Well, I finally finished the last Burn Notice episode. Michael Weston's story arc--will his efforts to save his career, reputation and country cause him to lose his soul? (along with a concussion, a sinus infection and some writing avoidance) --kept me binge watching through all seven seasons. Yes, his acting was extraordinary. Yes, he seemed to go to the depths of the human soul. Yes, there's a but coming. It's all about the writing.The trope of Weston at the mercy of evil geniuses with world-ruling ambitions, it got tiresome after the fifth iteration, no matter how fabulous the performances. (By the way, did you notice how the "clients" were almost all eminently forgettable--intentionally so it seems--while the villains were mostly top-notch character actors?) Bruce Campbell and Coby Bell as Michael Weston's best buddies, became cutesy sidekicks after awhile--a waste of great talent--while the brilliant Sharon Gless and Gabrielle Anwar remained anything but.
Still, Anwar's Fiona Glenanne had to fight against a one-note character who got profoundly noble and then had to keep saying, "Michael, you're losing yourself, and I can't watch it anymore," for seven long years. Gless had a more powerful character arc, and she worked it like the pro she is--and I get the arc about her willingness to sacrifice for her family--but honestly, after seven years of watching Fiona and Michael invent detonators out of a tampon, some sealing wax and borax, are you telling me that Madeline Weston and Jesse Porter couldn't think of anything better than her sitting in her living room with a ciggie and the blast button, blowing herself to pieces? "This is for my boys."
And of course, they had fun blowing up the last building.
