TV Jots

All About TV’s Hottest Spy Show

Ever wonder about the creative mind responsible for bringing USA Network’s super-fun spy show Burn Notice to life? Well, wonder no more. The series’ creator is Matt Nix, and he recently set aside some time to answer burning questions about the series.

Also a writer and executive producer for Burn Notice, Nix revealed a lot of things about its inspiration during the interview, as well as what’s coming up in the remainder of the sophomore season, and even a little of what viewers can look forward to in Season Three. After reading the Q&A, I’m sure fans will agree that Burn Notice has nothing but more good times and high ratings ahead.

Burn Notice seems like a mash-up of the Rockford Files and It Takes a Thief. How do you get that balance?

MATT NIX: I’d say that there’s actually a lot of kind of classic television and The Rockford Files, It Takes a Thief. People bring up Magnum, MacGyver, The A-Team, a lot of these shows, some of which I watched, and some of which I didn’t watch. But all of us, between the entire staff, we all watched all of those at one point or another.

And I think that one of the things we kind of use as a touchstone that owes a lot to that kind of classic television is the idea that we’re really— Like, Michael [Jeffrey Donovan] is a classic hero. We all like Michael. We all like Sam [Bruce Campbell]. We all like Fiona [Gabrielle Anwar]. We all like Madeline [Sharon Gless].

I think if you think about a lot of contemporary television, including a lot of my favorite shows, I should say— I mean I’m not slamming this at all. It is an important part of contemporary television, feeling ambivalent about the characters that you’re watching is, you know, it’s kind of something that people do now. And I think Burn Notice is not that. I think that when you look at Rockford, Rockford is just kind of a guy. At least my reaction to him was, you know, he’s a guy you want to know, you know, like Magnum is just cool, like, he’s a good dude.

And when we’re all writing Sam, you know, we’re thinking about what’s the brother we want. Who’s that guy? When we think about Michael, it’s whatever challenges or whatever darkness he may struggle with, ultimately he’s a hero. He’s a guy who’s going to put his ass on the line to save people. And so that kind of, you know, those are the kinds of touchstones we use. And I think that is a bit of a throwback to classic television.

It’s a world where people are really trying to do the right things for other people, and where the characters on the show, however they bicker, are a family and they stick together, and that’s what they do. And I think that’s sort of comforting, and it’s fun to write. And I think there are a lot of interesting and subtle things to explore within that. But, you know, that’s the kind of television that I really cared about growing up. And I think there’s a place for it, and that’s part of what we’re doing.

How much of season three have you planned already? Where do you think you’re going to take us in season three?

MATT NIX: Well, we have planned a lot of it, so we’re working on it now. And I think— I don’t want to give too much away, but basically I think that season three, we’re going to find out a lot more about Michael’s past. And not just Michael’s past. Sam’s past. Fiona’s past. For various reasons, they are all going to be engaging with some of the ghosts of their previous careers.

And so that’s something that we’re really excited about, and it’s a way of exploring. We’ve done some of it, but it’s not really— It’s not something we’ve done for a season, and so we have Michael engaging with his past. So, it’s not sort of the perpetual search for the name behind his burn notice. It’s a different thing.

And then, I think people are going to see in the second half of Season Two that we’re really trying to push the boundaries of what a Burn Notice episode is, like how he deals with things. What are new ways of— New kinds of clients, new ways of dealing with problems, new—

You know, as we’ve gotten more comfortable with the format of the show, and as we all become more sort of facile with how Michael deals with problems, it allows us to spread our wings a little bit and have him deal with really new and really different kinds of problems. And I think you’ll see some of that definitely in the second half of Season Two, where we’re doing things that we’ve never done before.

And then, Season Three, you know, it’s going to be a really eclectic and fun mix of episodes. I think we’ve got some really neat ideas, and we’re all really excited about them. But, you know, the thing for the show for a lot of us, and maybe I shouldn’t say this, but it’s true. Is it’s not as if there’s a whole— We’re kind of inventing a procedural format.

You know, Michael is not a straight up PI. He’s not a doctor. He’s not a cop. He doesn’t have a way of doing things that has a lot of kind of procedural history on television, and there’s not really a book that you can go to and say, you know, how would a spy deal with this civilian situation?

And so we’ve been kind of exploring and defining how to do that because, from week to week, Michael is dealing with some civilian situation using spy crafts, and that’s just not a sort of— I mean, there are shows that we could point to. I mean certainly Magnum had a history in intelligence. In the Equalizer, he was doing some of those things.

But we are so focused on the deceptive arts of spy craft in particular — on really looking at what specifically did Robert Hanson do at the FBI, and how can we use that, you know, as a technique for a Burn Notice. And it’s a whole different kind of thing. So, the more we read, the more we observe, the more we explore creatively, the more things we can do. So, we have some neat episodes in the second half of the season. There’s an episode that’s nearly in real time. And then in the third season, we take that to another level.

