Burn Notice Season One

Rating NR Formats DVD Genre television series Starring Jeffrey Donovan, Gabrielle Anwar, Bruce Campbell, Sharon Gless Directed by Paul Holahan, John T. Kretchmer, Jeremiah S. Chechik, Rod Hardy, Tim Matheson Publisher 20th Century Fox

The USA Network television series, Burn Notice, which aired from June to September of 2007, is a hilarious twist on the typical spy fiction genre. It is the story of Michael Weston, played by Jeffrey Donovan, an American spy, who has been “burned” by someone else in the business. While ordinary people in America get fired from their jobs, spies get burned or disavowed by the government, which means that they lose their identities and everything associated with them. Season One is all about Michael trying to find out who burned him, trying to avoid the Feds that are tailing him at all times, and trying to earn a few bucks to survive on by doing seemingly random jobs. He seems to have been turned into more of a private detective, out of necessity and need, and picks up maybe a couple hundred dollars per job. He gets help from his shifty womanizing friend Sam (Bruce Campbell), his ex-girlfriend Fiona (Gabrielle Anwar) and his nagging mother (Sharon Gless). The features of this series that make it loveable are the constant humor and the over-narration by Michael that explains all of the subtle features of the action. 

Special features, most of them located on the fourth disk, include several montages of footage taken from the actual show: one showing the repetition of words and phrases throughout the season, one of the many instances of female bodies, and one of action sequences. While seeing these clips put together into a musical montage can be kind of entertaining for a fan of the show, it seems like a trick to get “special features” that don’t even include bonus footage. In addition to the disappointing montages, viewers get a short—and sad to say, not too funny—gag reel, the audition tapes of both Jeffrey Donovan and Gabrielle Anwar, and a music video for the television show Saving Grace, of course completely unrelated for many Burn Notice fans.

Throughout the eleven episodes, there is optional scene-specific commentaries by members of the cast and the creator of the show, including Matt Nix, Jeffrey Donovan, Gabrielle Anwar, Bruce Campbell, and Sharon Gless. These commentaries are a bit more interesting than the unfulfilling “special features” showcased on the last disk. The cast seems to be sitting in the same room speaking over the scenes as they come up, for the benefit of the audience. The majority of the comments discuss the actors’ opinions or the creator’s visions for a certain scene, sequence or character, and while they are interesting, it still feels like a cheap trade for the anticipated special features—as long as they are advertised on the case, Burn Notice fans will be expecting an Easter egg, or at least never-before-seen footage. Don’t expect that from this Season One box set. 

Even the DVD menus are deceptively disappointing. At a first glance, the menu screens appear to be chock full of special features as the viewer scrolls from one screen to the next for each episode, but in reality the features are just ordinary (language choices, scene selection, and the optional commentary) but spread out. Another complaint about the main menu selection for each disk: without the episode list in hand (fortunately one is included on the back of each disk’s box!) there is no way of knowing which episode comes next. The episodes are not numbered and are not placed in a listed order that is easily navigable for the viewer. 

Burn Notice’s Season One box set is highly anticipated due to the show’s great success in its first season. It boasts a fantastic cast that works together well, in combination with their own personalities and that of the show’s creator and screenwriters: Matt Nix and company. In spite of some of the strange features of the show that go unexplained (What happened to Fiona’s Irish accent? What happened to Michael’s overly hysterical mom and where did the tough mom come from?) the show became a popular success in 2007 and is set to resume with season two on July 10, 2008. While the show itself deserves credit for its popularity, the disappointing box set deserves only two stars at best.