Review: Burn Notice, Season 4 Premiere

Starring: Jeffery Donovan, Bruce Campbell, Sharon Gless, Gabrielle Anwar
Score: 10 out of 10

Fans know the lead in all too well: "My name is Michael Weston. I used to be a spy."

Last night, Michael, Fiona, and Sam Axe returned to TV to begin the fourth season of 'Burn Notice', a show I'm sorry to say I didn't discover until late into the third season. Thank goodness for iTunes!

The fourth season opens as the third ended with Michael having chosen to help the mysterious Management and waking up as a prisoner in a posh sitting room. Quickly Michael finds out why he's being held: these are the people who burned him and they need his help. It seems the sinister figure who released the devilishly-fun, but murderous Simon from prison last season did so to distract from his gun-running, war-inciting, and generally bad guy activities. Needless to say, Michael can't just walk away.

While this may sound like the 'Burn Notice' fans have come to know and love, something is different--for the better. While '24' occasionally liked to hint at Jack Bauer becoming a changed man, but always returning him to his torturous and tortured ways, Michael Weston has been slowly evolving over the last few seasons and the biggest evidence of that change comes in the fourth season premiere. Appropriately one of the show's most touching and effective scenes happens between Michael and his mother, Madeline (Sharon Gless). Played by Jeffery Donovan, you can feel Weston's fatigue and fear that he will become just like Simon.

Of course, this wouldn't be 'Burn Notice' without the case of the week, but  there are changes on that front too: Fiona and Sam find a case and begin it together without Michael proving that, while they're better together, they can survive without him. This week's hapless victim is a lawyer who crosses paths with a big, bad motorcycle gang. Unlike most of the Burn cases, though, this one is light on back story and used most significantly to highlight the changed dynamic.

Like most 'Burn Notice' fans I couldn't be happier that the show is back with the entire cast on board (love that I've found a place to check in on Bruce Campbell weekly!) and the subtle changes this season suggest that the writers knew they were on the verge of jumping that proverbial shark.  I like the fact they aren't screwing with the format, but looking at enhancing the characters. At the end of the day, 'Burn Notice' is formulaic, but what makes people tune in week after week (and a lot do--it's the most watched episodic show on cable) is the dynamic between Michael, Fiona, Sam, and Madeline. Keeping that growing is the key to continued success for 'Burn Notice' and I, for one, hope to see it going for a very long time.

Dabbling in photography

A few weeks ago I got it in my head I wanted to take up photography.

On any given day, I'll suddenly decide I need to take up one thing or another. Sky diving. Organic eating. Gardening. Yoga. Painting. Cooking. Some stick, some don't. Of that list every other one I've kept up with. I'll let you guess which.

So I waited for the photography fascination to fade. Shockingly it didn't. I found my old, once-very-expensive-and-now-not-much-better-than-a-cellphone digital camera and started playing. I started seeking out photography websites and online tutorials. My husband rescued from his closet an old text book on the subject passed down from aunt to father to son.

Like most novices, and since I didn't have a small child or puppy readily available, I decided to start my photography adventures outside. Nature shots are supposed to be some of the most difficult and I can see why: the lighting can be unforgiving (especially when your main tool only allows for 400 ISO!!!) and it's hard to set everything up so what you see with your eyes matches what the camera captures.

Anyway here are a few shots I'm least embarrassed by taken with my sad, but robust 3.2 MP Sony:

I have a thing about flowers. These pink ones are in bloom all over now.

This was at the entrance of a trail at a local park. It just struck me. The writer in me started making up the story of how that little girl's shoe ended up there. 

This is Eagle Harbor in Bainbridge Island, Wash. The ferry, which takes passengers between the island and Seattle, passes through this inlet. I rather liked the scale here: beach to homes to trees to mountains. Like building blocks.

Yup. Trees and some leaves. Very creative. ;)

Remember: I like flowers. Plus, there was something here I liked. Maybe it was how imperfect they are, but still very lovely. 

I'm using this one as my desktop background right now. It's peaceful. 

Hidden in the woods I found an old shack and this was carved on one of the support beams. Again the writer in me loved it. I bet Rachel Moore is pretty proud too. 

This is probably my favorite. Unfortunately, it turned out a little grainy.

Over the last few days I've been searching for a new camera. Let me just say: there are far too many options. Point-n-click, SLR, d-SLR, Canon, Nokia, Sony.... Sort of nuts. I've decided I'm not ready for a full-on d-SLR, but want more than a point-n-click so I'm going to take a happy medium and get the Canon G11: 

I really like that a lot of the controls are manual (versus having to navigate through a screen). It has settings for all sorts of photography. I won't have as much control as I would with a big-boy SLR, but it'll give me enough to play and learn. Plus it's only $449 so a nice price to see how far this hobby will go!