If you watched "Burn Notice" last season, then I don't need to tell you what a riveting show it is. If you didn't watch, you really missed out on a great show. The second season premieres on USA Network on July 10, 2008, which is the perfect time for both fans and newcomers to the show to tune in.
A little background on the show first: When spies get fired, they don't get a letter from human resources... they get burned. Michael Westen, a blacklisted spy, finds himself in sun-soaked, bikini-filled Miami - a tropical paradise, unless you're stranded without money or resources. He relies on his wits, charm and Special Ops training to put his life back together and find out who set him up and why.
Michael has only two friends he can turn to - Fiona, a beautiful ex-IRA operative who happens to be an ex-girlfriend, and Sam, Michael's closest buddy in town, a washed-up military intelligence contact who is keeping an eye on Michael for the Feds. He's also forced to deal with the family he went halfway around the world to get away from - particularly his mother, who couldn't be happier to have her boy back in town. As he gets closer to the truth, Michael scrapes by helping out whoever needs his services... mostly desperate people who can't go to the police. It's a dangerous gig, but it pays the bills... for now.
The last season ended with Michael in a car in the back of a semi-truck a real cliffhanger and this first episode of the new season jumps right in after a brief recap (enough that new viewers can follow the story easily, but not enough to bore everyone who watched the first season). Michael must now work for the very people who burned him and he does so hoping to get a clue to their identity. Sam and Fi are back once again, as is his mom who continues to nag him . Each of these characters would be interesting in their own right but it is their association with Michael, rather in a personal or professional capacity, that makes them so watchable.
Michael is ordered to help Jimmy (a computer programmer), whose family has been kidnapped, steal some files off a computer. However, the computer belongs to some bad people who don't want it broken into. Michael gets them into the highly secured building that houses the computer and as usual things do not go as planned. At the end of the episode he finally "meets" Carla, the voice behind his being burned and his new handler but they do not get to talk face-to-face. Without giving anything anything else about the episode, it is easy to say it is one you don't want to miss!
Mike enlists Fi and Sam's help in finding out who Carla is, hoping that once he knows that he will know who burned him and why. At their next meeting he asks Fi to tail Carla and Sam to try and photograph her. Carla knows he will try just that and brings along her people to stop them, telling Mike that next time he needs to leave them at home when they meet. Carla needs Mike to get a security badge counterfeited and he hopes if he can figure out what the badge is for he can get a clue to her identity.
While all this is going on Sam brings Mike a new client, whom he met in a cooking class, that is being stalked. The stalker turns out to be a heavily armed drug dealer. Things get complicated, as usual, and the new client turns out to be a DEA agent who is investigating the drug dealer. As the investigation proceeds, it turns out that the drug dealer is working for a major boss who is involved in a turf war and has a hit out on him. Mike feels that can only help the situation, as so many people are wanting to kill each other will only cause them to be paranoid.
Mike finds the counterfeiter to make the badge and sets things up. Carla is not happy about how long they are going to take, but she has little choice in the matter. While they wait, Mike works on the drug dealer to set up a deal. Between Carla and the drug dealer, Mike's life is just a mess of complications. He has to finish with both cases just to have a moment to breath, but nothing seems to go exactly right with either. It will take a bit of planning and tricky thinking to get out of this one alive.
