The usual jet lag at the start of one of these California trips means I woke up early enough to watch last night's "Burn Notice," but also means I'm not quite coherent enough to comment on it. (Though it's now startling to see Jay Harrington away from "Better Off Ted.")Instead, let me point you to two accounts of Bruce Campbell's time here at Comic-Con(*): Fienberg's highlights of Campbell predictably owning the room for the "Burn Notice" session, and Mo Ryan doing a video interview with Campbell.
(*) That "Burn Notice" panel was one of two events I'm bummed I missed because I chose to fly in during day one -- the other being the cast of "The Middleman" doing a table read of the script for the unfilmed final episode, which was also turned into a graphic novel that I saw several fans toting around yesterday afternoon. Don't forget that the complete series DVD comes out on Tuesday. I didn't have much of a chance to peruse the special features before I left for California, but the episodes alone are as joy-inducing as ever.
I really loved this episode, especially with the double mindf*** at the end, complete with wink from Michael.
ReplyDeleteI thought having the kid around would be really annoying, but he was played well by the actor and benefited by having great actors around him as well.
Sam's line about Michael being there to help him when he has to rescue beautiful women from a brewery was great, as well as a couple of other one-liners here and there.
A very good episode.
Really terrific episode, I thought. The show has already demonstrated that Fi gets very protective of unhappy children, and the connection to Michael's own experience was clear. With those two so engaged, it was natural that Sam would come along for the ride.
ReplyDeleteI liked seeing the team's improv after Quinn (and, hey--was that Krycek??) blew their initial plan. It was well done.
And I loved the kid's emulation of Michael in their final scene. Serious hero worship
I was also impressed at how the final scene with Diego went; it's nice to see that Michael isn't always going up against people who aren't as smart as he is.
Sigh. Such a great show.
I'm disappointed. I figured your post title would be "Better Off Fled".
ReplyDeleteOur Ted?
ReplyDeleteOh yes, the line about a brewery full of rich women was hilarious, as was Fi's tossed off, "If something seems too good to be true, best just to shoot it to make sure." This was a great episode because the kid was good (the mom, not so much) and Michael was clearly angrier than usual. The running gag about his Pete character punching Jay Harrington every chance he got was a funny touch, and the the way Harrington played the end had me cracking up as well. A tribute to the writers that they found so much humor in such an ugly scenario. And yes, that was definitely Krycek.
ReplyDeleteI second "Better Off Fled," by the way.
I loved this episode, my favorite part was at the end where he pretended to have the church. And Sam selling pineapples. It was just hilarious. Than Michael winking at him.
ReplyDeleteAnd always cool to see Nicolas Lea, but he'll always be Krycek to me.
Fun episode, it was weird trying to picture Jay Harrington as an abusive husband/father after watching him on 'Ted'. Now you'll excuse me as I have a strange urge to go buy some MGD-64 for some reason.
ReplyDeleteDon't forget the awesomeness of having Bruce Campbell mix the blood for their assassinations- He should know how to do it best, having been drenched in tens of gallons of it in the Evil Dead movies.
ReplyDeleteI'm disappointed that Burn Notice is ending it's "Summer run" in two weeks. I wish they'd just show the entire season in the Summertime rather than dilute it between Summer and Winter the way they seem to have chosen to do.
ReplyDeleteIf they really need to split it like this, then I wish they'd do more episodes per year. It's a big enough hit to justify the cost of 22 episode seasons at this point, isn't it?
I loved the look on Sam's face when he mentioned that Chuck Finley was the big-time assassin after Pete/Michael. Bruce Campbell is awesome and I'm thoroughly bummed I missed seeing him at Comic-Con yet again.
ReplyDeleteVery well-done episode, although I was having some cognitive dissonance because "Better Off Ted" (not Jay Harrington's fault, of course). I'm so glad the preview of Fi getting shot was misleading!
