Burn Notice, Season Six, part two
Sep. 14th, 2012 09:42 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
marinessBurn Notice, Season Six
Part Two.
This is more ranting about the overall plot issues with Season Six. Again, I'm behind. and in this case, it's quite possible that the show has already addressed my issues.
But just in case....
So at the end of season five, Fiona, convinced that the Bad Guy would never give up unless she turned herself into the authorities for a bombing actually planned and carried out by the Bad Guy and the Bad Guy's minions, turned herself into the authorities, even after being told by everyone that this was a really bad idea, and by everyone, I'm not just talking about the characters, but viewers.
Just some of the problems:
1. Throwing one of the leads into prison naturally meant that every episode had to spend time with The Adventures of Fiona in Prison. This in turn meant in the first few episodes considerably less screentime per episode both for the overwhelming show arc (Michael's dealings with the CIA) and for the secondary mystery/con/case of the week. This was particularly detrimental to the con/case of the week, which was already having to deal with needing to outdo previous seasons with increasing spectacular car chases, explosions and so on, with the result that the con/cases of the week had absolutely no time to spend on the secondary characters, which in turn meant that most of these cases either a) made no sense or b) left the audience going, um, no.
And here's the problem: those cons/cases of the week were part of the genius of the show – a guy desperate to clear his name who yet agrees to spend his time helping out little health clinics threatened by drug dealers. Here, pretty much every con/case was somehow related to the show arc or to the Adventures of Fiona in Prison, and got at best superficial, pointless characters.malterre mentioned that the actors seemed to be sleepwalking through their lines; I don't disagree with this, but that's in part because they weren't given anything to work with.
2. If The Adventures of Fiona in Prison were in general unhelpful and even detrimental to the subplots, they didn't do much for the overall plot, either. About the only thing they did was give Michael a new obsession – Get Fiona Out Of Prison No Matter What The Cost (since otherwise we're all going to have to endure these three storyline episodes and that's clearly not going to work long term) and make Fiona come across as even more demanding and unreasonable.
3. In part this happens because, as the show somewhat belatedly remembered, Fiona was originally a bad guy, a member of the Irish Republican Army and thus a Person of Interest to many people – the CIA associated people after Michael and MI6 after Fiona. So, after Fiona has spent all of this time getting herself into jail, she suddenly realizes that for her own safety she has to get out. (Incidentally it's not at all clear that she's going to be much safer in Miami Beach given the number of people who show up at her home with guns, but let's move on.)
4. So, even though Fiona KNOWS that Michael is running around doing his usual stuff, and when he says, "This is a bad time," that absolutely yes does mean that he's dealing with some sort of combination of hostile people with guns or other weapons, she has to spend these phone calls going, "But, oh, Michael, if you aren't at X place at X time it will be terrible for ME" even though he's already risking his life trying to get her out of prison. (Also, these phone calls made the already unconvincing con jobs he was doing even less convincing, but I digress.)
These calls are needed to connect the storyline and move along the main plot. But they mostly ended up making Fiona come off as a deeply unlikeable, unreasonable person with no sense of priorities.
5. Oh, and from the point of view of the main show arc, Fiona heading to jail did absolutely nothing to stop the Bad Guy from Doing Bad Things, just as Michael and Sam and the CIA had correctly predicted, making this entire plotline even more pointless.
5. Anyway. Michael's obsession with getting Fiona out of jail leads directly to getting his brother killed.
6. Shortly after this Very Sad Moment, the show Dramatically Releases Fiona from prison. (How, with MI6 after her and a criminal record, even though Michael had managed to bring Anson down by, er, exposing Anton to a sniper, is unclear, but....whatever).
Everyone is Very Sad. They go to the beach and Think Sad Thoughts. Fiona says she's still on jail time and never thought she'd see a sunrise on the beach again, because this is All About Her.
Not once, then or in the rest of the episode, does anyone say, um, Fiona, you know, if you hadn't turned yourself in, NONE OF THIS WOULD HAVE HAPPENED. Fiona, of course, would have reacted with righteous fury to this accusation. And I'll acquit her of guilt of Michael's brother's murder.
But the rest? Thanks to her decision to turn herself in, against all advice, several people were hurt, shot, and blown up; a mansion was set on fire; cars ended up in the Intercoastal because no one on this show ever thinks of the already fragile ecosystems of Biscayne Bay and nearby waters; all kinds of plants and wildlife were destroyed, and....
For what?
Oh, right, nothing.
Meanwhile, what was fun about the show – those subplots – has mostly vanished; Michael and Fiona have been turned into irritating characters; and perhaps recognizing this, the actors are, yes, mostly sleepwalking through their parts. I don't necessarily agree that all shows should end after five seasons, since it's difficult to keep up creative energy for that long. And perhaps this show can still pull the X-Files trick of managing some great episodes in its sixth and seventh seasons. But I'm not counting on it.
