Burn Notice Season 3

So pumped. Hopefully the trend of increasing greatness continues.

I don't follow anything on facebook so I haven't noticed that but I'm excited that this is coming back. My crummy cable company's refusal to carry USA in HD is really starting to piss me off though.

Ok, due to the twitter feed, I now know that Michael Weston will be acting opposite Jeffrey Donovan (who obviously plays Michael Westen on the show).

I'm not sure how I'll deal with the double Michael West(o|e)n hijinks.

Learn to use bittorent. I have to do this for Supernatural because for whatever odd reason I don't get the CW in my area in HD. So it's either watch a 4:3 grainy image, very snowy or watch a 720 rip on my PS3 the next day. It's an easy choice for me and there isn't much difference between 1080i and 720p. Some people even say that 720p is better.

And yeah im pretty into this coming back. Although im betting they are bring back the big bad from last season, what was her name? Anyway after she was shot I noticed one of the agents crouching over her and it was a gut shot, im betting shes alive. However im pretty certain you won't see her in the opener. Curious how things are going to go now with Michael's protection taken away. Perhaps instead of Michael constanly on offensive he will be on the defense.

Carla got shot straight through the chest. She's gone.

Here's the thing ... I actually pay for stuff. I know how to use BitTorrent but I choose not to because I think the people who create the content deserve to get paid for it. So I watch it on Hulu or TiVo it but I'm not just going to download an unlicensed copy over the internet that's just going to screw over the shows I care about.

I've debated canceling my cable television service and just buying the episodes of Amazon but I'd really miss all the HD movies I can record now so I haven't done it yet.

Yeah and see my thing is I pay for stuff too. I agree with you about stealing content and people getting their money. I would GLADLY pay for the CW in HD but they just don't have it for some reason. Im guessing it has something to do with an affiliate not broadcasting in HD or something. I pay $120 a month for cable and I still can't get one of the basic antenna channels in HD?

Second of all you you are paying for the content aren't you? I do have the CW in analog im just getting the HD version for "free". Im guessing you also have USA in analog right? So what exactly are you stealing? I guess you may feel some kind of guilt over not watching commercials but you would just fast forward through them on your DVR wouldn't you? I mean unless you have a neilson box. If not then who exactly is getting screwed over here? Now if you said you were downloading Dexter or True Blood from a subscription based cable network like HBO or Showtime then yeah that would be stealing in which case you would be screwing someone over and you shouldn't do it.

However maybe you don't want to get caught which is a different matter which I could certainly understand.

You can try to get into semantic arguments about what you do or don't pay for but at the end of the day I don't feel like downloading it off the internet is the right thing to do. In my mind it's always boiled down to, if I own a crappy old cassette version of an album does that give me the right to pirate a really nice lossless version of the song?

I've got a TV and channels I pay for and I can record those channels and watch them how I please. It's not that I don't have the $12-15 a month it would take to buy all the episodes online anyway so to not spend the money to do it the legal way just makes me feel like a jerk.

Well then are you available to watch my house when I go on vacation? Because I feel like your the only person I could completely trust not to do anything remoretly wrong and I mean that as a compliment.

You do realize though that if your paying for basic cable and you DVR a show on a network like say...Scifi channel or FX and you fast forward through the commercials your still stealing. I mean the money your paying for the whole channel lineup goes entirely or mostly to the cable company so the only way for that show to make money is advertiseing. However none of that really matters because you don't have a Neilson Box. So if you watch every commercial or not it won't make a difference to them. But if your downloading HBO or Showtime content then you really are fucking people out of money since they depend on you subscribing to their network.

Oh and uhhh Burn Notice is a great show.

Maybe I'd argue that I pay a reduced bulk rate for the channels because it presents the network an opportunity to market to me. Whether I choose to watch those commercials or not (flipping a channel or fastforwarding via DVR) does not make what I do stealing. After all, I can safely say that I do watch some commercials that catch my eye and even when fast-forwarding I still have to watch to make sure I don't skip the show at all so I'm aware of, on some level, the advertisers that are supporting the show and the products they are selling.

As for the viewing numbers for non-Nielson families, TiVo actually does provide anonymous usage stats about who watches what shows, what commercials were skipped or watched, how long from when you DVR'd a show did you watch it or how many times it was watched. In that sense, recording it with my TiVo and watching it is measurable by the network.

To go a bit further and slightly more esoteric, fair use has been legally established to imply that recording shows broadcast and watching it at your leisure and fastforwarding through commercials or whatever is within your legal rights of that content while taking that show and redistributing it is illegal.

Do I necessarily think of all that stuff when I TiVo a show and watch it and feel fine about it but guilty if I download a show off of BitTorrent? Not really, but somewhere in there those all probably factor in. As I said, at the end of the day my decision is personal and is just based on how I feel about it.

I just watch stuff off the network's website, or Hulu. It's free and the picture ain't too bad.

I would watch it on tv if I could, but they don't broadcast it in my country

So anyways, can't wait for the new season...

Ehhh......alright.

Jeeze, can't we go back to talking about how Anwar looks like Skeletor for fucks sake?

Yes, im sorry. So she still does right?

Yes. And I apologize for ending the most epic derail ever.

To be fair, right now all we can do is talk about how excited we are about Burn Notice ... it's not like there's a ton to talk about. I'm sure Michael will still be stuck helping out people while trying to figure out what to do in his life/keeping his friends and family safe.

Fair enough. I just figured the fair use debate would be better suited to have it's own thread.

Well, it was only a couple posts, I'm sure that the Burn Notice thread can handle it.


