Monday, 19 December 2011

DVD Reviews - Burn Notice

Burn Notice: Season 4
Starring: Jeffrey Donovan, Gabrielle Anwar, Bruce Campbell
20th Century Fox Home Entertainment
Available from 26/11/11 on DVD
Review by Rob Wade

Michael Weston is a blacklisted spy who finds himself stranded in sun-soaked Miami. Season 4 commences with a new counterintelligence expert who loves to fight bad guys just as much as Michael does. Completing the team with the undercover agent are Fiona, an ex-IRA operative, and Sam, ex-military intelligence muscle (played by E14 favourite Bruce Campbell).

As someone who hadn't given a second thought to a number of series passing me by, this was always one of the ones in peripheral vision, mainly because of the presence of Bruce Campbell on my Twitter feed, where a bunch of people praise him endlessly for his presence in the series. Campbell is certainly a highlight, but the premise of the series is strong in itself, a mix of 007 and The A-Team with Weston's team taking on work as mercenaries for people in need. The casting in the series is one of the strongest points of the show, with all the players in Weston's team a perfect fit for their roles.

One of the nice things about the series is that the team have a flexible moral agenda, only concerning themselves with what they need to do to get the job done for their client, whoever that may be. Along with this episode format, the series also has a side-plot with Michael trying to tie up loose ends from the previous season. Although this plot is interesting, what's good is that this plot isn't too saturated through the story, and the cast performing each task changes up every episode to keep it fresh.

If there's one complaint to be made of this series, it's that sometimes the show can be a victim of one of its strongest features. The writing in the series is strong as hell, and some of the one-liners are pure gold. However, at times it almost feels like the dialogue is too fast for its own good, with characters zinging lines artificially fast sometimes. On the other hand, Bruce Campbell FTW. Oh, and there's an episode starring Burt Reynolds for additional win.

The Emotionally Fourteen Rating
Violence: Guns, car chases and so on. Typical spy movie fare in many ways.
Sex/Nudity: Lots of bikini-clad attractive women.
Swearing: "Son of a bitch" is probably the strongest term on show.
Summary: One of the most refreshing and original series I've seen in some time. 9/10

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