YMMV / Burn Notice

Burn Notice: The Fall of Sam Axe

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• Aluminum Christmas Trees: The Burn Notice itself is a real thing, it's a document passed around between different intelligence agencies indicating a particular asset has been compromised or otherwise the information they are offering is unreliable. When the show first started airing many people believed it was manufactured for the show. The reason is likely because within the reality of the show Michael is a super spy with several decades of experience, dozens of old acquaintances and enough knowledge to take revenge of the CIA, making the act of burning them seem foolish. In real life it is more likely to be a clerk in an office who occasionally forwards xeroxed documents to a handler.
• Anvilicious:
  • The writers take pains to point out in almost every episode that physical torture just doesn't work. Psychological torture, on the other hand...
  • You know the bad guy is really bad when they Would Hurt a Child.
• Arc Fatigue: The titular burn notice. Granted, it's a difficult thing to manage, but the show managed reasonable development over five seasons. The sixth is when it got a little hard to bear. The seventh showed they had reason to fear abandoning the arc.
• Base-Breaking Character: Fan opinions of Fiona are split down the middle. She is just as resourceful as the guys and gets some of the best lines... but she is also the one nagging Michael about letting go of the Myth Arc and quite often tries to raise his blood pressure just because it's fun.
  • And then there's the Your Terrorists Are Our Freedom Fighters angle. It's a little jarring, for UK viewers at least, to accept a wackily trigger-happy ex-IRA bomb-maker as a good guy. Granted, the show does shine some light on her reasons for joining and then leaving them, but it can be a hard pill to swallow.
  • Finally a few fans are a little uncomfortable that she plays so many Oirish stereotypes completely straight, while some love her for that very same reason because it makes her so fun to watch. Except the accent.
  • With the sixth season, opinions shifted quite a bit in Fiona's favor. Many fans liked her storyline in prison more than Michael's storyline. It helps that she sacrificed herself to ensure Michael's freedom from Anson.
    • Season seven may have shifted back against her as she dumped Mike and found a new guy after/because he made a deal to go into a deep cover mission to keep everyone from being locked up forever. It didn't help that Mike seemed to be falling apart a bit due to the deep cover.
• The Chris Carter Effect: The producers keep shuffling villains in and out seemingly willy-nilly, and how, when one is taken care of, lo and behold there is another one to take his place. Conspiracies within conspiracies, seemingly without end.
• Complete Monster:
  • Simon Escher was a Psycho for Hire for Anson Fullerton's organization who had been betrayed by them. When he got out of jail in seasons 3 and 4, Simon embarked on a one man terrorism and murder spree, killing anyone in his way to get to Management, innocent or not. Simon's first appearance has him in a TV store, having shot the employee on duty dead and hacked all the Television in the store to show his grisly crimes, which includes bombings and shootings, and he forces Michael to help him by threatening to bomb a tourist hotel. The CIA later recruit him in the season 7 finale and brings him in on an op to bring down a terrorist network. After eliminating both the extraction team and most of the enemy's men, he tortures the one prisoner they had and kills him in cold blood.
  • Seasons 5 & 6: Anson Fullerton is the leader of the Organization that burned Michael, which he founded with the old man known only as "Management". He resurfaced after Max and Michael began researching evidence of more agents, killing the former and framing the latter. With the cover-up foiled, he then orchestrated a plot to gain leverage on Michael: tricking Michael's girlfriend Fiona into thinking she killed two innocent people and recording her confession to blackmail Michael into continuing to work for him and later disposes of a useless asset by blowing the man up in front of his family. Anson eliminates and manipulates more people, even revealing he was the one behind the death of Michael's father. His ultimate moment was trying to bomb a plane to kill one passenger. Anson thinks of everyone as an asset, and there's only one response a ruthless man like him has to one he deems useless.
• Crazy Is Cool: While it may not be accurate to call Michael crazy, a lot of his plans are downright insane. Not that it stops them from working.
