Reynolds plays Paul, a former spy whose drunken posting on the Internet catches the eye, and sparks the ire, of a Russian special ops team, who descend upon Miami determined to find Paul, and kill him. Michael and his crew come to the rescue - in a crisp TV "buddy movie" so delightful, it all but demands a string of sequels. The Starz Network filmed two seasons of the period drama "Magic City" in Miami, and ABC tried to revive "Charlie's Angels" with a short-lived reboot two years ago.Thursday night at 9 ET on USA's Burn Notice, Burt Reynolds guest stars as a retired spy targeted by a Russian hit squad. Since then, Fox Television Studios, which produced "Burn Notice," also brought the A&E series "The Glades" and USA's "Graceland," which is actually set in Southern California, to South Florida. Though several film productions came to South Florida in the 1990s, "Burn Notice" was the starting point for the area becoming a major television destination, Winick said. "'Burn Notice' was our signature show for the last seven years," Winick said. And at seven seasons, the production of "Burn Notice" actually surpassed "Miami Vice" by two years. It became the first scripted series made there since "Miami Vice" went off the air in 1989 to last longer than two seasons. Graham Winick, the city of Miami Beach's film coordinator and a past-president of Film Florida, said "Burn Notice" reignited South Florida as a TV production destination. "And we knew if there was a way to put a fresh spin on them, then audiences would appreciate something that was missing from the TV landscape."Īnd while the network had already seen success with humorous detective series like "Monk" and "Psych," the success of "Burn Notice" showed USA executives that action-oriented series - like "White Collar," ''Covert Affairs," ''In Plain Sight" and most recently "Graceland" - could be made on a cable budget.īesides the success "Burn Notice" has brought to the USA Network, the show has been instrumental in growing the South Florida television industry. "We loved that it was a contemporary update of those kinds of shows," Sepiol said. "Burn Notice" felt very much like a throwback to 1980s action series like "The A-Team" and "MacGyver." In 2009, it became the most-watched, scripted series ever on basic cable in the coveted 18-49 demographic.Īlex Sepiol, a senior vice president at USA, said the network immediately took notice of "Burn Notice" as a way to revive an old genre. The series premiered in 2007 as the top, new, scripted cable series. "Burn Notice" has averaged between 4 million and 5 million viewers since it began, with a handful of episodes topping 6 million viewers. The problem is that Westen has started to lose track of who his real friends are and whether he's fighting for the right side. Once again working for the CIA, Westen has been trying to infiltrate an international terrorist organization. The stories of the week have taken a back seat to one, big 13-episode arc. "Reconnecting with his family and friends and romantic relationships is a big part of that."īut all the progress Westen has made in rebuilding those relationships has been strained to the breaking point in the final season. "The show is about Michael Westen learning to be a human being," Nix said. The series has always balanced a story of the week with the larger narrative elements of who burned Michael and why. In short, it's a way to put a spy out into the cold, whether merited or not. The term 'Burn Notice' hails from the world of espionage as notice given by an intelligence agency to other agencies that a person has become unreliable and his information should be "burned" or dismissed.
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