There wouldn’t be a series if he wasn’t, but here’s how Burn Notice explained Michael Westen’s “burning.” Burn Notice is a spy thriller from the USA Network that debuted in 2007. The show finds superspy Michael Westen (Jeffery Donovan, Sicario), who suddenly finds himself stranded in Miami after a “burn notice” is issued against him within the intelligence community. He’s unable to leave the city and all his money and assets are frozen. While investigating who burned him, Michael makes a living as a freelance troubleshooter and P.I. in the city.

Burn Notice was aided in his adventures by his Irish girlfriend Fiona (Gabrielle Anwar) and ex-NAVY Seal Sam Axe (Bruce Campbell, Evil Dead). The series benefitted from a solid cast, well-written dialogue and slick action. The show was also unique for Michael’s near-constant narration, where he seemed to directly address viewers about what was happening or how he was pulling off another seemingly impossible task. Burn Notice ran for seven seasons, with its final scene appearing to answer the mystery of just who the hell Michael was talking to the whole time.

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While he eventually cleared his name and even got back in the CIA’s good books, the first couple of seasons focused on the central mystery of why was Michael Westen burned in the first place and by whom? Burn Notice season 2 revolved around Mike’s conflict with Carla Baxter (Tricia Helfer, Battlestar Galactica) who works for a mystery organization, and its revealed she burned him specifically so they could recruit Michael to their cause.

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Carla forced Michael to undertake several jobs at her behest in Burn Notice’s second season, as she threatens to hurt his loved ones if he doesn’t cooperate. Michael also meets another former CIA agent she burned named Victor, and the two team up to take Carla down; this ends with both her and Victor dead. Later seasons instead focused on Michael’s battles with The Organization itself, and by season six he had helped the CIA identify and take down all the people who his orchestrated his burn notice.

Burn Notice ends with both Michael and Fiona leaving the spy game behind to raise a family in Ireland, with Mike having become disillusioned with his former life and having lost friends and family to it. While the show retains a loyal following, Burn Notice ended on a conclusive, happy note for (most) of its characters, so it’s hard to see how Michael could be pulled out of his comfortable retirement for another long stint in Miami.

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About The Author


Padraig Cotter
(3484 Articles Published)

It’s pronounced Paw-rick, not Pad-raig. Now that’s out of the way, a brief introduction. Padraig has been writing about film online since 2012, when a friend asked if he’d like to contribute the occasional review or feature to their site.

A part-time hobby soon blossomed into a career when he discovered he really loved writing about movies, TV and video games – he even (arguably) had a little bit of talent for it. He has written words for Den of Geek, Collider, The Irish Times and Screen Rant over the years, and can discuss anything from the MCU – where Hawkeye is clearly the best character – to the most obscure cult b-movie gem, and his hot takes often require heat resistant gloves to handle.

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He’s super modern too, so his favorite movies include Jaws, Die Hard, The Thing, Ghostbusters and Batman. He can be found as i_Padds on Twitter making bad puns.

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