Part Two.
This is more ranting about the overall plot issues with Season Six. Again, I'm behind. and in this case, it's quite possible that the show has already addressed my issues.
But just in case....
So at the end of season five, Fiona, convinced that the Bad Guy would never give up unless she turned herself into the authorities for a bombing actually planned and carried out by the Bad Guy and the Bad Guy's minions, turned herself into the authorities, even after being told by everyone that this was a really bad idea, and by everyone, I'm not just talking about the characters, but viewers.
Just some of the problems:
1. Throwing one of the leads into prison naturally meant that every episode had to spend time with The Adventures of Fiona in Prison. This in turn meant in the first few episodes considerably less screentime per episode both for the overwhelming show arc (Michael's dealings with the CIA) and for the secondary mystery/con/case of the week. This was particularly detrimental to the con/case of the week, which was already having to deal with needing to outdo previous seasons with increasing spectacular car chases, explosions and so on, with the result that the con/cases of the week had absolutely no time to spend on the secondary characters, which in turn meant that most of these cases either a) made no sense or b) left the audience going, um, no.
And here's the problem: those cons/cases of the week were part of the genius of the show – a guy desperate to clear his name who yet agrees to spend his time helping out little health clinics threatened by drug dealers. Here, pretty much every con/case was somehow related to the show arc or to the Adventures of Fiona in Prison, and got at best superficial, pointless characters.
malterre mentioned that the actors seemed to be sleepwalking through their lines; I don't disagree with this, but that's in part because they weren't given anything to work with.2. If The Adventures of Fiona in Prison were in general unhelpful and even detrimental to the subplots, they didn't do much for the overall plot, either. About the only thing they did was give Michael a new obsession – Get Fiona Out Of Prison No Matter What The Cost (since otherwise we're all going to have to endure these three storyline episodes and that's clearly not going to work long term) and make Fiona come across as even more demanding and unreasonable.
3. In part this happens because, as the show somewhat belatedly remembered, Fiona was originally a bad guy, a member of the Irish Republican Army and thus a Person of Interest to many people – the CIA associated people after Michael and MI6 after Fiona. So, after Fiona has spent all of this time getting herself into jail, she suddenly realizes that for her own safety she has to get out. (Incidentally it's not at all clear that she's going to be much safer in Miami Beach given the number of people who show up at her home with guns, but let's move on.)
4. So, even though Fiona KNOWS that Michael is running around doing his usual stuff, and when he says, "This is a bad time," that absolutely yes does mean that he's dealing with some sort of combination of hostile people with guns or other weapons, she has to spend these phone calls going, "But, oh, Michael, if you aren't at X place at X time it will be terrible for ME" even though he's already risking his life trying to get her out of prison. (Also, these phone calls made the already unconvincing con jobs he was doing even less convincing, but I digress.)
These calls are needed to connect the storyline and move along the main plot. But they mostly ended up making Fiona come off as a deeply unlikeable, unreasonable person with no sense of priorities.
5. Oh, and from the point of view of the main show arc, Fiona heading to jail did absolutely nothing to stop the Bad Guy from Doing Bad Things, just as Michael and Sam and the CIA had correctly predicted, making this entire plotline even more pointless.
5. Anyway. Michael's obsession with getting Fiona out of jail leads directly to getting his brother killed.
6. Shortly after this Very Sad Moment, the show Dramatically Releases Fiona from prison. (How, with MI6 after her and a criminal record, even though Michael had managed to bring Anson down by, er, exposing Anton to a sniper, is unclear, but....whatever).
Everyone is Very Sad. They go to the beach and Think Sad Thoughts. Fiona says she's still on jail time and never thought she'd see a sunrise on the beach again, because this is All About Her.
Not once, then or in the rest of the episode, does anyone say, um, Fiona, you know, if you hadn't turned yourself in, NONE OF THIS WOULD HAVE HAPPENED. Fiona, of course, would have reacted with righteous fury to this accusation. And I'll acquit her of guilt of Michael's brother's murder.
But the rest? Thanks to her decision to turn herself in, against all advice, several people were hurt, shot, and blown up; a mansion was set on fire; cars ended up in the Intercoastal because no one on this show ever thinks of the already fragile ecosystems of Biscayne Bay and nearby waters; all kinds of plants and wildlife were destroyed, and....
For what?
Oh, right, nothing.
Meanwhile, what was fun about the show – those subplots – has mostly vanished; Michael and Fiona have been turned into irritating characters; and perhaps recognizing this, the actors are, yes, mostly sleepwalking through their parts. I don't necessarily agree that all shows should end after five seasons, since it's difficult to keep up creative energy for that long. And perhaps this show can still pull the X-Files trick of managing some great episodes in its sixth and seventh seasons. But I'm not counting on it.