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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burn_Notice
Premise
The title refers to the burn notices issued by intelligence agencies to discredit or announce the dismissal of agents or sources who are considered to have become unreliable. When a spy is burned, they are wiped off the grid, without access to cash or influence. According to the narration during the opening credits, the burned spy has no prior work history, no money; in essence, no identity. The television series is a first-person narrative (including frequent voice-overs providing nuggets of exposition) from the viewpoint of covert-operations agent Michael Westen, played by Jeffrey Donovan.
After fleeing a Nigerian operation blown apart by the sudden and unexplained non-cooperation of his U.S. contact, Westen finds himself in his hometown[3] of Miami, Florida, attended to by his ex-girlfriend, Fiona Glenanne, but abandoned by all his normal intelligence contacts, under continuous surveillance with his personal assets frozen. Extraordinary efforts to reach his U.S. government handler eventually yield only a grudging admission that someone powerful wants him "on ice" in Miami; if he leaves the city he will be hunted down and taken into custody, whereas by staying there he can remain relatively free. Consumed by the desire to find out why he has been burned, and by whom, Westen goes to work as an unlicensed private investigator/spy/soldier of fortune for anyone in town who can pay him any money in order to fund his personal investigation into his own situation as a blacklisted agent. Throughout the series Westen battles and outwits an array of mobsters, con artists, contract killers, professional thieves, drug traffickers, sex traffickers, deadbeat dads, arms dealers, kidnappers and war criminals. The series makes frequent use of jury rigging, with the characters improvising devices to do the job of more expensive, harder-to-obtain items.
At the end of Season Two, Westen has an encounter with "the Management" who threatens to put him back on the radar if Westen doesn't cooperate with their agenda. After a dramatic leap from a helicopter into the Atlantic Ocean, Westen finds himself arrested by Miami police who think he is an illegal immigrant after he washes up on South Beach.
Season Three picks up with Westen under surveillance by Detective Paxson (played by Moon Bloodgood), who has been tasked with monitoring his activities. Michael is able to secure the arrest of a major Miami criminal Paxson has long been targeting, and threatens to reveal the true circumstances of the arrest if Paxson does not stop bothering him. Paxson agrees to the deal. Michael is then contacted by a man named Tom Strickler, who is very heavily connected and offers Michael the chance to regain his old job if he does some work for him. In the midseason finale, Michael is forced to kill Strickler in order to save Fiona's life, an action which has unforeseen consequences.
Tie-In Novels
In 2008, Signet Books started publishing tie-in novels for the show under their Obsidian imprint:
* Goldberg, Tod (2008). Burn Notice: The Fix. Signet. ISBN 978-0-451-22554-2.
* Goldberg, Tod (2009). Burn Notice: The End Game. Signet. ISBN 978-0-451-22676-1.
[edit] Production
The show is filmed on-location in and around Miami, Florida, as well as in Hollywood, Florida generally around Hollywood Boulevard and Hollywood Beach.
[edit] Awards
The pilot episode written by Matt Nix won a 2008 Edgar Allan Poe Award, honoring the best in mystery, in the category "Best Television Episode Teleplay".[5] David Raines, Scott Clements and Sherry Klein were nominated for "Outstanding Sound Mixing for a Comedy or Drama Series" for Burn Notice Series (One-Hour)" at the 60th Primetime Emmy Awards in 2008.[6] John Dickson won a 2008 ASCAP Film and Television Music Awards for "Top TV Series". Craig S. O'Neill and Jason Tracey were nominated for a 2009 Writers Guild of America, USA award for "Episodic Drama" (episode "Double Booked").
Wide international distribution.