Burn Notice and The Takeaway: Not Just For Curry and Chinese Food

I AM really enjoying Burn Notice. It's not just that Jeffrey Donovan gets to play a character that's way better (but still just as dangerous) as the guy he played in Touching Evil; it's that old hybrid juice flowing freely. It's amazing that you can mix and match genres so much, slap on a fresh coat of paint, and come up with something that feels so fresh.

For those who haven't seen the show -- the premise is simple. Donovan plays a spy who finds out that there's a "Burn Notice" out on him; which means he's persona non grata. His accounts are frozen, he's got nothing, and he's dropped in Miami and told he can't go anywhere. In Miami is an old friend who's keeping tabs on him for the FBI (Bruce Campbell) and an ex-IRA ex-Girlfriend (Gabrielle Anwar). To top it all off, he gets to relive and reconnect with his mother (Sharon Gless.) Now he has to pass the time and eke out a living working cases and helping people til he can figure out why he was burned.

Pretty nifty combo of a number of items:

• Light serialization (ie: Veronica Mars style)
• Romantic comedy will-they-or-won't-they stuff
  
• Family Problems
• Spy stuff
• Investigations
• Witty Voiceover
  

Jill Golick's got a great breakdown of the pilot for Burn Notice here.

The mixmaster of story items make for a light and escapist viewing experience. You get a hit of House-like impossible relationship with mom, a bit o' sexy sexy with Fiona (Anwar's character); some buddy-buddy with Campbell, and the episodic investigation plot...

...and it's this plot that gave me a sudden brainwave.

Because what I really liked about it is that about twice during each show there's what I call a couple of "MacGyver Moments." That's where Donovan explains in witty voiceover, some aspect of spycraft using everyday materials...Ie: most 40 dollar garden lights have a pretty good motion sensor, you can shoot through drywall just around the door, etc, etc.

(Someone who's seen the show, if you can come up with more specific examples of what I'm talking about from Burn Notice; put 'em in the comments and I'll do an edit to give more examples here -- I just don't have time to go back and rewatch)

The MacGyver moments aren't just entertaining, they actually send you away with some cool fact or truth you didn't know before. And that's tremendously satisfying.

In fact, it puts me in mind of West Wing (as most good things in TV do.) Because one of my favorite things about watching the early, Sorkin-era episodes was that in every episode you learned a fun, strange little fact about American governance (which way the seal of the U.S. faces, the fact that the government doesn't execute people on the Sabbath, how we built 100 000 airplanes before WWII, etc, etc.)

On XM radio, they're about to launch an all-Presidential Election channel called POTUS. It's worth noting, I think that before West Wing, nobody really knew that acronym. The pilot for West Wing put that out there for everybody.

It was a little something to take away.

The "takeaway," in fact, is something that they were obsessed with in my former life as a (shudder) lifestyle TV writer. All those makeover and design shows, the Holmes on Homes and Debbie Travis'es and Queer Eyes are all about building in "takeaways" -- useful bits of knowledge the audience can take away with them and apply in their own lives. (Or not.)

Now in dramatic terms, not many of us have practical uses for knowing little bits of spycraft. But that doesn't mean it's not cool. And anyway, all those shows on the Travel Channel aren't really so you know the Top Ten Places to Go in Helsinki because they actually think you're going to go there. They know that 90% of us are going to stay with asses firmly planted in couch. But still -- it's nice to learn something new.

USA has actually done a brilliant job of extending this aspect of Burn Notice into its online offerings. They actually have a series of "Spy Tips" on their site. Oh sure, they're less funny than Ask a Ninja...but they're actually...useful. They're fun. Go watch.

And oh yeah, they've got a writers' blog, too.

This can get into dangerous territory with some projects, and some writers, because you can turn into a bit of a research wank. (Well, here's an interesting bit of Tudor-era crockery...) But if the subject is fun and interesting, the nice thing about building in a takeaway is that it a) makes your audience feel like they've learned something (smart) and b) makes your world more realistic and involving (smarter.)

So when you're working up those scripts, ask yourself, is there room to give the audience a little bit of a takeaway?

I'll have chips with mine, please. Yum.