle Anwar as Fiona Glenanne — USA Network Photo credit: Joe Pugliese

In all seriousness, “Burn Notice” is at a crossroads. The writing staff essentially blew up their own dramatic foundation at the end of season two. As Michael says in the season three premiere, “it looks like the people who burned me are going to leave me alone for awhile”. So what will “Burn Notice” be in season three without the mystery of who burned Michael at its core?

Of course, the show will still have the episodic hero structure blended with overall series-long mysteries. The mystery-of-the-week structure that frustrated me in season one of the show has grown more seamless and interesting. The second episode’s mystery, about a kidnapped boy, is one of the best of the series to date

The details of Michael’s life as a spy are even more fully fleshed-out in season three. Episode two has a great bit about how kidnappers can quickly see if their victim’s father has been monitored by the police. Beating him up usually brings the boys in blue running from their surveillance hiding spot. It’s the clever details like that separate “Burn Notice” from other, less remarkable spy shows. The episode even has a subtle exchange/commentary about torture and waterboarding without overplaying it.

More violent and with more loathsome characters in the mystery of the week arcs, “Burn Notice” seems to have taken on an even darker tone at the start of season three. Michael Westen seems more world-weary than ever, barely keeping his stuff together and the question of who he can trust still looms large. Michael soon learns that management are not the only ones after him and that he may have more trouble with the local police than he ever did before.

Gabrielle Anwar as Fiona Glenanne — USA Network Photo credit: Joe Pugliese

Meanwhile, Fiona (Gabrielle Anwar), having finally expressed her love for Michael, wishes he would settle down and not re-enter his dangerous profession now that management may be letting him off the hook. Anwar seems invigorated by this plotline. Her gift to Michael at the end of episode two and the accompanying line is a series highlight.

And a face from season two (a great actor from a recently-ended FX classic) returns in the third episode that really must be seen. However, if you watch the first two episodes of the third season of “Burn Notice,” it’s hard to believe that you wouldn’t watch the third.

A character says in the premiere, “You three need to stick together.” It seems likely to be the theme for the whole season. Without the amorphous enemy of who burned Michael and an even bigger target on his back now that they’ve backed off their protection, how will the cool spy, his best pal, and the sexiest girl in Miami stay united? Will Michael find a way back to his old life? Or create a new one? There’s more than enough dramatic material in those questions to think that season three could be just as good as season two and possibly even better.

Everything that worked about season two - the increasingly stronger performances from Donovan, Anwar, and Campbell, the wittier dialogue, and the perfect balancing of weekly mysteries and overall arc - appears to be back in the opening episodes of season three. With “Mad Men” not back for a few weeks (and, to be honest, this is a completely different cocktail than AMC’s dry martini), this is THE basic cable show of the summer.

By BRIAN TALLERICO Content Director HollywoodChicago.com brian@hollywoodchicago.com