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Burn Notice: Season Two
[Blu-ray]
Blu-ray A - America - Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment Review written by and copyright: Jeremiah Chin (24th August 2009). |
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The Show
 Crafting an effective spy or crime show takes an amount of tension that needs serialized continuous storytelling. Some of the greats from past years like “Alias” (2001-2006), “OZ” (1997-2003) or “The Wire” (2002-2008) have known that to bring you into the characters you need a running storyline to keep their world interesting and exciting, with some amount of risk involved. With a more clean-cut show like “Burn Notice” (2007-Present) it acknowledges the need for a running undercurrent plot, spliced in with the ‘job of the week’ storytelling that allows for variation. However the show is underwhelmingly slick without having the sort of conspiracy drama or depth of its superiors. Sure the casting is good for what the show aims to accomplish, but I wish the showrunners would have aimed higher, either in terms of drama or action, to help pull the whole show into something more than a glossy ex-spy drama. The show’s title refers to former covert-ops agent Michael Western (Jeffrey Donovan) who has been burned, or marked as a dangerous agent and disavowed, only to be left in Miami with no excuses or reasons for being burned, along with no job, money or friends other than some other former agents. For the second season, Michael has come a little bit closer to finding out who burned him, but without any real identity or tracking evidence. Much of this comes about trying to figure out the identity of the mysterious Carla (Tricia Helfer) who may have lead to him getting burned in the first place. Of course Carla has plans of her own for Michael, forcing him to play her games until he can uncover enough about her. If the main show’s plot seems a little thin it’s because the show tends to favor the model of self-contained drama per episode, often bookended by separate missions tied back to the idea of Michael Western getting burned. And for what it is, it works as watchable television that manages to throw Bruce Campbell more work as Sam, the older friend who provides comic relief and assistance on missions. Campbell is by far my favorite thing about the show and helps to keep it in the realm of watchable television, though it doesn’t get much further. I don’t really care about what happens to any of the characters, but I’m willing to watch them move from plot point to plot point if I feel the need to have the TV on for background. It doesn’t grab my full attention, but it’s still good enough that you can feel safe that you could get some entertainiment out of watching “Burn Notice” if none of your favorite shows are on and you feel like just lazing around with some good ol’ fashioned TV that requires no commitment. And there are some good guest appearances in this season to help keep the show moving, especially with it’s client-per-episode structure, featuring some good “Lost” (2004-2010) alumni, like Andrew Divioff and Patrick Fischler, along with Michael Shanks and the one and only Method Man. Shanks is the only one who has a recurring role, but for their individual episodes Divioff, Fischler and Method Man bring a great fresh flavor to each episode. Not to say that Bruce Campbell can get boring, but they help bring more to the core acting trio of Donovan, Campbell and Gabrielle Anwar. The biggest disconnect for me is just the filming and editing style of the show that tries so hard to be slick, but gets a little annoying with some of the fading cuts and flashbacks. Much of this comes from just the sheer amount of history that exists in the spy/crime series repitoire of pausing, zooming or slow motioning on specific objects to make sure the audience catches on. Granted, the voiceovers by Donovan help with the movement of these shots in explaing what spies do or what spies want to do, but it’s already a little tiresome before the show starts trying to throw it in there and helps bring the show down from gathering my full attention span to a more background show that I enjoy listening to and glancing at when Bruce Campbell or a good guest star appears on screen. Overall “Burn Notice” falls into the one night stand category of television, if it’s what’s on I’ll watch it, but I’m not going to spend my time committing to the series. This isn’t a TV show you take home to mom (even though my mom does enjoy herself some “Burn Notice”) since it’s quality isn’t really up to my standards, but it has enough to offer in the right spots to buy some of my time every now and them. Campbell makes everything more watchable and I’m not sure where the show would be without him, but Donovan and Anwar are still good enough in their own right, I just have my reservations about the show’s overall format. It may be that there aren’t enough weird quirks to the show to add the spices that I like to the relationship, but as it stands I could take it or leave it. Episodes included in the season are: - "Breaking and Entering" - "Turn and Burn" - "Trust Me" - "Comrades" - "Scatter Point" - "Bad Blood" - "Rough Seas" - "Double Booked" - "Good Soldier" - "Do No Harm" - "Hot Spot" - "Seek and Destroy" - "Bad Breaks" - "Truth & Reconciliation" - "Sins of Omission" - "Lesser Evil"
Video
After catching the show on standard definition television it looked fairly crisp there and seeing it on HDTV it still looked crisp. When I saw the widescreen 1.78:1 1080p 24/fps with AVC MPEG-4 encoding @ 17 mbps transfer, I was incredibly disappointed. In a word the transfer is inconsistent. It delivers the full television experience, hailing from the days of rabbit ears when your signal would occasionally be thrown out of wack by someone walking or brushing against the antenna accidentally as every few or so scenes will have a thick level of grain that delves into static interference. I’m tempted to say someone decided to pull the dvd transfer onto Blu-ray HD rather than simply transfer the HD episodes to disc form, just based on some of the scene’s visual quality. Others are still great quality, so inconsistency is the best I can say about the transfer as the colors can either pop or die under different conditions.