• Esoteric Happy Ending: "Brotherly Love". Through a series of events, a drug lord kidnaps a man who owns an auto shop with his brother. Said drug lord blames the brother on stealing drugs from a stolen automobile when it was actually the drug lord's second-in-command. Said second-in-command tries to frame the brother for stealing the drugs and the car, but Michael, Nate, and Fiona manage to steal back the car and reassemble it in the second-in-command's yard. Unfortunately, the second-in-command already got rid of the drugs. So it ends with Nate getting the money he needs to support his wife and unborn child, the auto shop brothers being saved from the drug lord's wrath, but the money came from the drug dealer, who is still out there, and the second-in-command already managed to sell off the $2 million worth of drugs onto the street.
  • Though to be fair, many of the episodes end like this. Michael generally doesn't wholesale dismantle organizations unless it's required; usually, he just gets people to safety or what have you.
• Harsher in Hindsight: At one point, Narrator!Michael remarks that spies are basically criminals with a cause. As of "Burn The Line", Team Westen are considered traitors to the USA and they have no cause other than survival. And they're pursued by the relentless Olivia Riley who doesn't care what the truth or circumstances are, only that Michael killed Tom Card in cold-blood.
  • In "Neighborhood Watch", Sam gives Michael the alias "Elias Schmidt", and Mike says "Elias" with some disgust. It isn't until after Nate dies that we learn his middle name is Elias.
• Hilarious in Hindsight:
  • The main character's name, Michael Westen, becomes hilarious in "Signals and Codes": the Client, Spencer Watkowski, is played by actor Michael Weston.
  • In "Friendly Fire" (3x11), super spy Michael puts on an extra-mysterious persona. In the end, he's called the man in the suit.
  • Sam casually mentions in "Breach of Faith" that he played Santa Claus for the kids as part of the charity he's involved with. Years later, Bruce Campbell would play Santa on the Christmas Episode of The Librarians (2014).
  • In "Fight or Flight" the characters are on the run from a cartel boss known as "El Jefe". Years later, Bruce Campbell would star in Ash vs. Evil Dead, where his character is recognized as The Chosen One and given the title "El Jefe".
• He Really Can Act:
  • The series was designed partially as a vehicle for Jeffrey Donovan. However, the main cast often gets to show off their acting chops, as well as guest stars.
  • In 6x04, "Under the Gun", Kristanna Loken gets two scenes which show that she can actually act. Considering that her best known previous roles were an emotionless cyborg and a sexy vampire assassin in a Uwe Boll movie, this may be the showrunners throwing her a bone.
• Ho Yay:
  • Sam has broken dates with rich and beautiful women, gotten himself beaten up, sacrificed brilliant cars, and once attempted to get himself killed, all for Michael's sake and with only the barest twinges of regret. While less overtly demonstrative, Michael frequently trusts Sam with his life, going so far as to allow himself to back one of Sam's gambits completely blind and nearly be executed for it as well as staying with Sam in a dangerous hostage situation that could have gotten him arrested.
    Michael: (after Sam stuck a GPS tracker on Carla's motorcycle) Sam, I could kiss you.
    Sam: Ha. Get in line.^note Their actors actually smooch in an outtake from this scene.
    • Sam and Michael are at it again in "Hard Time", lampshaded by Jesse. Sam wants to go undercover in prison to help an old asset of his; Michael refuses to let him go because he was already clocked by the gang:
      Michael: Sam, you can't. Listen, I'll do it.
      Sam: You'd do that for my friend?
      Michael: I'd do that for you.
      (Sam makes a "seriously?" face, and Michael nods. Jesse looks uncomfortable.)
      Jesse: Okay, I hate to break up this beautiful moment between you two ...
  • Seymour clearly has a massive (and massively one-sided) man-crush on Michael.
  • Sugar also seems to have this for Michael and Sam.
  • Listen to the spiel that Strickler gave to Michael about "Fiona [being his] past" before Michael shot him dead. He sounded like an obsessed lover trying to get Michael to be with him.
  • Most of the rival spies do it (see Terms of Endangerment), but Gilroy seems to be actively hitting on Michael. The first thing he does when they meet is to talk about his hands. Not to mention their "date" in a hot-tub.
    Michael: You know, I like you as a friend and all...
    Gilroy: You're cute, but don't interrupt.
  • Word of God on Larry: "Part of what's fun about Larry for us is that he's a guy who's primarily motivated by his love of Michael, which is a really odd thing for a bad guy. He's sort of like, 'I love money and I love killing people, but mostly, kid, I love you, let's just hang out.'" It also answers the question of why Larry (with his mentality) puts up with Team Westen foiling his plans: Michael's one of the few people he actually likes (and thus won't actively try to kill).
