CITATION("AICN")
It’s fun when a CIA freelancer as highly trained as lead character Michael Weston (“Touching Evil” vet Jeffrey Donovan) schools the local thugs in applied brutality. It’s less fun when his mom starts nagging him for favors, or when he teaches a kid how to deal with bullies, or when he ditches the G-men tailing him; these bits feel too familiar by half. Also? The great Bruce Campbell, a long way now from Brisco County Jr., feels underutilized here as a fat, retired intelligence officer who hooks Weston his first P.I. gig.
I’ll need another episode or two before I decide whether or not this thing is season-pass worthy, but a superspy slumming as a Miami gumshoe makes for a terrific premise, and the commercial-free pilot has some inspired moments, notably Weston’s encounters with an overmatched local drug dealer named Sugar.
CITATION("tvguide")
… while the deadpan Westen is scrappy and resourceful, the pilot is neither thrilling nor funny enough to earn notice. …
CITATION("Entertainment Weekly")
The best reason to watch USA's new spy drama, Burn Notice, is Jeffrey Donovan. … a standard detective story that's brightened by unusual characters and snazzy dialogue. …
CITATION("The Los Angeles Times")
… delightful … the show floats along on a spy's-handbook narration that sounds remarkably convincing. We learn how to make a listening device from two cellphones; that "in a fight you have to be careful not to break all the little bones in your hand on someone's face"; that when housebreaking "you want to look like a legitimate visitor"; that a spy's best friend is a hardware store.
CITATION("The Philadelphia Inquirer")
Looking for something new and different on TV? It's not Burn Notice. Looking for some summertime fun? It is Burn Notice …
CITATION("The Seattle Post-Intelligencer")
… "Burn Notice," like many hot weather commitments, is casual. Although it'll satisfy your urge for small-screen action and tug at your emotions every so slightly in the same fleet-footed hour, you might not feel compelled to come back week after week. That's just fine, because you'll always be excited to stumble on this show, and you'll never be lost. …
CITATION("The Orlando Sentinel")
flashy, erratic action series … sends Michael on a quest to find out why he was axed. But the show also loads him down with too much narration. As the hero, appealing Donovan has to chatter too much. "Burn Notice" also saddles Michael with a forlorn former lover, Fiona (Gabrielle Anwar). Their scenes lack fizz. …
CITATION("The Boston Herald")
… Part spy caper, part dramedy, part boring … The show is an easy fit with USA’s “Monk” and “Psych” - series that are quirky but hardly appointment television. “Burn Notice” has a spark of life. Now, if USA Network would just fan the writers.
CITATION("The Hollywood Reporter")
… goes a little heavy on exposition. Far too many scenes open with a Westen voice-over. Many of these are instructive, even amusing, but the technique is overused. Worse, it borrows from a film noir style that is otherwise little evidenced elsewhere in the show. "Burn" is at its best when Westen is outwitting and outracing bad guys, including the FBI agents assigned to tail him. …
Reviews mitigées, donc pour le pilote. ->
AICN