Burn Notice/YMMV

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


  • Alas, Poor Villain: A couple of times- the fandom, in particular, responded this way to the deaths of Victor and Gilroy.
  • And the Fandom Rejoiced: Burn Notice: The Fall of Sam Axe a special prequel movie about how Bruce Campell's character, Sam Axe, wound up in Miami. USA had said that if it gets good numbers they will make a prequel for Mike and Fiona each.
  • Anticlimax: Most season finales end on a Cliff Hanger, which resolves into... the new season's plot driver, and 90% of the episode devoted to Mike helping some poor random guy, like usual. They seem to have gotten better about this, but still; one expects at least a few episodes of Mike on the run or something.
  • 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...
  • Base Breaker: 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.
    • Finally a few fans are a little uncomfortable that she plays so many Oirish stereotypes completely straight.
  • Complete Monster: Carla, Larry, Gilroy, Simon, Tyler, Anson.
  • 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.
  • Evil Is Sexy: Carla and Kendra. A number of the one-shot episode villains as well.
  • Fan Service: It's set in Miami. Slo-mo closeups abound.
    • "The Hunter" opens with her and Mike practicing hand-to-hand. Mike is wearing sweats and a wifebeater, Fi in a tank top and shorts. Both of them are all...sweaty.
      • They later have a sparring match which turns into a real fight (on Fi's side), which turns into them making love. Damn.
    • The reverse-interrogation in "Question and Answer". Michael undercover as a dirty junkie, tied to a chair? Sam with Perma-Stubble as a Corrupt Cop, snorting "coke" and beating the crap out of Michael? Yes, please.
    • Similarly, in "The Good Soldier" he plays a Woobieish alcoholic to get manipulated, Blackmailed, and dominated by a kidnapper. Really, anyone who's a fan of the Mind Game Ship will find something interesting in most episodes.
    • "A Dark Road" opens with Mike and Fi in something like a Hurt/Comfort Fic. Fi being Fi, she punches Michael, just because she's in pain.
    • A few episodes have Fi doing the Wrench Wench version of Fetish Fuel or similar.
    • In-show example: During one A-Team Montage, Fi slyly holds up a pair of handcuffs which are going to be used during the caper and asks "Where have you been hiding these?" Michael almost drops the drill he's using.
  • Foe Yay: A lot of people read into this with Tricia Helfer's flirty portrayal as Carla, and in an interview the question was even asked to the actress. But Detective Paxson is acknowledged in universe.

Fiona: "Was that flirting or does she hate you?"
Michael: "I am not her type."

    • Michael and Victor could veer into this too, especially with Victor's overly-chipper Ax Crazy personality complementing Michael's dour practicality remarkably well. With lines like

Victor: What's going on in that pretty head of yours?

and

Michael: Victor, we have so much in common, so much to talk about. We should meet.
Victor: I love it! Let's do it!
Michael: Just name the time and place.

    • Michael and Jason Bly sure liked to invade each other's personal space.
    • When Brennen was controlling Michael, he took away his Cool Shades because "I want to see those pretty eyes." Probably actually done because it's easier to lie with your eyes hidden, with the accompanying dialogue being mere Terms of Endangerment.
    • In "Signals and Codes" with the first appearance of Diego, a new agency contact for Michael.

Michael: I had to fight off some Russians who were buying up everything.
Diego: Yeah, the boys upstairs noticed your name handle.
Michael: "Michael Hearts Diego"... that is so embarrassing.

