Contributor: Henry T.
Written by Matt Nix
Directed by Stephen Surjik
These midseason premieres always make me wonder how a show like “Burn Notice” plays when watched on DVD. I’ve only ever watched on the network and find it a little strange to start up an ongoing plot mid-stream. It almost feels like starting up a brand new season with a new status quo, which means the weird feeling has to be amplified when watching it on an uninterrupted medium like DVD.
But two episodes into this new thing with Anson essentially holding Team Westen hostage with the stuff he’s got on Fiona has made me wish that Michael would just go Hulk on him and kill the bastard. It was essentially repeating what happened at the end of “Dead to Rights” elongated into episode form. Lest the producers think we missed the “Previously on…” segment at the beginning, we have to be constantly reminded that Anson holds all the cards on Michael and his team. He looked oily doing it in the previous episode, but I think there are problems with it going forward.
It makes sense that Anson would send Michael on a mission to get software that would erase his existence from anything electronic or traceable anywhere. If he had just been revealed, this would be the best way to get back underground or off the radar, as it were, again. Michael’s resourcefulness crops up again when he recognizes the way to get the information he needs without getting himself caught in a sticky situation. It looked for a moment there like Michael was going to get trapped in using the software, but he gets the villain to be trapped instead.
I personally liked that moment the most in the episode, as with the material involving Maddie. I’ve stopped trying to figure out what Maddie knows about Michael’s spy life so that makes the sequence where she has to steal information from the RAM chip in the police laptop to be a highlight. That comes few and far between as there is so much focus on Michael and his protection of the kidnapped asset. Jesse and Sam get virtually nothing to do, and Fiona doesn’t do much beyond glowering at Michael and reminding Michael that he doesn’t have to be Anson’s lap dog. Not that Anson warranted such worry. When he showed up to threaten Sam and Jesse out in the open, I felt that Anson had been a little de-fanged. I think his character was benefiting from being mysterious and not quite in the open. He doesn’t follow through on his threats here so I think the writers need to scale back on playing that card as the season reaches its conclusion.
Michael Westen will always be the smartest person on this show. The writers are painting Anson as a person who knows everything about everybody. I do worry that fact may dampen all of the tension the show has been bringing out to this point. It’s not as if Michael and the team can say no to Anson whenever they want to. Plus, there’s the complication of Michael’s new clandestine CIA clearance. That means Team Westen may get two missions in the next episode, and the show has already spent much of the first half of this fifth season splitting the team up to tackle those missions.
It’s going to feel repetitive if they take that route as the season draws nearer to a close. Michael’s ability to wiggle out of any situation is going to be severely tested, though I doubt the outcome at the end will change much. Remember, this echoes a situation in previous seasons after Management was revealed to be behind Michael’s burn notice and ongoing protection. He got out of that one okay. He will on this one.
Grade: 6/10
