"Burn Notice" creator nods to Magnum

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#1 Post by **ConchRepublican** » Thu Jul 16, 2009 3:11 pm

http://www.thefutoncritic.com/rant.aspx ... burnnotice

Very cool . . . (BTW, I think Burn Notice is more of an Equalizer meets Magnum)

07.16.09 - 12:03 AM]
INTERVIEW: "BURN NOTICE" CREATOR MATT NIX TALKS SPIES & "MAGNUM, P.I."
By Jim Halterman

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USA's "Burn Notice," which opened season three with series-high ratings, is exploring life for former intelligence agent Michael Westen (Jeffrey Donovan) now that he's free of those who burned him. True to form though, Michael's life continues to be complicated whether it's a result of the cases he takes on, former foes he encounters or his erratic personal life. Our Jim Halterman talked to series creator Matt Nix about the current season, the romantic entanglements of its characters and its recurring rogue's gallery.

Jim Halterman: Did shows like "Magnum PI" or "MacGyver" influence you when you were creating "Burn Notice?"

Matt Nix: It's funny you say that. I have nothing against "MacGyver" and obviously I know why they say "MacGyver" but I was never a "MacGyver" watcher. I think I saw it but it wasn't a big thing in my life. It's funny, my great aunt, almost for Tom Selleck's entire career she retired recently - she was his publicist. I've never met him but, oddly enough, I've met Selleck's parents. I've never laid eyes on the man but I grew up initially knowing about my aunt's friend, Tom, and then realizing that that was Tom Selleck who had a television show. Part of it was just that the voiceovers were a big part of the conception of the show and it's a voiceover of a different kind. Magnum would talk about his feelings about things or attitudes about things and Michael Westen is usually talking about technique but the tone of the voiceovers is absolutely influenced.

JH: Before the show, did you know about 'burn notices' or did you stumble about it in researching the show?

MN: I stumbled upon it in research kind of before I pitched the pilot so it was something that I happened to cross. I was interested in doing a show that showcased spy skills outside of a spy context. I was more interested in spies as people and those abilities and habit of mind and a way of looking at the world than doing an actual espionage show where we run around the world and break into the Embassy of Guam. When I stumbled across the 'burn notice' phenomenon, it was kind of in the news at the time because various people got burn notices around the Iraq war. A real burn notice can take any number of forms. Essentially, it's just a 'don't work with this guy' notice but the impact that that has on you varies based on who you were in the intelligence community. So if your identity and bank accounts and everything depend on you being a spy then you're totally screwed.

JH: We know Michael really cares for his family even though they bug the hell out of him but how did that become such an important part of the show?

MN: For me, what's interesting is a lot of the inspiration for the show originally came from talking to a guy named Michael Wilson, who is a consulting producer on the show and worked in intelligence. We never talked about his work particularly because a lot of things he had done we couldn't talk about so we'd talk about his life and his family. So, in seeing life and work and family through the eyes of someone who had lived in that world is really interesting to me. I want the show to continue being about the people and not about the gags or the action or that kind of thing. I just feel like those relationships are what anchor the show in a human drama as opposed to just the sort of spy/criminal procedural.

JH: Going into the current season, how are we going to see Michael and Fiona's relationship progress?

MN: What they're dealing with for the season is that Michael now is just essentially a guy in Miami. Fiona's attitude is great, you're a guy in Miami, let's live our lives, let's not worry about all this stuff that has been getting in the way of us being together but Michael is like 'This is the opportunity I've been wanting to get back in.' This season their relationship gets really rocky and it's really fun. They do some stuff later in the season where, suffice it to say, when Fiona and Michael's relationship gets rocky it manifests itself in interesting ways.

JH: Sam (Bruce Campbell) is such a fun character. Am I on the right track in thinking that Sam is who Michael could become in the next 20 years?

MN: Interesting. When I think about Sam... I was hugely influenced by the original "Star Trek" and when you think about the kind of dynamic between Captain Kirk and Mr. Spock and Bones, that was a much more extreme version but it's more like Sam is a side of Michael. Sam was the military intelligence guy. He was the guy who says 'Let's do things the official way. Let's follow the rules more.' He spent time in official organizations. Fiona is the person who has spent no time in official organizations and never wants to do anything by any kind of rules and Michael, as a spy, splits the difference. He was working on behalf of people like Sam with people like Fiona so there's a dynamic there where Fiona is saying "Let's go in and shoot everybody" and Sam is saying "Let's call the FBI" and Michael is saying "Let's go in and fire our guns until the FBI comes." I'm oversimplifying there but what you get is that Michael has the romantic dynamic with Fiona, the best friend dynamic with Sam but he also has a professional relationship and attitude about both of them and he does split the difference between the two of them.

