Haven't reviewed more than one show in the same post in a while, but it's press tour and my time is limited. Spoilers for, in order, "Burn Notice" and then "My Boys," coming up just as soon as I buy both five drinks and a new coffee maker...I continue to be pleased with "Burn Notice" season two. Though I'll admit to losing the plot a few times with the Sophia/Raul story (why exactly did a DEA agent need a mercenary to help pull off an undercover op?), I was glad to see that the writers intend to have Michael keep doing work independently of whatever scavenger hunts Carla sends him on. (Plus, it offered us Bruce Campbell's marvelous line reading of "I didn't know he had a Mac-10. I thought it was, like, a regular gun.")
Carla herself turns out to be quite the compelling villain, as Tricia Helfer finds a way to play a smug and sexy character in a way that's not remotely evocative of the smug and sexy Head Six from "Battlestar Galactica." And while I usually have little use for Michael's mom, I thought the writers did a good job with her here. The lookalike therapist gag was really funny, and on occasion Mom can be used to give us a little psychological insight into a guy who usually refuses to let himself appear vulnerable.
I really liked last night's "My Boys" as well. Usually it's just a light and goofy show, but they did some interesting, slightly darker things here with Andy blowing off PJ's attempt to protect his marriage, and with PJ confessing the truth about the Italy trip to Bobby, in a way that didn't feel tonally inappropriate. Setting PJ up with another guy -- and Bobby's brother, to boot -- at the exact moment where he's found out how she feels about him is sort of a classic Unresolved Sexual Tension sitcom trope, but they've been playing the whole thing so low-key that I think it can work.
I also liked the running gags like Kenny being uber-prepared for the party and Brendan complaining about the cost of everything. Every bachelor party I've been to seems to have one of each guy, and the last one I was at featured a noticeable divide between those who could afford to go eat at the meat-on-swords place and those who either went home or hit up one of the other guys for a loan. Mike was a little over-the-top, but not as bad as he's been in a lot of other episodes this season.
What did everybody else think?
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