With "how to" shows being so popular on television, it was only a matter of time before somebody created a narrative fiction form of the series. The new program is exactly that, right down to having a voice-over narrator fill us in on how it all works.

What "it" is that the show teaches us is how to dispense of confidence tricksters, mobsters, and other such miscreants. 

The series tells the story of Michael Westen (Jeffrey Donovan), an international spy who is suddenly blacklisted by the U.S. agency handling him (the "burn notice" of the show’s excessively obscure title) and set adrift in Miami with no money and no way of making a legitimate living, his identity having been destroyed by his erstwhile employers. Under the watchful eye of the FBI, Westen tries to find out who put the burn notice on him and why, in hopes of having it reversed.

In the meantime, Westen helps people who are in trouble and cannot get help from the authorities. In the most recent episode, he protected a single mom from a Colombian drug trafficker who wanted her dead so that she could not testify against him in an assault trial. In the previous episode, he foiled some identity thieves who were preying on old people.

Westen uses his spy training to defeat the villains, all of whom are apt to resort to violence when their schemes are threatened. Westen, as a former spy, is very skilled at both armed and unarmed combat, and uses it well when necessary, but his real gift is at planning. In each episode, he creates a scheme that lures the villains into not only incriminating themselves but also ensuring an additional benefit.

In the case of the drug trafficker, who is directly responsible for numerous deaths, Westen’s counter scheme results in the drug dealer’s execution by the dealer’s own associates. In the case of the identity thieves, Westen tricks their leader into providing him with their bank account numbers so that he can clean out their accounts and return the money to those from whom it was stolen.

That episode, "Identity," is strongly reminiscent of Erle Stanely Gardner’s excellent Lester Leith stories. That’s a huge compliment, and Burn Notice refreshes the spy genre by giving it some of the panache and optimism evident in the Leith stories. Donovan, last seen in the USA Network series Touching Evil, appears much more comfortable in this role than in the previous program, and his ability at comedy is used to great effect here. Gabrielle Anwar, Bruce Campbell, and Sharon Gless anchor the supporting cast with strong comic performances that also work well in the dramatic moments.

But the real attraction of the show is the plots. Combining the complexity of the schemes in the old Mission Impossible TV series with the benevolent, sticking-up-for-the-underdog spirit of The Equalizer, the plots are pleasing both to the aesthetic sense and the moral one.

The program’s prominent theme of the breakdown of legitimate authority in American society is a perennial one, having provided the foundation for vigilante fictions for more than a century. Its particular, unusual mix of old and new elements makes Burn Notice both new and interesting.