Just the Ticket #55.5: The Burned Spy and the Flaming Sword
One of my favorite USA Network shows, Burn Notice, is on for its sixth season as of June 14th, and as it happens, the network also re-ran a Burn Notice movie I missed out on (thank you, TiVo). So I decided to write a review of The Fall Of Sam Axe and get you caught up on the series so far in a Just the Ticket Burn Notice double feature.
Michael Westen: My name is Michael Westen. I used to be a spy. Until...
voice on phone: [phone rings] We got a burn notice on you. You're blacklisted.
Michael Westen: When you're burned, you've got nothing: no cash, no credit, no job history. You're stuck in whatever city they decide to dump you in.
Michael Westen: You do whatever work comes your way. You rely on anyone who's still talking to you. A trigger-happy ex-girlfriend...
Fiona Glenanne: Shall we shoot them?
Michael Westen: An old friend who used to inform on you to the FBI...
Sam Axe: You know spies... bunch of bitchy little girls.
Michael Westen: Family too...
Sam Axe: [phone rings] Hey, is that your Mom again?
Michael Westen: ... if you're desperate.
Madeline Westen: Someone needs your help, Michael!
Michael Westen: Bottom line? Until you figure out who burned you... you're not going anywhere.
Love it or hate it, the above has been the intro for Burn Notice (with minor variations these last three seasons) since Jeffrey Donovan (Changeling and J. Edgar, the latter reviewed here) first took on the role of burned spy Michael Westen six years ago, and I attribute the show's success in part to its loyalty to formula. However, the majority of Burn Notice's appeal comes from the familiarity and colorful personalities of its cast. Gabrielle Anwar (Scent of A Woman) brings a sexy, matter-of-fact toughness to Fiona, the trigger-happy no-longer-ex-girlfriend who likes to blow things up (which landed her in federal prison at the end of last season, via a really good frame-job). B-movie superstar Bruce Campbell (Evil Dead and Bubba Ho-Tep, the latter reviewed here) gets away with basically playing himself as alcoholic whoremonger spy Sam Axe, such that the Axe character landed his own movie last year. Sharon Gless, who got to have a reunion with Cagney & Lacey castmate Tyne Daly on the show in 2010, has really blossomed over the years as Michael's mother, initially looking the other way but ultimately having to do some things in the past two seasons she's not proud of for her son's sake.
The guest stars (usually the villain of the season or villain of the arc) have also brought their own brand of matter-of-fact mystique to the show, including Tricia Helfer (Battlestar Galactica), Moon Bloodgood (Falling Skies), Jay Karnes (Sons Of Anarchy), Robert Patrick (Terminator 2: Judgement Day), Garret Dillahunt (Raising Hope), Jere Burns (Justified), and John Mahoney (Frasier).
On to the much-referenced (if you count twice as being "much-referenced") origin story of Bruce Campbell's character, Sam Axe.
Just as alcoholic, and twice the whoremonger, as he is on Burn Notice, Sam Axe gets himself in more trouble than he's worth by sleeping with his commanding officer's wife, thus said C.O. assigns Axe to a mission nobody wants in the middle of South America: investigate attacks on local military convoys by suspected terrorist group Espada Ardiente (which our hero translates as "flaming sword"--not "passionate shovel," as I thought it was).
But of course, things get complicated when the "good guys" turn out to be dirty, forcing Sam and an American doctor (The Glades star Kiele Sanchez, also part of the infamous faux pas couple Nikki and Paolo on Lost) to side with the Espada against the troops in a nod to The Magnificent Seven and its Japanese predecessor, Akira Kurosawa's Seven Samurai. The decisions he makes in defense of the oppressed Espada eventually land him in an unofficial courtmartial. Hence the title, The Fall of Sam Axe.
With all of its smooth talking and thrift store MacGyver ingenuity, Fall definitely feels like a close relative of the Burn Notice series, but has enough of its own voice (and Campbell's goofy-serious hero persona) to stand without Michael and Fiona taking the lead (Donovan does have a small cameo as the then-unburned spy and Fiona is mentioned in passing as Michael's "crazy girlfriend"). Slightly derivative and feeling too long (Espada can only hold off the military so many times before things get uninteresting), but it's always fun to watch the Jack of All Trades do what he does best.
