"Burn Notice" spoilers coming up just as soon as I get a ride to my partner stretching class...It would be hard for "Burn Notice" to top last week's bank heist episode, which was kind of a pure distillation of all the things that make the show so much fun. But "Truth and Reconciliation" still felt like a let-down, and I'm struggling to put my finger on the reason why.
I made a note to myself halfway through the episode that it didn't feel like we'd learned that much in the way of spycraft from Michael in this one, though we did find out in the later minutes that "Killers are, by and large, whining losers." But even the gag about Fi overdosing the bad guy with cold medicine wasn't really that surprising to anyone who's taken even slightly too much NyQuil. (Cue Denis Leary's NyQuil routine.)
What I really think the issue was, though, is that this one felt pretty glum. We open with Michael killing the knife-wielding assassin(*), then move on to him dealing with a particularly tragic client and an evil but not particularly interesting target. I'm not saying the show shouldn't go to dark places -- I really liked the first episode of this batch where Michael was wandering around with broken ribs and yelling at people -- but it has to be compellingly dark, and this wasn't quite that.
(*) Is this the first time we've seen Michael actively kill someone on-screen, as opposed to arranging for one bad guy to murder another? Now, this was in self-defense, but it's always interesting to me to watch shows about people in deadly professions that try to keep blood off their hero's hands. (See also "The A-Team," where Hannibal and company fired approximately 8 million warning shots and never actually hit anyone over five seasons.)
There were some entertaining things on the margins, like Sam's charm offensive with the FBI guys from season one, or Madeline's successful attempt to fix the car and prove that she can be self-reliant. For that matter, I was glad to see Victor back, and now apparently blessed with parkour skills. But the bulk of the episode dragged, and I hope we get a bounce back next week.
What did everybody else think?
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