    • And now we have Gilroy, who gropes Mike's hand on their first meeting and is very happy that Michael doesn't "kiss and tell".
    • And giving him (and a one-shot accomplice) synchronized wristwatches. Apparently, your resting pulse tends to sync up with the ticking of your watch, "so by the end of the day, our hearts will beat as one." Extra points for gratuitous chest-touching for both recipients.
      • This last case is so blatant, even in the following episode Michael remarks to the guy "Ya know, I like you as a friend and all..." Gilroy's reply? "You're cute, but don't interrupt."
      • In the opening of the same episode, Gilroy insists on meeting with Michael in a hot-tub to insure that he isn't bugged. As Michael gets into the tub, Gilroy gives him a lecherous once-over with his eyes.
    • So basically, Michael and any recurring (male or female) foe. As well as Lucy Lawless's character in "False Flag." Jeffrey Donovan has serious chemistry with a lot of people.
    • Larry (yes, dead Larry) gives a Not So Different speech to Fiona about how hard it is to be in a relationship with Mike and how he needs the things they both have to offer.
    • Sharon Gless (Madeline) noted she would like for Maddie to get into a relationship with the FBI agent that interrogated her about Mike and whom she slapped.
  • 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.
    • 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.
    • 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 Kill Them All 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.

  • Just Here for Godzilla: It's a safe bet a fair number of viewers only initally tuned in because of Bruce Campbell.
  • Magnificent Bastard: Anson, the man who was behind everything that happened to Michael so far. He not only was responsible for Michael's burn notice, he created the organization Michael was a member of in the first place. He burned Michael so that he could use him and his spy training without any kind of government restriction. He survived Michael's rather considerable rampage against his organization. He released Larry from prison and led Larry to him so that he could play the role of hostage, manipulating Fiona into killing Larry, along with a bunch of other innocents, giving him leverage over Michael. And least of all... he helped create Michael the Spy in the first place by killing Frank, Michael's father. And through all of that, he was never even a blip on Michael's radar. In fact, Michael didn't even know he existed until the middle of season five! Feel free to applaud his genius at your leisure.
  • Memetic Mutation: "Yes, dead Larry."
    • The Gabrielle Anwar Scale. 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."
  • 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 Crowning Moment of Heartwarming and Took a Level in Badass.)
  • 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 Aesop 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.
  • Smug Snake: Brennan would be a Magnificent Bastard if Michael didn't keep foiling his plans. When Larry fatally stabs Brennan, he states that Brennan's weakness is that he can't deal with an Indy Ploy.

"You're so busy thinking ten steps ahead that you don't see the movements in front of you."

  • Special Effects 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.
  • Straw Man 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, so the amount of straw necessary is debatable.
    • 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.
  • Tear Jerker: "He's wrong. I didn't raise my son like that."
    • The entire end of "Blind Spot", where Madeline is packing for Tampa, to visit a friend she doesn't even like because she can't stand to live with Jesse when she knows who burned him and she can't stand to watch Michael lie so easily about it and Jesse is waiting for Fiona at Michael's loft with a gun to her head - he knows Michael burned him and he's taking her involvement personally. He comes within a breath of shooting her, but doesn't, letting her live so she can tell Michael and Sam he's coming for them.
    • "Bread Pudding".
    • Gabriel the Doctor's story about how his daughter died.
    • Most of the scenes in "Bloodlines" where Madeline poses as a nurse to get information out of a Yakuza boss, with Michael basically pretending to be his father. He verbally and physically abuses Maddie, even going so far as to hit her, all with the subtext that this was exactly how Frank used to treat her.
    • Turns out the by-the-book, allergic-to-fun IRS agent that's hounding Sam is doing so because he saw Sam, who dated his mom for a while, as a father-figure who abandoned him. Their reunion, where Sam teaches him how to drink (starting with a Fuzzy Navel) is endearing.
  • 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.
  • Too Good For This Sinful Company: Poor, poor Max. He appeared to be a genuinely, unambiguously good man working for the CIA. He helped Michael dismantle the company that burned him, and was willing to go out on a limb and risk politics (and his job?) to help out one of Michael's clients.
  • Unfortunate Implications: The stereotypically chaotic, trigger-happy Irish ex-terrorist is played by a British actress.
  • 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.
  • 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.
  • X Meets Y: The Bourne Series meets The A-Team, with a sprinkling of Miami Vice and a dash of MacGyver.
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