JH: Would there ever something romantic happen between Sam and Michael's mother, Madeline (Sharon Gless)? It crossed my mind when Sam moved in with her.

MN: Obviously it's come up a million times. People talk about it. But once your best friend dates your Mom that's all you can talk about but that said one of the fun relationships to mine is that relationship between Sam and Madeline, which is kind of a funny relationship. There's not a huge road map for "I'm friends with my best friend's mom." To give you a sense of that in a future episode that would air in winter we have a runner where Sam is paying attention to a guy that Madeline is dating just to make sure that he's good enough for her so there he's taking a bit of a fatherly interest in what's going on with her. It's a fun and sort of complicated relationship but not a romantic one.

JH: One of the things you've set up for the show is how you can bring in past foes of Michael's as well as new bad guys. How did that fall into the show's design?

MN: One silly reason for it is just that we're in Miami. Also, there's a certain amount of coming back to this local actor who we like and we don't want to bring him back in a wig so we can bring him back as his character. The other this is that one of the things that we're always thinking about is that Michael doesn't have a shingle. He doesn't have a "Michael Westen, P.I." card he hands out. So a question we're always asking ourselves is 'Where is this client coming from?' It's a little bit easier now that he's done things for a lot of people so if you hear about your friend who is in some desperate situation and you were helped by Michael Westen awhile back then you know where he is and you can refer him. We've also expanded the world that Fiona and Sam live in so Fiona is doing her bounty hunting stuff so there are some referrals there. It's also just fun... like Jason Bly (Alex Carter) from the first season. We were finished with him and he was gone. Then, the episode he was in during the second season, he wasn't in the first pass of that. We realized, 'Wait a second, what if we could get Michael in there with the guy he hates?" and having set up this great dynamic and having great chemistry between these two actors suddenly it became this really fun idea. Then, last year, in the 15th episode, we had the character of Brennen, played by Jay Karnes, and it's so much fun to write for Brennen because it's simply 'What's the most obnoxious thing he could say in every line?" so everyone loves writing for Brennen so he was back for three episodes. It was just because he's so much fun to do.

JH: "Burn Notice" plays all over the world. Do you hear from any of those countries and how they respond to the show?

MN: A little bit. It sort of depends on how long we've been there. Australia has had us for a while and we've heard nice things from there and Canada but now we're moving into Latin America. I'm always intensely curious because so much of the dialogue is sarcastic or backwards or using one word to refer to something else so I'm curious about how that comes across in Spanish. We sort of have an advantage in some ways in going to other countries because we have very identifiable good guys and bad guys. I'm proud of what we do and I don't feel like... a lot of times we're doing things that are fairly complex or intricate or delicate like the second episode of this season with the reverse interrogation. That's a pretty subtle technique and certainly not just hitting someone over the head with a baseball bat until they tell you what you want to know. That said, I'm proud of all the stuff that we do and I think it is part of the success of the show that we're not just running around hitting people but at the same time the fact that cars blow up doesn't hurt when you're exporting the show to other countries.

JH: Anything else going on besides the show?

MN: I've got another pilot that they're interested in doing. It was actually something I wrote quite a while ago that Fox is noodling around as a pilot. I'm just sort of getting into that world. Really, in the thick of the season, it's hard to develop that stuff but as we get to the end of the season right now we're working on the finale - I can think of that a little more.

"Burn Notice" airs every Thursday night at 9:00/8:00c on USA.

#2 Post by **J.J. Walters** » Sat Jul 18, 2009 1:36 am

Cool!

I gave Burn Notice a chance, but just couldn't get into it, despite the fact it has Bruce Campbell in it (one of my favorite actors). There is no other way to say this, so I'll just say it..... I can't stand the protagonist! I don't like his personality. I don't like his clothes. I don't like his backstory. Nothin'. Same goes for his whiny female friend.

N1095A · #3 Post by **N1095A** » Sat Jul 18, 2009 1:45 am

James J. Walters wrote:Cool!

I gave Burn Notice a chance, but just couldn't get into it, despite the fact it has Bruce Campbell in it (one of my favorite actors). There is no other way to say this, so I'll just say it..... I can't stand the protagonist! I don't like his personality. I don't like his clothes. I don't like his backstory. Nothin'. Same goes for his whiny female friend.

Same here James. Also, his voiceover narration sounds condecending, almost smarmy, like you should already know. I really wanted to like this show, but I just can't get into it.

Steve · #4 Post by **Steve** » Sat Jul 18, 2009 2:39 pm

I have given it a try as well, and although it is a good show with well written episodes and a great supporting cast, the lead actor (Jeffery Donovan) just doesn't have enough charisma to pull me in every week. Now, that is just my opinion and it shows how hard it is to get just the right mix of everything to please enough folks to make a show a hit.

