‘Burn Notice’ – ‘Entry Point’: Knock-off artist

A review of last night’s “Burn Notice” coming up just as soon as I drink my beer in protest…

“Burn Notice” is allegedly a spy show, but it’s really more of a private eye show, and Michael’s jack-of-all-trades nature allows it to be whatever else it wants. So “Entry Point” was mainly an excuse to have Michael and Fi work as security consultants for the ubiquitous Alan Dale, in a story that will have me looking at BitTorrent in an entirely new way.

While Matt Nix and company are usually aces at stretching their basic cable budget, “Entry Point” was an episode where the money was definitely not on screen (or, at least, was spent almost entirely on explosions). Michael builds up the idea that he and Buddy are going to jump out the window and survive by tucking and rolling, but we don’t see it, and the final chase scene was ruined by the use of blatant green screen.(*) But I did like Steven W. Bailey (best known as either the bartender on “Grey’s Anatomy” or the star of “My Big Fat Obnoxious Fiance”) as Buddy, who was set up at the end to become another of Michael’s ever-expanding network of specialists who owe him a favor.

(*) When I brought up the cheap-looking green screen in reviewing “Justified,” some readers argued that they didn’t care, since those scenes in Raylan’s car were just an excuse to have characters have conversations that didn’t seem static. And I can see that. The difference here is that the green screen was being used in the middle of a big stunt sequence, in a way that shattered any illusion that Donovan and Anwar were actually driving a car, leaning out the window, etc.

As for Jesse and Sam’s interrogation con on Kendra, I thought Navi Rawat was much better here than she was in the previous episode, but I’ve preferred previous “Burn Notice” stories like this that allow Bruce Campbell to ham it up more than he was allowed to here. I get that the point was to let Jesse shine (and that to do so he had to play it subtle and appear weak), but around the third time we came back to that room, I started hoping for a little more Chuck Finley.

I’ll be in California for the next few weeks covering Comic-Con and the TV critics’ press tour, so “Burn Notice” reviews may be sporadic, brief or non-existent during that span, depending on how much time I have to catch each episode. I’ll do what I can, but I may miss a few, and/or do a quick “I finally saw this one three days later; what did you think?” kind of post. And in the meantime, as to “Entry Point,” what did everybody else think?

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