Burn Notice: Season 4

When you're a spy, you learn a special set of skills that help you do your job and stay alive. But what do you do with those skills when you are fired? That's the dilemma that Michael Westen has been facing ever since being fired from his job at the CIA and dumped in Miami. And it's also the premise of Burn Notice. Season 4 is as hot and exciting as the previous seasons have been.This season finds a big shake up to the cast. Yes, Michael (Jeffrey Donovan) is still the main character. When he gets in situations that are over his head, he still calls on former girlfriend and gun dealer Fiona (Gabrielle Anwar) and ex-seal Sam Axe (Bruce Campbell). His mom Madeline (Sharon Gless) is even still around to drive him crazy. So what's the change? They've added Jesse (Coby Bell) to the team. In the season 4 premier, Michael is trying to get some information for the puppet masters that burned him (so he can use it against them) and inadvertently burns Jesse in the process. So Jesse joins their team, all the time vowing to take down the person who burned him, not knowing its Michael.Even given this extra character, the setup of each episode is pretty much the same. There's a case of the week that Michael is reluctantly drawn in to. They help a lawyer targeted for death by a biker gang. Michael and Sam get taken hostages while trying to help a conned man get his money back. A clinic doctor is harassed by drug dealers. Fiona and a client's wife get kidnapped. Michael even goes to prison to help a man escape before he is murder.But each episode also continues the overall storyline. This season, Michael is closing in on a list of those who burned him, but he's in a race for that list with some very bad people. Will he get it and clear his name or will he wind up dead?People seem to be in two camps on the new character of Jesse. Some argue that it messed with the chemistry of the characters and was an unnecessary change to the show. I usually fall into the "If it ain't broke, why are you fixing it" camp myself, and I can certainly see their point. However, I liked Jesse. The fact that he shook up the dynamics on the show is a good thing, in my opinion. They play a bit with a love triangle involving Michael, Jesse, and Fiona, which actually adds something to the will they/won't they tension that Michael and Fiona have had all along. Plus the storyline he gets in the second half of the season adds a depth to the show that it hasn't had before. No, Jesse wasn't a necessary change, but I think he was a good one.Even without Jesse, this show is still great. The case that the gang works on each week is always very entertaining. I watch the show for that more than anything else. They always manage to throw in some twist I didn't see coming, and I am always wondering how they will get out of the mess they are in. Naturally, they do it with lots of car crashes and explosions. This is the best action show currently on TV. I don't know what their budget is, but I buy just about every moment of their effects and stunts.The ongoing story is a bit of a mixed bag. Either I'm bad at remembering what is happening from week to week or they throw things in at random that don't necessarily make sense from what happened last week. I've given up trying to keep track of all the twists and turns and just let the story unfold. While it doesn't seem to be as tight as I would like, I still find this aspect of the show fun and entertaining. I will say this, with how they left things in season 4, I don't see how they will move forward in season 5, but I can't wait to find out.The acting on this show is top notch as well. The main cast knows their characters and does what each scene calls for whether it is action, a bit of humor, or more dramatic emotional stuff. And the guest stars never let us down either.Season 4 upped the usual episode order to 18, and all those episodes are in this four disc set in widescreen and full surround sound. Extras include deleted scenes, a gag reel, a featurette about the stunts, audio commentaries, and "Sam Axe's Guide to Ladies and Libations." The creators of this show and White Collar are friends and have a lot of fun giving each other a hard time, which explains the pair of features "Burn Notice Roasts White Collar" and "White Collar Roasts Burn Notice," both of which can be found on the season two set of White Collar as well.Burn Notice has always been a fun, action packed show, and season 4 is no different. You'll soon find yourself caught up in the action and twists of these fun stories.

Very entertaining show

Spoiler alert w/re some plot pointsLove the cast (Jesse took a bit of getting used to but added drama needed to keep it fresh and Michael struggling. Fond of him now.--can respect the choice to challenge us w/re the drama.) Fabulous, fabulous acting and great balance of humor and drama....Love it so much I would give it 5 stars...however, I see some signs the shark is circling (as in "jump the shark" as in heading toward the end). First the product placements are so obvious they break the third wall--doing surveillance in an electric blue car? And that voice over about braking and power when driving-- just flash "Commercial" on the screen and turn and face us when selling. That would be more respectful of your audience. And all the obvious cell phone flashing so the brand could be read-- he's tossing them out, why buy a costly one? Sheesh. Suddenly the team had the money for $500 accounts/phones that will be discarded? Where'd it come from? (If the car was stolen, they wouldn't have kept it all season). And why aren't they using the money to buy spy stuff rather than jury-rigging things? (Oh right, they got a hand scanner (another product placed)--sorry those things are slower than cameras and cameras come with features to focus on up close shots-- or just use a rig to stabilize and take 5 shots in the time it takes to scan one).Product placement got less intrusive toward the end of the season (except for that electric blue car) -- kudos to whoever had the sense/guts to reign in the crassness.More seriously perhaps, the logic of the plots wasn't anywhere as tight as in the prior seasons. I'm not the sort to look for flaws in scripts -- this is escapist fair --and I'm not a person who has a spy sensibility at all (one of the reasons I like watching the show)... but when I'm yelling at the screen "Shoot at the cop cars (to alert them to your presence)" in the last episode...and "take a digital camera and take a picture of each page of the coded Bible (or use that hand scanner)...and then they didn't even do that with the USB drive(take a photo of the computer screens!?)-- Has one of the blows to his head produced brain damage in Michael...and Fiona...and Sam...and Jesse? Gomer Pyle (Gomer PYLE!) used to say "fool me once (Lost the Bible) shame on you. Fool me twice (Lost the thumb drive) shame on you." This is a selected list of plot holes, there isn't enough room to list them all. (e.g., stupid reason to turn over Bible-- as if he hadn't thought of it until then. These are supposedly professionals who have made a point of planning and practicing..then suddenly they are "making it up as they go along?" Again I say "sheesh"!)You attract a smart audience-- respect them or we'll go elsewhere. I really don't want the show to jump the shark. Pretty please.To potential buyers, having said all this, if you enjoyed the first seasons, you'll still enjoy this if you focus on the acting and not the plots. You can tell how good the acting is because they can still make hard to believe scripts fun. I suppose one could turn spotting the product placements into an amusing game of some sort.

Series Four keeps on delivering on all the things that long time fans love. When the format is this right, why mess about with it. The dynamic between the three leads continues to be good natured, and there is a new addition with another burnt spy. The individual stories are probably stronger than the over-all story arc, which I must confess has me a bit baffled by this stage. Some welcome cameos, and returning characters help liven up things.Series four is still a refreshing and at times surprisingly tense take on character based comedy spy thriller shenanigans.

One of the best and greatest TV series to hit the UK over the past years. Every episode of each series is great, action and good sprinkle of comedy where and when needed, and most of all, a great cast. I have all four current series, looking forward very much to series five. It is one of those TV series to slip under the radar but i am sure now it is on everyones screen.

This series is fantastic. Action packed, imaginative and funny and gritty at the same time. A friend of mine heard me and others raving about it at work and wanted to see it from the start so I got him the first two seasons last Christmas. He loved it so have done the same this year, buying seasons 3 and 4. Really cheap for an entire series of such high quality.

Great series, all the family enjoy it. Would recommend all of burn notice series.DVD came on time, one little niggle was that inside of box, the place where the disc should be-clicked into was broken. DVDs were fine but disc was loose.

A great entertaining series but sadly half way through the series the remaining discs kept freezing and pixilating which spoilt viewing.Too late to return because by the time you notice this the date for return has expired.