  • A little of this between Jesse and Sam in 4x06.
    Jesse: Is it weird that I kinda miss you?
    Sam: Yeah, it's a little weird.
  • There are a couple moments that suggest Fiona may have an interest in women.
    Fiona: Ooh, look at her... And her! She looks like she'd be fun.
    Michael: Are you shopping for me or for you?
• It Was His Sled: Anson was one of the best-known and longest-running villains the show had, but his initial reveal as a bad guy was a huge twist that's pretty much lost nowadays.
• Just Here for Godzilla: It's a safe bet a fair number of viewers only initially tuned in because of Bruce Campbell.
• Memetic Mutation:
  • "Yes, dead Larry."
  • The Gabrielle Anwar Scale^note Archive images missing. A scale on how good something is depending on if there is too many Gabrielle Anwars or not.
  • "Guns make you stupid . . . duct tape makes you smart."
• Mind Game Ship Michael and Anson. Anson enjoys torturing Michael with his insights way too much.
• Most Wonderful Sound: The door to Michael's loft has been making the same low-pitched squeaky sound for the last five seasons. You learn to recognize it in the pilot.
  • Fridge Brilliance kicks in when you realise Mike probably never oiled to prevent the sound on purpose - kinda hard for someone to break in through the front door when it makes a clear and distinct noise every time it's opened.
• Nightmare Fuel: In the season six premiere, Michael goes from cold blooded (almost) killer to smiling in zero seconds flat and it's fairly disturbing. Note, this is not him playing a persona, this is him in a high stress situation.
• Obscure Popularity: Saturday Night Live was able to eke a skit out of the fact that Burn Notice had a surprisingly small cultural impact, despite running for seven seasons and being one of the highest-rated shows on cable at its height.
• One-Scene Wonder: Ian, the soon-to-retire State Department official and friend of Jesse in Season 5's "Acceptable Loss".
• Questionable Casting: Casting 29 year old Alona Tal, who looks even younger, as a highly seasoned Russian spy was... ill advised, to put it mildly.
• Rescued from the Scrappy Heap: Madeline. In the pilot episode, she's little more than The Load to Michael, a whining hypochondriac who constantly demands things of him. The writers addressed this early on, however, and she's since become much more sympathetic and even supportive of her son. (See Heartwarming Moments and Took a Level in Badass.)
  • It also helps that Madeline gradually stopped trying to get Michael to mend fences with his dead father. Her constant claims about how they used to be a decent family turned into bitter acknowledgment of what a Jerkass her late husband was.
    • Which oddly enough may have made her a bigger scrappy in later seasons as she blames Mike for leaving and letting the family fall apart, blames Mike for his emotional problems caused by said abuse, openly compares Mike to his father, puts almost all of Nate's death on Mike, and actually starts hitting him when she's pissed at him. Knowing how she was in season one makes it even worse in hindsight.
• Retroactive Recognition:
  • The high school football player Team Westen save from a gang of car thieves in "Hot Spot" is played by none other than Michael B. Jordan, several years before his roles as Adonis Creed and Erik "Killmonger" Stevens made him a much bigger star.
  • Did anyone else recognize that brother trying to break his criminal sibling out of jail in "Guilty As Charged"? No? Paint him blue.
  • The Fall Of Sam Axe gave us a performance by Pedro Pascal before his roles as Oberyn Martell and Din "Mando" Djarin.
  • Carla was portrayed by Tricia Helfer, who would go on to be Charlotte Richards in Lucifer, love interest to Daniel Espinoza, whose actor played a Villain of the Week in one episode. Admittedly Helfer was already fairly well-known from her role as the Model Six Cylons in Battlestar Galactica (2003).
• Rooting for the Empire: James and his organization from the final season may use terrorist methods, but their loyalty to each other and Visionary Villain moments cause many fans to view them as A Lighter Shade of Black than the CIA or outright Anti Heroes, and wish Michael had stuck with them.
