TV Rewind: Burn Notice Was the Best Show of USA Network’s Blue Sky Era
Photo Courtesy of USA TV Features Hulu
Editor’s Note: Welcome to our TV Rewind column! The Paste writers are diving into the streaming catalogue to discuss some of our favorite classic series as well as great shows we’re watching for the first time. Come relive your TV past with us, or discover what should be your next binge watch below:
As everyone probably knows by now, the legal drama Suits—a series that initially debuted in 2011—is somehow the most popular show of 2023, finding new life and a record-breaking number of eyeballs streaming on Netflix. But what you may not know is that Suits, in another life, served as a sort of grand finale to USA Network’s decade-plus reign of dominance on basic cable, the last in a long line of sunny, escapist series that were more concerned with simply being fun to watch from week to week than anything else. That something like USA’s so-called “Blue Sky era” not only existed but was actually incredibly popular at one time seems wildly improbable today, given our current entertainment landscape’s obsession with gritty dramas, complicated antiheroes, and lore-driven fantasy properties. But it was real, and it was great.
From Psych and Royal Pains to White Collar and Covert Affairs, USA’s warm, optimistic shows were the television equivalent of comfort food. Featuring quirky characters and witty banter, they never took themselves too seriously and favored broad cases of the week that were meant to simply entertain rather than require their audiences to unravel puzzle box mysteries or construct elaborate fan theories. But while Suits may be the former USA show getting all the buzz at the moment, it’s also busily overshadowing the best series the network once had to offer. Because if any USA drama deserves a shot at a pop cultural revival, it’s Burn Notice, a delightfully slick espionage thriller that relies on character dynamics as heavily as it does spy-craft.
Burn Notice, which premiered in 2007 and ran for seven seasons and over 110 episodes, was a ratings hit for USA, regularly bringing in anywhere from 5-7 million viewers a week at its peak, and even inspiring a skit on Saturday Night Live. Exciting and genuinely funny by turn thanks to its glossy production values, fast-paced dialogue, and love of wry title cards, its vibe is Miami Vice meets The A-Team with a surprisingly well-done second chance romance thrown on top for good measure.
If you ever watched a single episode of Burn Notice, you undoubtedly remember the series’ basic premise, which was spelled out via a Jeffrey Donovan-voiceover at the start of each episode. Say it with me: His name is Michael Westen. He used to be a spy. But thanks to the titular burn notice that’s been taken out on him, he’s been blacklisted and no longer has access to the cash or influence working for the CIA once afforded him. Stuck in Miami—a sunny, picturesque locale that is often at odds with his cynical, prickly nature—Michael makes ends meet (and helps others) as an unlicensed private investigator, and the show strikes a perfect balance between weekly cases and the ongoing mystery of who was responsible for burning him.
Donovan is perfectly cast as Michael, an international man of mystery with the heart of a tech geek and a soft spot for underdogs, he’s the kind of hero who ends up doing half his freelance jobs at a discount because he just can’t stop helping people that need it. A smart, charming try-hard who ended up in the CIA to escape an abusive home life, Michael’s a genuinely good person, albeit one who’s willing to do bad things when the situation calls for them. And he makes for a compelling hero, a man who is clearly better than the system he once served, and his frequent fourth-wall-breaking voiceovers both instruct viewers at home in the art of espionage and allow us to feel closer to him than we might otherwise.
As with any good USA series, Michael is joined by a charming cast of supporting characters who help him out with his various missions, and their relationships with one another form the true emotional backbone of the show. There’s his former IRA operative ex-girlfriend Fiona (Gabrielle Anwar), with whom he shares something of a star-crossed, occasionally combative romance for much of the show’s run. (And to be fair, they’re adorable, in a sort of hot and simultaneously dangerous way.) Fellow washed-up spy Sam Axe (Bruce Campbell) feeds the feds information about Michael even as the vaguely-professional connection between the pair deepens into a real friendship. And there’s his chain-smoking mother Madeline (Sharon Gless), who hides a soft heart under a veneer of blowsy attitude and with whom Michael slowly rebuilds a real relationship after years of semi-estrangement.
There’s certainly plenty of joy to be found watching Michael don disguises and embrace a variety of slightly ridiculous personas, whether the end goal is to infiltrate buildings (messenger outfits are a regular go-to) or to bring down local criminals (there are an awful lot of low-level drug dealers and insurance fraudsters in Miami). A key part of the fun of Burn Notice is that it lets the audience in on the con, laying out key pieces of Michael’s complex plans and explaining the technical details behind his homemade gadgets before allowing viewers to watch the events unfold onscreen. And Donovan’s everyday Bond vibes certainly help make the more ridiculous aspects of Michael’s story seem believable.
But Burn Notice shines brightest when it’s focused on the complex character dynamics at its core. Sure, we’re all curious about who burned Michael—and the show does answer that question eventually, before branching off into another, more complex conspiracy—but what inevitably keeps viewers coming back each week is the warm, messy found family at the series’ center. Michael, Sam, Fiona, Madeline, and, later in its run, a new team member named Jesse (Colby Bell), have all hurt and betrayed one another. But they also forgive, fight for, and put themselves in endless peril to save each other, and while Burn Notice never shied away from showing us the emotional damage this group repeatedly caused, it also did the work of showing us how those broken bonds not just healed, but grew stronger in the aftermath.
Look, Burn Notice probably isn’t ever going to land a spot on anyone’s greatest television shows of all time list. It’s not trying to make any sort of grand pronouncements about the moral state of humanity, wrestle with the complex tensions of global geopolitics, or make a case in either direction for the usefulness of the intelligence industrial complex. Instead, it is simply content to be what it is—a good story. And, let’s face it: a lot of shows have done far worse.
Lacy Baugher Milas is the Books Editor at Paste Magazine, but loves nerding out about all sorts of pop culture. You can find her on Twitter @LacyMB.
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