Burn Notice - Season 2

After the end of season one, I wasn't even sure where the second would take place, although it wasn't long before Michael Westen was back to pulling odd jobs in Miami, only this time being ordered around by a mysterious woman with a lot of influence in the town behind her, being played by Tricia Helfer moonlighting away from her regular gig on Battlestar Galactica which is about to end soon and oh my God did you see last night's episode this mess is going to get epic. Anyway, for the most part Mike continues to help various people with their problems that only he can fix with the help of Bruce Campbell and his sorta girlfriend Fiona, taking care of business in generally creative ways while he works on his own problem off and on. Some episodes are better than others, and my memory of the first half is a little fuzzy, but there are a few standouts, like one with Lucy Lawless as someone who's not what she seems (she's on Battlestar Galactica) and a really cool bank robbery episode featuring the lawyer from Battlestar Galactica.

Anyway, they clearly made a stronger attempt with this season to build a story across the whole thing, and for the most part it worked. There are a few times where you wish they'd just let an episode exist without a stand-alone part so they could move things forward better and repetition of ideas like Mike constantly moving his mom around to keep her safe from the bad guys, but at least they're trying. The hot spy tips continue to be an entertaining aspect, although I have to wonder how many of them they really have left in the tank. One thing they did well this season was introduce antagonists to Michael who eventually become sympathetic and help his cause. The finale was climactic enough I suppose, and I again wonder exactly what they're going to do next. They could just go back to the formula pretty easily, although if they really want it to grow they have to do something else.