B+
I finally signed up for Netflix in an effort to save money (we spend almost $20 a week on movie rentals, plus gas, in addition to having to deal with the incompetent teenagers working at the video store and not getting what we want half the time, so $15 a month to get what you want without having to drive anywhere or deal with morons is a great deal in my book). Tomorrow we should get 21 Jump Street, so stay tuned.
Michael Westen: My name is Michael Westen. I used to be a spy. Until...
voice on phone: [phone rings] We got a burn notice on you. You're blacklisted.
Michael Westen: When you're burned, you've got nothing: no cash, no credit, no job history. You're stuck in whatever city they decide to dump you in.
Michael Westen: You do whatever work comes your way. You rely on anyone who's still talking to you. A trigger-happy ex-girlfriend...
Fiona Glenanne: Shall we shoot them?
Michael Westen: An old friend who used to inform on you to the FBI...
Sam Axe: You know spies... bunch of bitchy little girls.
Michael Westen: Family too...
Sam Axe: [phone rings] Hey, is that your Mom again?
Michael Westen: ... if you're desperate.
Madeline Westen: Someone needs your help, Michael!
Michael Westen: Bottom line? Until you figure out who burned you... you're not going anywhere.
The guest stars (usually the villain of the season or villain of the arc) have also brought their own brand of matter-of-fact mystique to the show, including Tricia Helfer (Battlestar Galactica), Moon Bloodgood (Falling Skies), Jay Karnes (Sons Of Anarchy), Robert Patrick (Terminator 2: Judgement Day), Garret Dillahunt (Raising Hope), Jere Burns (Justified), and John Mahoney (Frasier).
The plot is pretty simple: When the show was first in development, creator Matt Nix wanted to do a show about a spy and all the trouble he gets into taking assignments around the world. But that angle proved too expensive, so it came about that Michael Westen (probably based on the show's technical advisor Michael Wilson) is a burned spy stuck in Miami, FL. Each season was about Michael getting one step closer to finding out who burned him and ended with him either killing them or convincing them to give him his job back, and each episode was a variation on the "heist of the week" formula that usually ended with Fiona blowing something up and the bad guys in handcuffs, but with a piece to the bigger picture thrown in every now and then to keep the show moving. Season four ended with Michael and company finally shutting down the organization that burned him, season five ended with Fiona turning herself in for an inadvertent embassy bombing she triggered earlier in the season and Michael on the hunt for devious CIA psychologist Anson Fullerton (Burns), the elusive ringleader of said organization. In the first two episodes of season six, Michael finally got his hands on Anson (but not for long) and we learned that someone (besides the prison queen bee) wants Fiona dead, courtesy of a fellow inmate played by Taryn Manning (Hustle & Flow, reviewed here). Looks like another hot one, Ticketholders!
A-
Just as alcoholic, and twice the whoremonger, as he is on Burn Notice, Sam Axe gets himself in more trouble than he's worth by sleeping with his commanding officer's wife, thus said C.O. assigns Axe to a mission nobody wants in the middle of South America: investigate attacks on local military convoys by suspected terrorist group Espada Ardiente (which our hero translates as "flaming sword"--not "passionate shovel," as I thought it was).
But of course, things get complicated when the "good guys" turn out to be dirty, forcing Sam and an American doctor (The Glades star Kiele Sanchez, also part of the infamous faux pas couple Nikki and Paolo on Lost) to side with the Espada against the troops in a nod to The Magnificent Seven and its Japanese predecessor, Akira Kurosawa's Seven Samurai. The decisions he makes in defense of the oppressed Espada eventually land him in an unofficial courtmartial. Hence the title, The Fall of Sam Axe.
With all of its smooth talking and thrift store MacGyver ingenuity, Fall definitely feels like a close relative of the Burn Notice series, but has enough of its own voice (and Campbell's goofy-serious hero persona) to stand without Michael and Fiona taking the lead (Donovan does have a small cameo as the then-unburned spy and Fiona is mentioned in passing as Michael's "crazy girlfriend"). Slightly derivative and feeling too long (Espada can only hold off the military so many times before things get uninteresting), but it's always fun to watch the Jack of All Trades do what he does best.
B+
I finally signed up for Netflix in an effort to save money (we spend almost $20 a week on movie rentals, plus gas, in addition to having to deal with the incompetent teenagers working at the video store and not getting what we want half the time, so $15 a month to get what you want without having to drive anywhere or deal with morons is a great deal in my book). Tomorrow we should get 21 Jump Street, so stay tuned.
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