• The Scrappy: Between his Honor Before Reason personality, his open and unwarranted dislike of Michael (culminating in him obviously enjoying an opportunity to punch Michael), and the fact that Michael's friends and family all side with him over Michael, its kinda hard not to feel that the doctor from Neighborhood Watch doesn't fall under this trope. Sugar comes off as smarter and more useful than him, and he got Sam beaten up during that episode because he lost his cool. It also didn't help that the moral of the story fell somewhat flat since he would have died horribly if it wasn't for Michael and friends doing almost all of the work.
• Seasonal Rot: There's a contingent of fans who were not pleased with season 5 for killing off one of the most popular antagonists and filling the gap with new and far less impressive ones (Anson and Pearce) and for taking a Status Quo Is God mindset rather than following through on big story developments.
• Special Effect Failure:
  • In the season 4 premiere, the Predator UAV attack just looks plain awful. The CGI explosions were particularly jarring since the other explosions in the show used actual pyrotechnics.
  • The puffs of "breathing in cold air" at the end of season four were just awful.
  • Did you know that when you blow up a boat, everything boat-like simply disappears without leaving any rubble or sending pieces flying through the air? C4 vaporises boat.
• Spiritual Successor: It's pretty much a modern day The A-Team or MacGyver. It bears the most resemblance to The Equalizer, except that Mike was kicked out instead of retiring.
• Strawman Has a Point:
  • A head of security for the CEO of a software company is portrayed as obstructive for treating team Westen with the suspicion that rightfully should be given to two people who come up to you randomly and tell you you are going to be robbed by the real thief who happens to be the CEO's executive assistant and the person he's shown spending most of his day with.
  • Michael himself said the guy was supposed to be suspicious. Any time one of the main characters insults a security system for being too tight it's because they're talking to the person's face and are trying to get them to back down so they can sneak in. By the very nature of the show of Michael infiltrating and subverting someone in every episode, it would be nonsensical for any of them to earnestly call someone too secure because that would mean they're doing a good job.
  • In Season 5, Maddie and Fiona take turns scolding Michael for endangering the other characters with his CIA missions. We're clearly supposed to agree that these criticisms are warranted, despite the fact that (a) Fiona was previously loudly complaining that Michael was keeping his friends at arm's length from his CIA missions, (b) the people he's endangering all volunteered to participate and knew the risks beforehand, and (c) we never heard a peep about how selfish he was for taking similar risks when he was acting for his own benefit in previous seasons, as opposed to his CIA missions, which are intended to protect national security.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character: Many fans wish that By-the-Book Cop Paxson had shown up a few times grappling between her ethics and asking for Team Westen's help after the episode where she decides to stop chasing Michael.
• Too Cool to Live: Victor - For an example of how cool he was, Michael was crying when he was forced to shoot him; despite the man having tried to kill him several times before.
• Unintentionally Sympathetic: The wife of the mobster from "Split Decision". Michael convinces her husband (the mobster) that his wife was the one who talked to the cops that got his father arrested. Yes, she may be a jerkass, but she didn't do anything wrong and was in a loving relationship with her husband. And she was accused of something she never did.
• Values Dissonance: A TV program screening in the UK featuring an IRA terrorist as a hero.
  • Which can be even more of an issue as Fi is an explosives expert who works as a freelance gun runner and who is the cast member who is almost always the first to want to resort to violence, often eagerly and in situations where it would only cause more problems. Identifying with her when she then tries to lecture Michael on the moral greyness of his former work becomes difficult when her prime character traits and past after the IRA suggest she was unlikely to have been a restrained member when she was fighting in Ireland, tragic backstory or not.
  • This is likely intentional. From the beginning the show has stated that spies have to work with people no one in an official capacity would trust. Just working with people you personally don't like is expected, finding the lesser evil in Evil, Inc. is required to survive.
  • In later seasons, Fiona finds lots of excuses to insist that she left the IRA over objections to their targeting civilians. In one episode, she's even targeted by IRA-affiliated terrorists for rejecting the cause. This was probably in response to negative reaction to her from British fans.
• The Woobie:
  • Though you wouldn't think of it now, Nate's backstory probably qualifies him for it. When he wasn't getting beat up by his abusive father, he was getting beat up by bullies at school.
  • Jesse counts as this to Maddie, mainly because she does not think kindly of the fact that Michael screwed him over, even if it was inadvertently.
  • Michael — He grew up with an abusive father. Left home at 17 to join the army. Was burned as a spy for things he didn't do. And has to got through some kind of emotional turmoil each season.