Is Burn Notice worth a second chance ? About other (USA) shows ??
By fred | July 20, 2008
For a couple of weeks now, USA hit show Burn Notice has been back on our screens. Last year when the show premiered, I watched the first few episodes but didn’t really liked it and stopped watching. This isn’t the only show I simply don’t keep watching after a bit, and I’m sure many of you do the same : after a while, you either don’t like the show enough, or one day you simply miss an episode, wait to watch it from your DVR, and all of a sudden you realize it’s been a few weeks and you didn’t really miss the show.
There’s no real shame, really, there’s quite a lot of shows out there and we only have so little time. But giving shows a second chance is something that might be worth the effort, because just like some shows go downhill after a few seasons, for others it may take a few months or even a full season to get everything in place, find its voice and become actually/really good.
Take USA new series In Plain Sight, when it premiered the first episodes weren’t all that good, the show was highly flawed and quite a few things weren’t really right. It was like writers hadn’t really figured out what the show would really be like, how to write for each of the characters, the voice wasn’t fully established. This is understandable, you can’t always create a bunch of fully-fledged characters just like that.
But week after week the episodes have slowly gotten a little better, and the last episode in date, Iris Doesn’t Live Here Anymore, was a really good one. Now if they can maintain that level of quality for all future episodes, it’ll be obvious that we might have yet another very good show from USA.
And such a things isn’t quite unusual, for instance I’ve not hidden the fact that when it premiered, I wasn’t really a fan of Psych. Now I’ll admit that I didn’t went back to see those first episodes today, to see if what’s changes is the way I approach the show, or if the episodes actually gotten better, or maybe a mix of both. Either way, when season two premiere last year I tuned in to give this show a second try, and I loved it !
It was like a revelation, because I had really not-so-enjoyable memory of the show, and while I didn’t find it all of a sudden absolutely perfect, there was no doubt that it was really good, pretty funny, and I couldn’t deny how much I enjoyed the episode. I spent the rest of the season watching every single episode laughing my ass off and enjoying it as much as one possibly could. I’m now a fan of the show, I really loved it, the third season premiered just days ago and it looks like we’re on for another very fun year, and I couldn’t be happier to be part of it.
Which brings us back to Burn Notice. While I didn’t really like the show back when it premiered last year, for a couple of weeks now the sophomore season of the show has been on the air, and I did decided to take another look and see how things were going now. A couple of reasons motivated this : first, as I’ve been saying here all along, sometimes shows do deserve a second chance; and second, let’s be honest, there still isn’t quite much on TV right now, so why not?
Now to be honest, there wasn’t no “Psych-effect”, I didn’t love the show, but I have to admit that I didn’t hate it either, far from it. In fact, I feel that it was quite better than (my recollection of) the first season. Granted, much like with Psych I had stopped about half-way through it, but even though it was the same characters and the same mechanic mainly, I feel that things have improved, the show isn’t relying as much on the same strict formula, and I liked what I saw so far.
So I guess what I’m saying here is, if you still haven’t tried In Plain Sight, Burn Notice or Psych, or if you tried at first but didn’t like them, you might want to give them another chance now, because with time things did improve, the shows have evolved and - I think - are now quite better than they were at first. Of course, this shouldn’t be limited to those shows, or shows on USA.
What do you think, will you give (some of) them a second chance ? Do you usually give shows a second chance, or once you’re done with one, you’re done for good ? And if so, aren’t you afraid of missing out on something (that became) good ?
Posted in Reviews
Shows: Burn Notice, In Plain Sight, Psych
