Spies, cute and dissolute

Typically, the TV sitcom is my cup of tea; I have never been one to appreciate the hour-long drama. When I was young, I watched a few, like Mission: Impossible and The Wild Wild West. Over the years, I have watched St. Elsewhere, Murder She Wrote, Twin Peaks, The X-Files, and CSI, but typically the form in a continuing basis does not appeal to me. However, this summer, I am enjoying the USA Network's Burn Notice. Jeffrey Donovan plays a free lance spy who discovers that there is a "burn notice" out on him, meaning that he has been cut loose by his bosses and generally considered unemployable. He hightails it to Miami and, as he tries to find out why he's become persona non grata, hangs out with his mother (Sharon Gless), his former girlfriend (Gabrielle Anwar), and a former colleague (Bruce Campbell) who, though informing on Donovan to the CIA, is still his buddy. Though the arc of Donovan's predicament is developing over time, each episode is mostly a self-contained story in which Donovan uses his spy and disguise skills to help some less fortunate soul out of a jam. Donovan is slickly attractive (I swear I've seen him in a sitcom bit part or two, but IMDB tells me I'm wrong), and cult actor Campbell looks surprisingly dissolute--big gut, jowls, dark eyes--and how much of that is makeup and how much is Campbell living the good/bad life, I don't know. I didn't like Anwar at first, but she's growing on me. What I really like about the show, and what's missing from so many network dramas these days, is its light tone. Shows like Lost and Heroes and CSI have their tiny moments of humor, but overall their tones are dark or at least very serious. In this one, the tone is light with moments of seriousness. It won't go down as a TV Land classic, but it makes good summer viewing.