Thanks for bringing that up, dez, because I was thoroughly annoyed with the previews after I watched the episode. They made it sound like they were going to go up against Michael Corleone or something, and then that shot of Fi getting shot that was sold suspensefully in the preview, even though in the context of the episode you knew why it was about to happen. I know a lot of people don't normally watch the previews, and I guess that's why. Shame on the USA promo department, shame!
ReplyDeleteI also liked not only the use of Chuck Findley again, but Sam's "you may have heard of him" add-on.
ReplyDeleteThe way this wrapped up, there's always the possibility that we get another story involving Quinn Luna, which would be good news for Nicholas Lea fans...
That was a superb episode, for all the reasons many have mentioned. I literally called out "Krycek!" when the actor appeared on screen. I don't watch "BOT" so I had no idea who that was, but I thought he did a great job. Fi had the line of the season with that "just shoot it" bit. Hilarious.
ReplyDeleteAnd how adorable was it at the very end with the kid miming the laid-back posture of Michael, and the very true and heartfelt advice he gave the kid. Very well played!
Plus, squib pron! That part was pure awesome.
This episode really was super great. Especially Mike, Sam and Fi's death scene. Each one totally sold it in their own special way. And then discussed it as they got back up.
ReplyDeleteWhat, no one else recognized the daughter from _Charles in Charge_?
ReplyDeleteHate to be the voice of dissent (and nitpicking), but the parallel between the case and Michael's own childhood was a bit too on the nose for me. Dramatic license is all well and good, but that sort of thing works best for me when limited to one central conceit, not several coincidences piled on top of each other. Either let the gang find the case in a more natural way (seriously, no explanation for why the kid picked Fiona's house?), or try not to sell the OMG-this-kid-is-just-like-Michael-theme quite so hard.
ReplyDeleteStill, loved Jay Harrington, loved both the escalation and the conclusion of the storyline - the squib orgy was both hilarious and disturbing.
And third for "Better off fled".
The parallel was pretty general, I thought, and therefore didn't feel all that "on the nose" to me. We're not talking House here. And the kid said he had seen Fi cleaning her gun before.
ReplyDeleteKarl Rubin: "no explanation for why the kid picked Fiona's house?"
ReplyDeleteActually, there was dialogue where the kid explained he'd seen Fi taking gun oil and some other stuff (parts I think) into the house one day, and that's why he broke in.
What, no one else recognized the daughter from _Charles in Charge_?
ReplyDeleteI will embarrassingly admit I knew her more from Beverly Hills 90210.
That one little wink was incredible. I love this show.
ReplyDelete@Chris L/Hatfield: Huh, I can't believe I missed that dialogue. Now, to remove this foot from my mouth...
ReplyDeleteI wonder if at the end of the summer run, we'll finally get down with what's going on with Strickler. Love the running punching gag and Father Michael at the end. I knew Chuck Finley would pop up eventually but not in that way!
ReplyDeleteAlan... bummer you missed The Middleman table read. I would really like to have met one of our most vocal champions in person!
ReplyDeleteArt Crawl!
Such a great episode, especially because USA's super dramatic preview for it turned out to be the most hilarious fake-out.
ReplyDeleteI like that Michael wants to keep helping kids like himself, things could have gone very differently for him - like his childhood friend Andre. Plus, I loved, "don't get caught, I don't want to have to explain why I let a 13 year old drive a car."
I think it will ultimately be a case like this which will make Michael decided to stay in Miami, despite how adamant he seems to be on leaving.
I went to the Middleman panel/table-read, which was awesome! I'm looking forward to the DVD release tomorrow. Natalie Morales' Twitter page indicated that the DVDs were on sale on the floor but I couldn't find them. Oh well. There's a chemical or machine (I couldn't tell what) that had this really long name that the actors kept fudging up to hilarious results. Even creator Javier Grillo-Marxuach stumbled with it! It was so funny. Mark Sheppard makes a great villain. And if you looked at the comic of the episode, Manservant Neville looks just like Sheppard! It was designed that way, according to the liner notes at the end of the comic.
ReplyDeleteHenry --
ReplyDeleteI believe you refer to the Polyditetrahexamono-Triactalon...
Glad you liked it!