Audio
Fareing better than it’s visual counterpart the audio brings a more consistently solid transfer with the English DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track mixed at 48kHz/16-bit that doesn’t have the full pop of a motion picture, but I don’t expect that out of a television show. For what it is, it has a better grip on what the soundtrack needs to accomplish in alancing music cues and ambient noises with dialogue. The sound of the show helps to add to the feeling of attempted slickness that I get from the show’s visual style, but I find it somehow less frustrating since it’s a fairly easy to listen to and just tune in and out of unlike the visuals. There are also optional English, French and Spanish subtitles.
Extras
The 3-disc Blu-ray set is fairly underwhelming in terms of special features, giving only a handful of audio commentaries on select episodes with some deleted scenes on select episodes, a featurette, gag reel and bonus trailers. DISC ONE: First is the audio commentary on episode 6 “Bad Blood” with director Bronwen Hughes, actor Ben Watkins, episode co-writer Rashad Raisani, creator and episode co-writer Matt Nix, writer/actor Rob Benedict and guest star Method Man. The large crew of commentators puts together a solid track that doesn’t pause to much or try to talk over each other and the regular crew gives fair room to Method Man to throw in his comments, which are as big of a help to the commentary as they are the show. There’s a lot of joking between them all, but Method Man cracks me up every time as he raves about Bruce Campbell, while the crew and other actors talk about the making-of the show and some of the shot choices and scene selections which is half as interesting as whatever Method Man has to say. Next are the deleted scenes, which are all packaged together based on episode rather than by scene: - “Breaking and Entering” runs total for 1 minute and 2 seconds. Scene 30: Michael and Jimmy try to enter the building undercover. - “Trust Me” runs for 1 minute and 54 seconds. Scene 6: Michael and Sam chat about the potential for an international incident and his car gets scratched. Scene 18: Sam talks about dry rub ribs and wings. Scene 29: Fiona talks undercover about her friend. - “Comrades” runs for 43 seconds. Scene 49: Michael and Nate talk about Nate’s injuries. There's a bonus trailer on the disc for: - “Burn Notice” spot runs for 32 seconds. DISC TWO: The audio commentary on this disc is on episode 8, “Double Booked” with actor/director Tim Matheson, co-writer Jason Tracey, co-writer Craig O’Neil and creator Matt Nix. Even without Method Man the commentary flows smoothly and brings together set jokes and information about producing the episode, like how they brought Matheson on as director before asking him to play Larry in the episode, or what each different actor’s portrayals do for the character, even what was and wasn’t ad libbed. “Nixin’ it up on ‘Burn Notice’” featurette runs for 13 minutes and 57 seconds and speaks mostly with Matt Nix about directing episode 210, from how he dealt with the actors moving from creator/writer/executive producer role into the director’s chair. It’s an interesting look into Nix’s transition, but as the only featurette on the set it’s a bit of slim pickings. Sure there are some behind-the-scenes shots from pre-production through production itself, though entirely focused on episode 210 “ Do No Harm.” A nice featurette for this singular episode and a bit of insight into the overall arc of the season, but still fairly meager for being the lone featurette. Deleted scenes included are: - “Double Booked” runs for 3 minutes and 30 seconds. Scene 19: Fiona talks with Jeannie about the new rules of the house. Scene 36: Michael talks about what happened to Drew and Jeannie rewards Michael and Fiona. Scene 41: Fiona and Michael talk about dating troubles. - “Do No Harm” runs for 2 minutes and 57 seconds. Scene 13: Michael and his mom talk about Nate’s charges. Scene 19: Sam and Michael have a brief talk about what needs to be done. Scene 22: Sam walks in to interrogate. Scene 27: Sam listens in. Scene 44: Sam tests the phone. There's a bonus trailer on the disc for: - “Burn Notice” spot runs for 32 seconds. DISC THREE: The final audio commentary is on the season finale “Lesser Evil” with creator Matt Nix and actors Bruce Campbell and Michael Shanks. Nix wisely allows Campbell to dominate the commentary with good jokes and banter, but everyone gets their due time to talk about the production of the show and how they got from each point and why they did each scene. Campbell should be allowed to be a commentary producer for every commentary track that comes out since he seems to know when to ask the right questions to keep the track moving or to bring out the right part of the scene. A solid commentary. Deleted scenes included are for: - “Truth and Reconciliation” runs for 30 seconds. Scene 38: Michael gets accused of being a liar. - “Lesser Evil” runs for 25 seconds. Scene X31: More different and varied shots of the car chace. Finally the gag reel runs for 10 minutes and 22 seconds, maybe the longest gag reel I’ve ever seen, with typical gag reel fodder. It’s impressive that they put together so many gags, but honestly having this as one of two featurettes on the entire set is a little embarrassing. Bonus trailers on the disc are for: - “Burn Notice” runs for 32 seconds. - “The Pink Panther 2” runs for 1 minute and 59 seconds. - “12 Rounds” runs for 2 minutes and 23 seconds. There’s also a special feature that has no name, but is simply an image of a pair of sunglasses and may be the laziest Easter egg I’ve ever seen on a Blu-ray or DVD. It’s an insider parody on “Burn Notice” called "Boom Notice" about a boom operator helping people out on an episode of “Burn Notice.” A cheap parody put together by the crew, for the crew.
Packaging
The 3-discs are packaged in a regular Blu-ray case with a partition in the middle.
Overall
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