Burn Notice – “Comrades”

“Comrades”

July 31st, 2008

When I was a guest on the /Filmcast on Monday night, at least for a brief period, I gave Burn Notice a qualified compliment in my discussion of Mad Men’s season premiere with Devindra Hardawar: I said that it was a fun show, and one with a lot of potential, but that Mad Men is simply in a different league. I stand by this statement, no question, but I want to make sure that this isn’t seen as a slight to this great show.

I’ve been slow to watch Thursday’s episode, but I am glad I finally got to it. “Comrades” is an extremely strong episode of a show that has been playing to its strengths all season. It’s worth hammering home, even though I’ve mentioned it the last few weeks, how great this balance is: even in an episode that adds extra helpings of Michael’s family to the equation, the balance between the normal clients and the ongoing serialized Carla storyline is in perfect form.

And when all of the various elements are working together in this type of comradery, it’s hard to beat Burn Notice for a more escapist (but still “great”) show.

There’s nothing quite as enjoyable as seeing Michael Weston just outright con someone. This is more elaborate than his usual cons, as he kidnaps a Russian human trafficker and then ends up posing as a fellow Russian member of the same group. It’s a great example of Jeffrey Donovan’s ability to make us believe that Michael Weston actually exists: while he doesn’t look at all Russian, his accent and his general behaviour works. That it was a martial arts style that ended up selling it does make you wonder just where he learned all of this, but I actually believe that he can be that way.

And this episode was full of stuff like that for all characters: Fiona got to taser herself in order to kidnap Ivan, Sam got to wine and dine while also leading the interrogation side of things, and even Nate, Michael’s brother who has finally returned from Ft. Lauderdale, got to play a role. Nate’s return does increase the amount of family involvement in Michael’s work, but the key phrase there is “involvement.” Nate actually gets to play an active role in the investigation, and unlike his relationship with his mother this one has a lot of nuance and potential when it comes to Michael actually doing his work.

The episode was all about the little moments: Fiona being so elated to be able to punch out Michael, Nate deciding to get in a punch of his own, Michael’s look of exasperation as Nate fought back just a little bit too hard and forced him to break some ribs, Larry Miller’s Gunderson playing and then being played by Sam, Fiona claiming that Sam was her dementia-riddled father, and the enjoyment of the moment when Ivan realizes that he has been totally played (Although the latter moment is really dark when you realize that he’s about to be brutally murdered).

And to think that there was some worry over whether Carla would take over the show: here, it was used as a great excuse for Larry Miller’s entrance, and for Sam to get a lot more to do. Bruce Campbell had a great episode, and hopefully in the future these brief forays into hunting down Carla’s identity will be helpful at providing such entertaining asides of sorts. If the show can keep using them, and Michael’s family, to make for great episodes like this one, I shall not complain.

Cultural Observations

• I was a little slow on the uptake without the eye patch, but that was definitely Lost’s Mikhail as Ivan in this one, a role that he seemed to have a lot of fun with. I think that’s why I subconsciously didn’t at least realize he was about to die in his final scene, mainly because Patchy himself is immortal and all that fun stuff.
• There was a lot of Michael narration in a very “How-To” driven episode, but I think maybe my favourite was the opening analysis of the person tailing him (Why Nate was tailing him I still don’t understand, but bear with me), in particular the final test of the rickshaw being thrown in front of the car. Burn Notice takes these little scenes and turns them into something memorable, and it really make the show click.