Featured TV on DVD Review: Burn Notice: Season Six

August 6, 2013

Burn Notice: Season Six - Buy from Amazon

The latest season of Burn Notice arrived a little late, and by a little I mean more than a full month. Since it is one of my favorite summer shows, I was eagerly awaiting its arrival. But now that I've seen it, was it worth the wait?

The Show

This is going to be a shorter review that normal for a couple reasons. Firstly, I need to get this review done A.S.A.P. to include it in this week's DVD and Blu-ray release report, otherwise I will have no contenders for Pick of the Week. Secondly, almost immediately we start to run into unacceptable spoilers.

As fans of the show know, Micheal Westen was a C.I.A. spy who was burned at the beginning of the show and has spent the next five, now six seasons trying to figure out who did it. He gets help from his former ex-girlfriend, Fi; long-time friend and former Navy Seal, Sam Axe; his own mother, Madeline; and more recently, Jesse Porter (Coby Bell), a spy he accidentally burned. Things were looking up, for a very short while, then Fi was framed by Anson Fullerton for blowing up the British consulate and Michael does all he can to prevent her from going to prison. However, Anson is trying to reform the group that burned Michael in the first place and what he is asking Michael to do is too much, so Fi decides to turn herself in at the end of season five.

This is where season six starts, with Fi in Jail and Micheal trying to figure out how to get her out. He first tries to get help from Agent Pearce (Lauren Stamile), but then realizes he has to go up the chain of command to Tom Card, who trained Michael as a C.I.A. agent. Fi, meanwhile, tries to survive in prison and to do that, she needs to make friends. Her first friend is Nicole, who tries to kill her. Turns out, someone on the outside treatened to kill Nicole's sister if Nicole didn't kill Fi. That's the M.O. of Anson, so he's clearly not going away quietly. Tom Card makes it clear, the only way to get Fi out of prison is to get Anson.

Fi does get a new friend in prison, Ayn, who is not only friendlier, but a lot more helpful. In fact, she helps figure out what guard was in on the plot to kill Fi, but when Michael tracks him down, it leads to Rebecca Lang. Rebecca Lang was another C.I.A. Agent who was working for Anson, but we learn she was only doing that, because Anson threatened to kill her brother. If Michael can protect her brother, then she will given them Anson, or at least give them information that will hopefully lead to Anson.

We are barely into the season and we are already hitting unacceptable spoilers, so that's where the plot summary will end. However, I will point out that this season, like seasons past, has a stunning number of guest appearances. Recurring characters like Nate, Michael's brother, make a few guest appearances, as does Barry Burkowski (Paul Tei), Agents Durov and Manaro (Brendan O'Malley). New guest appearances this season include Patton Oswalt as a smuggler and Sonja Sohn as someone I can't talk about because of spoilers.

So how does Season Six compare to previous seasons? Let's first start with my complaints. My biggest complaint is the contestant climbing up the bad guy food chain. I've lost track of the number of times they've gotten the big bad guy, only to find out there's a bigger bad guy who was pulling the strings. Secondly, some of the cameos seemed a little too gratuitous. On the other hand, those are my only two complaints. I believe season six is a step up from season five, which was fantastic. Maybe it is not quite up to the show's peak and there are some signs that it could run out of steam, but it is still a great show.

The Extras

The extras include deleted scenes spread throughout the four-disc set. There is also an audio commentary track on Shock Wave, which is the perfect episode to pick. There is also a six-minute behind-the-scenes featurette and some outtakes. This isn't great, but it is on par with previous seasons.

The Verdict

Burn Notice: Season Six is a step up from season five and season five was easily worth picking up. Season six is a contender for Pick of the Week.


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Filed under: Video Review, Gabrielle Anwar, Jere Burns, Bruce Campbell, Jeffrey Donovan, Sharon Gless, Kristanna Loken, Taryn Manning, John C. McGinley, Timothy V. Murphy, Patton Oswalt, Sonja Sohn, Seth Peterson, Zabryna Guevara