I knew I wasn’t the only one
-
- August
- 11
Well, of course Stephanie Dube agreed with me, because she has impeccable taste in television, but I was nonetheless glad to see this post the other day on BlogCritics.
Last week’s Burn Notice was good. Interesting, the overarching plot moved ahead a teensy bit, the humor was there … blah, blah, blah.
But I couldn’t put my finger on the reason why it was so difficult for me to blog about it. I’ve enjoyed the last few episodes of BN, but I just don’t, well, care.
Here’s a paragraph from the BlogCritics review that struck me:
It kind of made me feel like too many episodes of Burn Notice are done with fill-in-the-blank scripts: The week, Michael will be going up against _ (insert name of nefarious activity, i.e., gambling, drug-running, grand theft auto ring, here). The case will be referred to him by (friend, ex-friend, ex-co-worker, or family member, etc.). Michael will initially refuse the case due to (date with Fiona, helping Sam with something, too busy with his own problem, etc.), but finally acquiesces when he learns that _ (client’s family is in trouble, his mom will guilt-trip him, the money is too good to pass up). Along the way, this case will jeopardize his learning more about his own problems due to the amount of time the case takes. Eventually though, Michael solves the case. In the end though He does/does not (circle one) progress on finding out who burned him.
I agree with the writer, that hopefully the show is undergoing a bit of a sophomore slump and hopefully it’ll get better.
I don’t want to get tired of the series, and I even liked the episode itself. But my patience is indeed being tested. Something’s gotta happen. The preview for next week showed Michael being offered a job by the folks who burned him.
Maybe that’ll be different enough.
I hope. Few shows have as good a cast with scripts this good and humor this sly.
But those that do are generally a bit more enjoyable than BN’s become.
This entry was posted
on Monday, August 11th, 2008 at 11:43 pm by Amy Vernon.
You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
Print
| 
Email
Now that you mention it, “Chuck” follows a bit of the same formula, but enough happens from episode to episode—especially in the last half of Season 1—to keep the viewer invested. And “Chuck” Season 2.0 looks even more exciting.
Thanks for the plug! Glad to know I have impeccable taste.
Very interesting blog you found. Reading that quote, maybe that’s why I’m not excited about Burn Notice, too. It does feel formulaic, like you know exactly what’s going to happen in each show and how it’s going to end. It’s fun and funny, but there’s no tension, no worry, no mystery that we truly care about… Like you, I hope that improves soon.