Preview: Burn Notice Returns to “A Dark Road”

By: Stephanie Sigafoos

Last week, Maureen Ryan of the Chicago Tribune wrote about the predictability of certain shows – those that stick to a formula and rarely move outside their comfort zone from one episode to the next.

USA Network’s Burn Notice made her list, but more for its MacGyver-esque technology and Michael Westen’s ever-changing cover IDs that keep things intriguing from week-to-week. Ryan gave the show three stars, calling the winter season premiere (Thursday 10pm EST) “satisfying and enjoyable.”

This is where I’ll chime in with a rather healthy disagreement.

“A Dark Road” picks up where the mid-season finale left off, and after arguments, kidnappings, gun battles, things going boom and the near death of a main character … you couldn’t help but feel the show was riding a roller coaster at a speed it couldn’t sustain.

Suffice to say, Burn Notice may have hit the brakes a little harder than necessary.

Thursday’s episode is structured around the reunion of Cagney and Lacey co-stars Tyne Daly and Sharon Gless. The former plays Tina, a gatekeeper turned intelligence asset once Michael and Sam discover she’s the key to stopping an insurance scam that left their client’s husband dead (he was supposed to fake a neck injury, file suit and walk away with enough money to guarantee his family’s financial future. Instead he died in a multi-car pileup).

It’s fun watching Gless and Daly in the scenes they have together. The women share the same hairstyle, wardrobe and cigarette brand, and manage to become fast friends despite Madeline talking Tina into handing over sealed medical documents – a move that could get her fired. But when Michael tells his mom, “She’s not a friend, she’s an asset,” Madeline’s anger surfaces and rides a wave that crests in the last commercial break.

The resolution of the caper is not particularly interesting, bogged down with seemingly endless voiceovers, car chases and a southern persona that Jeffrey Donovan doesn’t quite get a handle on (and the tobacco use? Eww. I’d rather just see him smoke a cigarette then stuff a wad of chew in his lip).

The redeeming point comes in the closing minutes of the show, when Donovan and Gless get some weighty material to work with that may start to redefine Michael’s relationship with his mom. Both actors do a phenomenal job in the scene, which may have you reaching for the tissues is you’re sensitive at all about the interplay among main characters.

The show also lays the groundwork to introduce a new character as part of the ongoing “who burned Michael” story arc, but exactly who he is and what he wants won’t come to light just yet – unfortunate when Burn Notice hits an hour where it needed to fan the flames and pick up the pace rather than simply spin the tires.

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Posted by Adam Wright on January 20, 2010. Filed under Features, Preview. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry