Reviewed by Kevin Finnerty
“I’ve just been fighting for so long and she was all I had left,” says Michael Westen (Jeffrey Donovan) to his best friend, Sam Ax (Bruce Campbell), after seeing his girlfriend, Fiona (Gabrielle Anwar), being taken away by Federal Agents in the sixth season opener of the action drama Burn Notice.
Picking up right where season five left off, Fiona turned herself into the Feds for the bombing of a building which killed two guards, freeing up Michael from being forced to follow the orders of Anson (Jere Burns) who framed Fiona for the crime and as it turns out was the mastermind behind burning Michael Westen all along. Now that Anson no longer has any leverage to use against Michael, the hunt is on with Sam and Mike getting information that Anson is fleeing in a green Jaguar headed to one of the marinas. Not about to let Anson escape, Mike steals a large diesel truck and with Sam’s help (he keeps the traffic behind the truck back far enough by driving the classic Dodge Charger all over the road), Westen jackknife’s the truck and sets it a blaze, causing an extremely effective road block. The two determined men now double back on the side of the highway looking for Anson’s Jaguar, which should be stuck in the traffic jam.
Meanwhile, Fiona sits in an interrogation room handcuffed to a table when an old C.I.A. associate of Michael’s walks in to take down her statement and tries to persuade her to implicate Michael Westen in the bombing. As Fiona begins telling him the truth of what happened, the interrogator makes it very clear he has no interest in “this Anson person” and keeps bringing up Westen every chance he gets.
Spotting an abandoned green Jaguar, Mike and Sam ask a stuck motorist if he saw where the driver went. He points to a chemical plant not far off. As Sam and Mike begin to head over to the plant, Westen’s phone rings and it’s Anson who tells Michael that he should give up hunting him and go save his mother from the hired mentally unstable assassin that Anson has sent to kill her.
Action-packed and intense, the Burn Notice season six opener brings the series back stronger and better than its previous season. Jeffrey Donovan is perfect as the decent, lethal, wrongly burned spy Michael Westen who has only ever wanted one thing – to clear his name and find the people responsible for ruining his life. This time though it’s Westen who is losing his edge, giving in to fits of rage, panic and sorrow which clearly affects his usually almost perfect coldly calculating judgement. Bruce Campbell is hands down playing the best character of his career, Michael’s best friend and ex-navy seal Sam Ax. He is both the comic relief of the show and the one character who seems to almost always save Michael – as well as Fiona and Mike’s mom – from certain death. Gabrielle Anwar literally sits this episode out as Fiona, the gun-smuggling explosives expert girlfriend of Michael’s who’s main problem this season seems to be trying to stay one step ahead of her interrogators who seem determined to implicate Michael Westen in any illegal activity.
The spy drama known for its high energy action scenes launches its new season with two shoot-outs, two car chases, a fist fight, and two very big explosions. That’s more action in one hour of prime time television than in most two hour big screen action films. The only element missing from this particular episode is the classic tongue-in-cheek one-liners from Westen and Ax, which have always kept the show from getting too serious and dark.
With such high caliber performances, stand out production, and top notch writing, Burn Notice is a show not to be missed this summer.
GRADE: B+
Burn Notice Season 6 premiered on June 14, 2012. The series airs on USA Network on Thursdays at 10-11 p.m. ET.
