What I’m Watching: Burn Notice

Burn Notice: Season 4, Episode 3 “Made Man” (B+)

It’s really interesting how similar Michael and Jesse actually are. They are both reckless and unwilling to listen to others in the same kind of way, but Michael pulls it off a bit more stoically, which makes it work for him. Jesse boasts this sinful smile that seems to indicate that he knows that he’s going against the wishes of others but doesn’t much mind or care. That arrogance especially makes a do-gooder like Michael detest him, even if he’s doing something just like Michael would do like taking focus off of a larger mission to help one person. I’m still loving Fiona’s response to working with Jesse on a regular basis, and still rooting for something to happen between them, even if he ends up getting killed or something else when he inevitably sets his targets on Michael. In this episode, it was fun to see Nestor Serrano playing the mob boss, since I liked his performance in the fourth season of “24” as terrorist Navi Araz. He was supposed to star in a show the following fall called “Murder Book” but it didn’t get picked up. Obviously this is a far sillier role, but fortunately it’s not nearly as silly or stupid as any one of the villains on “Burn Notice” creator Matt Nix’s new show, “The Good Guys,” which you really shouldn’t watch for any reason. As always on this show, however, the complex relationship between Michael and his mother continues to be fantastic, and having her chastise him for pretending to be Jesse’s friend was an unexpectedly moving scene.