On TV: 'Burn Notice' amply fills the fun void on TV this summer

Somewhere alog the line, summer television forgot the true meaning of fun.

A short, simplistic, even childish word, but important. There's a fun deficit going on in TV on these sunny days.

Plenty of people would vehemently disagree. Why, we're a stone's throw away from fun on any given night. "America's Got Talent" or "The Next Best Thing" or any reality competition that a coma patient with eyes half open can keep up with -- if that's not fun, what is it?

Wallpaper masquerading as primetime programming. Background noise.

Luckily cable takes advantage of the lull by rolling out summer series we ache for during the regular season. But fun? Right now we have pseudo-modernist confusions such as HBO's "John From Cincinnati," and TNT's "The Closer" which, in spite of being one of the best shows on at this time of year, would be just another cop show if not for Kyra Sedgwick.

		Jim Fiscus
	Jeffrey Donovan's fired spy, Michael Westen, has a soft spot for mom, Sharon Gless, in "Burn Notice."

Mind you, we'd take "The Closer" any night over that other weirdness -- but summer makes you want something easier and delicious that isn't dumb. It takes a series like USA Network's "Burn Notice" to make a person realize that.

"Burn Notice" is what happens when a producer like Matt Nix, a newcomer to television, gets a show on the air. Nix, the show's creator and co-executive producer, is only a step or two removed from being a regular old viewer, so he remembers that a television thriller should be lively and smart with a sense of humor as well as sizzle and danger. "Burn Notice" hits all those notes in a sleek and, yes, fun premiere that's set to run commercial free.

USA must figure it has stumbled onto a real winner. But "Burn Notice" probably won't take much of a sell for some. Decent spy yarns match well with summertime, hence the occasional midseason Bond marathons. They're intelligent without being too much of a challenge, and they have the right balance of testosterone to appeal to both sexes.

"Burn Notice" is perfectly cast as well. Bruce Campbell's pretty much a walking billboard for good times. Gabrielle Anwar plays the kitten with a whip, making up for her disappointing turn in "The Tudors" and the forgettable foolishness of "The Librarian 2." The wonderful Sharon Gless is on board, too.

Jeffrey Donovan is the main attraction though, and seeing him channel the same magnetism that made his a brooding detective in "Touching Evil" into smirking, reluctant hero Michael Westen is a nice change.

Michael Westen -- great spy name, don't you think? Westen can afford to wear a confident grin because he's a top-grade agent. As such, the news that he's been burned blindsides him during a touch-and-go undercover operation in Nigeria

To be burned is the spy's version of being fired, but worse. In a breath, Westen loses all his resources, leaving him with no money, no credit, no handler or contacts, not even a car. He has no idea why it happened, but it clearly was for a specific reason or else his employers would simply wipe him out. Until he can find out who burned him and why, Westen becomes the lowest untouchable in the covert ops caste system, banished to his hometown of Miami, land of eternal summer, to survive by plying his skills.

Could be worse.

Maybe not. Mike's overbearing, hypochondriac of a mother, Madeline (Gless), tracks him down through his ex-IRA ex-girlfriend Fiona (Anwar), who also shows up to rekindle their romance, perhaps stirring up some titillating violence along the way.

The only place Mike can afford to rent is a rusty warehouse space above a club. His next-door neighbor is a drug dealer. His only friend in the world is a retired intelligence contact, a sleazy, boozy loser named Sam Axe (Campbell, as you would expect). With a constant tail of government agents watching him, he can't leave the city.

Here's where the pilot could have gone very, very wrong. Interpreted differently, "Burn Notice" would be a spy story dripping with blockbuster-style intensity, tension and darkness with Westen tearing through the trail leading to the person who sold him out.

But this show has no illusions of being anything more than a solidly made and terrifically entertaining TV distraction, neat and crisp as citrus soda.

There's something sweetly nostalgic about Donovan's character. He has a little bit of every great '80s action hero you can think of -- a few parts MacGyver and Thomas Magnum with a touch of Lee Stetson molded into a limber, modern package with abs you could scrub a shirt on and a soft spot for his mama he hates himself for having.

When he becomes a mercenary for people the police can't and won't help, he treats it less like a calling than an enormous pain. Westen operates like a man who loves being a lethal weapon, and he'll suffer to a point before he brings out his jujitsu moves.

"Fighting for the little guy is for suckers," he says with casual disdain in a voiceover that, thankfully, isn't overpowering. His actions betray a different ethos, which is what makes the series so interesting.

Don't overthink this, though. "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. It's fun, in other words. We sure could get used to more like it.