Back to the dueling Michael Westön's:

I like to think that Anwar's spinal bones are characters on the show since they're so prevelant. The woman needs to eat a cheeseburger or two.

One thing that really adds to the show is the great casting of the baddies and side characters. While I though Helfer was a bit mediocre (and a bit odd looking for someone so beautiful) I loved Matheson, Meyer, Karnes and especially Shanks this past year. I hope they keep this up and bring in some other great character actors. I also hope we see Karnes again as he can be a good foil now that Shanks is dead on the show.

Shanks had to be one of the most believable villains in TV history. No evil cackle, no random sparing the hero. He just did stuff.

When I'm watching CSI nowadays, I always expect Alex Carter to revert into "Jason Bly" mode, and I'm disappointed when he doesn't.

I've heard that Michael is getting a new foil this season... but this time as someone on the right side of the law who is obsessed with finding out the truth about him. Should be interesting.

I'm betting they regret having his character die now. I mean, it made sense within the story being told but damn if he was not the life of the party when on screen.

As it happens, Ms. Anwar is hitting back on the weight issue:

I hope all kinds of villains come out of the woodwork. Isn't that the premise for this season? They stop protecting him so the shit hits the fan?

Assuming chief bad guy wasn't trying to scare him, yes his hands should be full this year. I had this idea about this season. So Michael gets overwhelmed by all his old enemies coming to get him, and then all of the people he helped previously start stepping up and helping him, sort of his own support network. Of course it would be douchey and out of character of him to put civilians in harm's way but maybe Sam or Fiona could set something up without him knowing.

Good for her and all but she could still stab you with her spine.

Yeah, it seems like most anything I've read about it are people saying "You seem unhealthily thin, you should probably consider eating." It seems less trying to encourage her to have a healthy body and not feel like she needs to be skeletal.

Yeah part of her job in this show is to be the sexy character. She knew that going in. The other is to be a love insterest and hard ass which she really nails. Alot of the way her character operates is by using her body. Ya know wears a sexy outfit, flirts with a guy and then stun guns him and throws him in a trunk. So part of that deal is you have to be ya know.....sexy. Part of that means not gaining 50 pounds but the other part is not losing so much weight that your a demonic creature. I mean it's not like we all sit around here going "Oh did you see Michael's mom this week? See how fat and old she is? She really needs to hit that treadmill."

It kills me how she is supposed to be soooo sexy on the show. Arguably 99.5% of the female extras they have in the Miami* scenes are better looking mostly due to their HEALTHY bodies. While the show is unbelievable (yet still one of my favorites by far) it always seems like such a stretch for me when they get her to sexify up some bad guy for information. I loved it when Dina Meyer showed up looking fantastic because it really showed how skinny Anwar was in comparison because Meyer's skinny but not ridiculous.

*Just like CIS:M I love how they portray South Florida on this show. Its such a joke and so cartoony and I love it. Trust me, be very glad they don't show the real Miami.

Exactly! Look I don't want to be one of these assholes who sits around and jumps on people for how they look especially considering im not Brad Pitt. However when your in a role which calls for you to be sooooo sexy and your bones are sticking out of your body it just seems silly.

I gotta agree with this...I thought he was boring as hell on Stargate, but DAMN if he didn't come alive on Burn Notice. And I hardly noticed him at first! he really buffed up and just really brought his acting to a whole new level. I'm really gonna miss his character.

But I serously can't wait for the new season...I wonder where it's gonna go now that he doesn't have a foil to bother him. What's this about 2 Michaels? That smells like soap opera bs to me.

No. The actor who will be appearing on the show, his name, in Real Life TM, is Michael Weston. See? It's funny 'cause that's the name of the dude on the show!

Technically the character is Michael Westen, but yeah

Here's the latest promo to get us pumped for tomorrow night: Michael Westen, Sharp Dressed Man.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p5NjxBLPDq8

Best line: "for a tough guy, you dress like an Easter Egg"

Saw one of the promos and it definitely had Moon Bloodgood in it. Hopefully these new episodes will be great. Still not getting USA HD though which is getting more and more frustrating.

I got a pleasant surprise about half way through last season when I realized an episode I was watching on my DVR was in HD. I'm going camping this weekend, so I'll miss seeing the show "live", which sucks.

I saw that! She was awesome in the new Terminator movie - definitely looking forward to Michael having another foil.

So psyched for tonight... 9 pm couldn't come fast enough!

I know it was telegraphed, but I do like one of Michael's old "spy buddies" turns on him. Not everyone's gonna be Sam and Fi, nor is Michael going to be able to turn all baddies into good.

It perfectly set up the season, because not only is Michael immediately on people's radars (cops, etc), but the first person to take advantage of this is an old FRIEND. Just imagine the fire that will rain down from ENEMIES.

Good stuff.

I really liked how he cut the hell out of his wrists escaping. Its the little things like that which make the show. They try so hard to keep all the hijinks plausible and I was glad they decided to do this. And I knew the old friend was bad as soon as he mixed the beer and yogurt. If that doesn't say evil, nothing does.

Loved the card from management.

Yeah it's going to be fun. But ya know im suprised Michael wants to go back into the service of his country so bad. In the last season he had a long conversation with whats his face about how "the machine" uses you and throws you away. I always felt jumping out of the chopper was his big fuck you I don't want my job back statement. I figured this season would be him fully committing to his freeleance business and dodgeing all the people who were coming after him.

The helicopter people ("Management") aren't the DOD. They're something completely different. Michael wants to be a spy for the US. He doesn't want to work for Carla's people.