“My name is Michael Westen. I’m a spy.”

So begins each episode of the TV series Burn Notice.

I read that Saturday Night Live made fun of the TV series and as I’ve lately become a huge fan of the action-comedy program, I went to the Internet to watch the comedy sketch .

The comedy bit was a game show called What is Burn Notice?  The idea is that although the USA channel’s show is popular, many people have not heard of it and don’t know what it was about. The idea was clever, but the bit went on for too long, in my view.

I performed security work in the U.S. Navy and the Defense Department for many years, and as a writer, I cover intelligence, espionage and covert operations for Counterterrorism magazine and other publications, so I was aware of the origin of a burn notice.

A burn notice is issued by an intelligence agency to other allied intelligence agencies and notifies them that an asset (usually a foreign agent handled by a career intelligence officer) was unreliable, a fraud, or dirty, and should not be hired or trusted.

When the show premiered in 2007, some months before I retired from the Defense Department, a friend and coworker, an Army Lt. Colonel with the Defense Intelligence Agency, told me about Burn Notice and how much he liked it.

I read that in the show the burn notice meant that an intelligence agency stranded the agent in Miami, drained his bank account, canceled his credit cards and made him a virtual prisoner. That seemed a stretch to me, so I passed on watching the show.

Earier this year my stepson raved about the show and he loaned the first two seasons of Burn Notice on DVD to me and my wife and we eventually began to watch.

Created by Matt Nix, the show is part James Bond, part The Prisoner, and part The Rockford Files.  As I love all three of these influences, I became a fan of Burn Notice.  

Jeffery Donovan portrays Michael Westen, a spy and covert operator who is burned and dumped in Miami without money. He has an ex-girfriend, a former IRA gunrunner who is sleek and sexy and loves shooting people and blowing up things. Gabrielle Anwar portrays Fiona Glenanne, the beautiful and tough ex-girlfriend who happens to be in Miami.

Bruce Campbell portrays Sam Axe, a former U.S. Navy SEAL and intelligence officer who also happens to be in Miami – informing on his friend Michael to the FBI.

Lastly, Sharon Gless portrays Michael’s overbearing mother, Madeline, who lives in the Miami home that Michael escaped from a couple of decades before.

Because he is burned and broke, he has to rely on his friends and his mother and he takes on work as a security consultant and investigator, helping down and out clients who rarely pay him. 

The show has some very good action sequences and the humor is abundant. Westen’s voice-over makes the show for me. In the voice-over, Westen explains the world of spies, covert operators, criminals, terrorists, firearms and explosives – and much of what he says is surprisingly accurate. His voice-over also allows for his clever and dry wit, one source of the show’s humor.

Like Patrick McGoohan’s former spy in the 1960’s, Westen is a prisoner (although if you have to be a prisoner, Miami is not a bad place to be imprisoned) and half of the plots involve Westen’s continuing investigation into the mystery of who burned him and why. The other half of the plots involve his helping clients who are the victims of bad guys, much like James Garner’s Jim Rockford character in the 1970s.

Like Rockford, Westen relies on his friends and family, and like Rockford, Westen tolerates odd-ball re-occuring characters who make his life miserabale.

The show is very funny and the action is fast-paced and well done. Jeffery Donovan looks like a lean, tough special ops guy and he handles the fight scenes very well. Bruce Campbell’s Sam Axe provides comic relief as the retired SEAL who forever talks about the older women he romances for financial support. He is also the guy who knows guys and he reaches out to his many friends to help Westen help the clients.

I watched the first two seasons on DVD and now I’m watching the new season three episodes on Thursday nights on USA.

So if you like action, comedy, interesting characters, sweaping shots of Florida beaches and girls in bikinis, and a sexy, tough woman who knows guns and explosives, then you should check out Burn Notice.                                              

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