Jay-Firestorm · #5 Post by **Jay-Firestorm** » Mon Jul 20, 2009 1:41 pm

Several people have mentioned this show to me, saying that it has elements of MPI.

It's only on $ky here at the moment (which I don't have), but if you guys don't like it that much, maybe I won't hold out for the DVDs.

Even if Bruce Campbell is in it!

SelleckLover · #6 Post by **SelleckLover** » Tue Jul 21, 2009 2:16 am

I've watched Burn Notice several times and it's kind of growing on me...sort of. It really moves too fast for me and I sometimes get lost in the plot and don't know what's going on. If I watch it with my 34 year old son though, he can explain a lot of stuff to me and then I get into it. You're pretty pathetic if you need an interpreter to explain episodic TV to you. (The same thing happens to me with SciFi movies!)

Give me a good old-fashioned S**t-kicker, anytime!

#7 Post by **ConchRepublican** » Tue Jul 21, 2009 2:13 pm

I understand a lot of the criticisms and agree with most. Jeffrey Donovan takes a little while to warm up to and I'm not a big fan of Gabriele Anwar.

Bruce Campbell though, is the man and I think the show is well written and I enjoy the pace and style.

I first heard of the show through this site and the first episode I saw I thought "what are they talking about?". But I went back for a second, then a third . . . basically for Bruce Campbell and the Miami scenery and then starting getting into the show more. Now it's one of my regulars.

Jay-Firestorm · #8 Post by **Jay-Firestorm** » Wed Jul 22, 2009 1:06 am

Reading up on it, I was surprised to see that Gabrielle Anwar in it - about 20 years ago (wow, is it that long already?) she was in excellent British children's show 'Press Gang', about a junior newspaper. (It was one of those quality things that appealed to all ages).

If it's got her AND Campbell in it, maybe I will have to check out the DVDs after all.

(By the way, any fans of British TV back when it used to be so much better, check out 'Press Gang' if you get the chance!) Oh yes, I forgot, this site is about MPI isn't it!

#9 Post by **Doc Ibold** » Wed Jul 22, 2009 2:43 am

My brother is all about it. He said if I liked Magnum, I'd like BN.

Have to get around to checking it out

golfmobile · #10 Post by **golfmobile** » Wed Jul 22, 2009 5:53 pm

Jay Firestorm,

I think part of its appeal is that you have to have followed the story from the very first. I did that, and I just fell in love with the show. That way you see how the characters develop and how their relationships develop. Even Sharon Gless, as his chain-smoking mother, initially started out as bossy and whiny at the same time, but now the character has developed into one who can handle her own and even help. And I get a kick out of it when Michael Weston role-plays -- for example, the time he was playing a wimpy accountant who was always sucking on an asthma inhaler -- I thought that was hilarious and very clever!

I like his narration very much because it explains a lot to me that I find fascinating to learn (not that I can DO it). I can see how to some it could sound condescending, but to me it sounds more tongue-in-cheek along the lines of "this is really simple when you get right down to it," not quite the "you should know this already," but more like "I bet you never thought of it that way, so let me show you." Bruce Campbell has been a delight since day one, and I liked Fiona more early on, but now she's gotten sorta whiny (and that girl is FAR too thin).

But I got hooked on USA's "character"-driven shows before they were known as that, when I first started watching Monk from the beginning. So many of these shows need the backstory of how the characters got to where they are now in the relationship -- and that's the close tie to MPI with Burn Notice -- how they help each other in a "criminal/bad guys" situation -- not how they've come to get close in a MASH unit or Minneapolis/St. Paul TV or Cincinnati radio station or a Boston bar (which works for the characters in those kinds of shows but in a different way). I'm not saying one is better than the other, but I still feel you need to have followed along for the whole journey. So I could see how it would be difficult to get into now, with so much you need to understand having been missed. So if you can get the DVDs in some manner, even if you just rent them instead of having to buy when you don't know if you're going to like the show, but at least start from the beginning, and I'll bet you'll like it.

As usual, JMO

golf

#11 Post by **ConchRepublican** » Wed Jul 22, 2009 6:20 pm

Good points all, Golf. As for catching up, USA reruns so often, it's not too difficult.

I haven't checked, but they may be on Hulu as well.

A P Leyland · #12 Post by **A P Leyland** » Sun Jul 26, 2009 12:25 pm

Jay Firestorm

Love PRESS GANG. Great show. BURN NOTICE is really good (I think I've mentioned it before. I can send you a copy of the pilot if you want to see if you like it before you spend money on it.

Andy