Burn Notice and Leverage
Apr. 23rd, 2009 07:35 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
alias_sqbrI keep meaning to post something long and thought-out but I'm just not going to get around to it.
So:
Burn Notice and Leverage are both fun, amusing, likable ex-cons/spies-on-capers-helping-the-little-guy shows. If you like that sort of thing you should check them out.
Burn Notice is about Michael, a spy who finds himself "burned" (kicked out and blacklisted) for no apparent reason. The overarching plot is him trying to figure out who burned him and why (this plot progresses at a satisfying pace throughout the 3 seasons I've seen) while making cash in the meantime as a sort of private detective/enforcer type, using his spy training and help of his ex-IRA ex-girlfriend and retired-spy buddy (BRUCE CAMPBELL) to totally kick the ass of the local low-lives in satisfying ways. One flaw is that beyond the gratuitous random shots of bikinis it's so racist that Cam found it annoying: the characters who aren't white and american are all fairly well developed but their plots are ALWAYS(*) stereotypical to their ethnicity ie black character-> hip hop and gangs, russian-> russian mafia and people smuggling etc, and white american bad guys only pick on white american victims (and are "better quality" criminals like con artists, not thugs and mobsters etc).
Leverage is about an ex insurance investigator who ends up (in a somewhat implausible way :)) running group of ex-cons who basically go around randomly helping people using their various skills on capers to bring down bad guys the law can't touch. Season one didn't have an overarching plot so much as it introduced a loose thread in one episode and then tied it off in the finale but it is fun, and more of an ensemble show. And I LOVE the characters. Hardison is this total geek in a "the writers have met actual geeks" sort of way, you have Lyndsey from Angel with a hilariously bad haircut, and Parker is just..ah it's awesome. (Sorry, ran out of squee spoons :))
(*)With one exception(**), the spotting of which is left as an exercise for the viewer.
(**)Yes, in three seasons! Admittedly we may have forgotten one, but there certainly weren't many.
So:
Burn Notice and Leverage are both fun, amusing, likable ex-cons/spies-on-capers-helping-the-little-guy shows. If you like that sort of thing you should check them out.
Burn Notice is about Michael, a spy who finds himself "burned" (kicked out and blacklisted) for no apparent reason. The overarching plot is him trying to figure out who burned him and why (this plot progresses at a satisfying pace throughout the 3 seasons I've seen) while making cash in the meantime as a sort of private detective/enforcer type, using his spy training and help of his ex-IRA ex-girlfriend and retired-spy buddy (BRUCE CAMPBELL) to totally kick the ass of the local low-lives in satisfying ways. One flaw is that beyond the gratuitous random shots of bikinis it's so racist that Cam found it annoying: the characters who aren't white and american are all fairly well developed but their plots are ALWAYS(*) stereotypical to their ethnicity ie black character-> hip hop and gangs, russian-> russian mafia and people smuggling etc, and white american bad guys only pick on white american victims (and are "better quality" criminals like con artists, not thugs and mobsters etc).
Leverage is about an ex insurance investigator who ends up (in a somewhat implausible way :)) running group of ex-cons who basically go around randomly helping people using their various skills on capers to bring down bad guys the law can't touch. Season one didn't have an overarching plot so much as it introduced a loose thread in one episode and then tied it off in the finale but it is fun, and more of an ensemble show. And I LOVE the characters. Hardison is this total geek in a "the writers have met actual geeks" sort of way, you have Lyndsey from Angel with a hilariously bad haircut, and Parker is just..ah it's awesome. (Sorry, ran out of squee spoons :))
(*)With one exception(**), the spotting of which is left as an exercise for the viewer.
(**)Yes, in three seasons! Admittedly we may have forgotten one, but there certainly weren't many.
