Burning Questions
By Mitch Berg
So my favorite TV show of the past couple of years is USA’s Burn Notice. Sharp, well-written, funny, Bruce Campbell being Bruce Campbell, and lots of interrogation techniques to use on teenagers. Well worth the odd watch. Indeed, since its season is whenever 24 isn’t on, it’s kinda my only real “appoitnment” TV these days.
But I have to wonder: there’s car crashes, car chases, enough running gun battles to make Dirty Harry blush with shame, pitched fights, Venezuelan commandos slipping in from the sea into a marina in full battle rattle, and explosions, explosions, explosions – and nobody in Miami calls the police.
But Michael Weston swims in from the sea, crosses the beach and runs into a hotel, and a full dragnet turns out?
June 19th, 2009 at 7:34 am
Fully concur its good entertainment , but the poor police response in Miami is disquieting.
Campbell is good fun to watch – so is Sharon Gless
Gabrielle Anwar (Scent of a Woman) is great fun too, always opting for the subtle approach: “lets shoot them”
June 19th, 2009 at 8:06 am
It’s a sinful pleasure, but I like the show too – thought it’s silly and patently unrealisitc (it’s TV – so go figure) even for TV. It’s sort of like Mission Impossible meets Starsky and Hutch.
June 19th, 2009 at 9:37 am
I’ve not seen the show, but really Mitch. It’s a friggin TV show. Are you expecting some type of cohesive reality?
June 19th, 2009 at 9:45 am
It’s one of my faves, too, but it’s Westen, not Weston. LOL
June 19th, 2009 at 10:48 am
He’s an ex-spy who jumped from a helicopter after telling the boss-man “I’ll take my chances.” Of COURSE he’s going to be hounded by the fuzz.
And I divide my time trying to decide whether Fiona is epically doable or more plastic than Barbie. Either way, she’s so tiny, shotgun recoil would realistically plant her on her ass five feet backwards.
June 19th, 2009 at 1:29 pm
Had that exact thought watching it last night when they did the standard (in that show) “pull the weapons out of the trunk in broad daylight” move in front of the bad guy’s house.
June 19th, 2009 at 1:54 pm
Steve G.
“pull the weapons out of the trunk in broad daylight”
I saw that one day in 1995 in south Mpls when rival drug dealers wanted to negotiate franchise rights to the corner of Columbus & Lake. A dozen(give or take) shots later the house I was in took a couple slugs but alas none of the drug vermin managed to hit each other. The level of marksmanship among “gangstas” is deplorable.
June 19th, 2009 at 2:25 pm
Pen,
silly and patently unrealisitc
Oh, I know. I am willing to suspend disbelief. Heck, I’m a 24 fan…
Kel,
Gabrielle Anwar (Scent of a Woman) is great fun too, always opting for the subtle approach: “lets shoot them”
I’ve never cared so much for Anwar, but I love the character.
Kerm
It’s a friggin TV show. Are you expecting some type of cohesive reality?
Well, no – and given that I’m pointing out incoherent unreality, I’d think that was obvious. {{shrug}}
Yoss,
trying to decide whether Fiona is epically doable or more plastic than Barbie
Both. And just a shade too thin for my tastes. Such “tastes” as I have.
Steve G,
the standard (in that show) “pull the weapons out of the trunk in broad daylight” move
Yep. And the part I love – for a ragtag bunch of freelancers and castaways, they always have top-shelf hardware. Last night, Sam Axe and Fiona pulled out a couple of H’nK MP7s – not only top of the line, but kinda exotic even still. And that sniper rifle that Fee and Sam keep dragging out – can’t quite ID it, but it’s, er, not cheap.
Kel, again,
A Mpls cop once told me the safest place to be in a Twin Cities gang fight was the target; the most dangerous place was sitting in a house watching TV in a second-floor room 45 degrees off the (putative) line of fire.
June 19th, 2009 at 2:34 pm
given that I’m pointing out incoherent unreality, I’d think that was obvious
Well you asked the question. Don’t make me go all Peev on your ass!
June 19th, 2009 at 3:10 pm
Don’t make me go all Peev on your ass!
*shudder*
Thanks for that mental image carrying me into my weekend.
June 19th, 2009 at 5:23 pm
Kerm simply seems unable to refrain from turning the fun into the personal somedays.. such a pity, he could be a nice human somewhere/when.
Mitch, clearly, we both wouldn’t toss Ms. Anwar from our domicile for eating soda crackers no matter how much too thin we might think she is in our whimsickle (sic), daydreamy objection.
June 19th, 2009 at 5:37 pm
According to TV, Miami is a town where the Crime Scene Investigators roll up on scene in a Hummer and the Vice cops drive 100MPH in a Ferrari convertible through traffic on Bal Harbour Boulevard. You mean to tell me that yet another show based there has been taking license with reality?
PS: For anyone who saw last nights episode – Can a Blue Tooth antenna with a 400 yd. range really be built out of a Pringles can and a few odds & ends from the office supply closet? I gave up on my Blue Tooth ear transceiver when it didn’t pick up the signal from a phone that was resting on the dashboard of the car I was driving.
June 19th, 2009 at 6:38 pm
Seflores
google: pringles wifi antenna
haven’t tried it with bluetooth but it should work – don’t know that it’ll give you 400 yards, its pretty much line of sight so buildings and such will significantly impact the signal which depends on the transceiver strength.
actually when you are wardriving with a wireless laptop a coffee can with a pigtail antenna can significantly boost your range when accessing unprotected wireless networks – it is highly directional tho.
June 20th, 2009 at 8:42 am
Pen,
Re: Anwar: True.
Kel:
That’s one of the reasons I love having a blog; instant stink-testing on these things.
June 20th, 2009 at 9:13 am
Kerm simply seems unable to refrain from turning the fun into the personal somedays..
Just…I…um…
No, there aren’t words to cover this.
June 20th, 2009 at 10:22 am
Kel – Thanks for the tip on the google search.
With the caveat that “ITS ONLY A TV SHOW” firmly in place…
The folks who built the pringle can wifi in the google search used a lot of material that you would not find in an office supply closet (all thread, bare copper wire) and it took 45 minutes.
This pringle wifi antenna construction looks like many TV shows where the character is able to find a parking space right by the building entrance (ie: impossible to duplicate in real life).