I mean, it’s a little funny to talk about it because I’ve been living with all of these episodes from the second half of the season for months, you know; they’ve been done. And now I want to talk about them in referencing the third season, but I can’t do that. But suffice it to say that we’re really stretching the boundaries, and it’s very exciting for everybody here.

Of all the places in the world where people wouldn’t really want to go, how did you come to decide to have Michael trapped in Miami?

MATT NIX: Well, I’ve told this story on other occasions, but the short version is basically I had the brilliant idea of putting it in Newark. And basically because I was sort of picking a city randomly, I thought, oh, you know, I’m exploring the psyche of this guy, and he came from this kind of dark place, and that’s what led him to be a spy. And so, you know, it felt like kind of a natural choice to have him come from this sort of gritty place where he was— You know, the mean streets of Newark, and then that led into a life as a spy.

Then, as I was developing the show, USA kept pointing out that (A) they don’t really do things set in Newark. They’re kind of a blue-sky network, and that’s not their thing. And (B) they kept observing that the thing they really liked about the show was that it was funny, and they were sort of like, we like that part, you know. Can you do more of that? And I was very resistant to it.

But then, ultimately, they said we’d really like the show to be set someplace sunny like Miami. And then I kind of sat down, and at first I was very resistant to it. Then I thought, well, you know, I’m going to give this a shot. And what I discovered when I actually did it was that I had kind of been setting out, you know— Writing the Newark version was kind of writing the fish in water story. You know, it makes sense. He’s a fish. He’s in water, you know. But taking that fish out of the water and putting this sort of gritty, dark spy in Miami allowed for ultimately a lot bigger contrast, a lot more fun.

You know, my question to the network was just, hey, like, I’ll put it in Miami, but does he have to like being there? You know, can I make him a guy who doesn’t want to be in Miami? They said sure, whatever, you know, that sounds great. Whatever works for you, and make it fun for you creatively, and I did.

And ultimately I was really glad that we set it in Miami because it allows us to explore a lot of these themes, but do it on a beach, and do it against a bright background. And I think it makes it sort of fun and keeps us from taking ourselves too seriously. So, it turned out to be a central part of the show, and I do find myself in the odd position, though, for a writer to be, you know, thanking my lucky stars that I got that network note. But I do.

In Season Two, we saw Michael go up against some considerably darker adversaries than he faced in Season One. I was wondering if, first, we would be seeing sort of like Tim Matheson [Larry Sizemore] or Michael Shanks [Victor] reappear later in the serious and if even more sinister characters were going to start appearing.

MATT NIX: Yes. Yes to all. Well, I should say, Tim Matheson returns in Season Two in spectacular fashion as the director of the finale. Larry doesn’t come back in Season Two. We definitely want to bring Larry back. We love Larry. But, you know, he’s a— Nothing more to say than that we’re bringing him back in Season Three and not in Season Two.

And, yes, Michael Shanks will be coming back and gets a chance to do some really, really fun things. And, you know, I guess I’d say, like, the fun thing about it is that— The fun thing about Burn Notice villains is they really all have to be smart. It’s no fun to see Michael wipe the floor with somebody who doesn’t have a good plan.

I think our conception is always that, you know, presumably Michael dealing with those guys is just, you know, those are the cases Michael is taking that don’t get turned into episodes. You know, they’re just too easy, so we’re showing you the highlights. We’re showing you the really good ones where he’s up against somebody who’s really a worthy adversary.

Yes, I mean, actually just thinking about this season, the second half of the season, you know, he goes up [against] some real bad boys and some really, really smart guys, and encounters some smart women, as well. So, it’s really fun for us, actually, to think about who is— What’s a way of testing Michael, you know, who has now established as so competent? What’s something that we can— What’s a hoop of fire that we can have him jump through that’s even tougher? And so, yes, it’s not always about making the bad guys darker. Sometimes it’s about making them more concealed and with better plans or whatever. But, yes, it’s a lot of fun.

We also bring back Seymour, who was in Episode 2.07, played by Silas Weir Mitchell, the arms dealer, and we love that guy as well. He did a great job.

I really enjoy the spy tricks and like the MacGyverisms. Is there any of them that are your favorite or ones you can’t wait to show off this season?

MATT NIX: Yes. There’s one episode. One of my favorite spy riffs is in the 12th episode this season, and we’d been thinking for a long time about how to do an episode that centers on this. And, basically, a lot of the greatest spies — I mean this isn’t a voice over in the episode — but a lot of the greatest spies in history have been people who were somehow managed to be put in charge of finding themselves. So, Robert Hanson at the FBI was put in charge of finding the mole in the FBI, and he was the mole in the FBI. Aldridge Aims was the counterintelligence guy at the CIA in charge of finding the mole in the CIA, and he was the mole in the CIA. And it’s just delicious.

I mean, it’s— Well, I should say, those were both horrible stains on the history of American government and intelligence. That said, they make for great stories. And so in the 12th episode, we get a chance to put Michael in the position of a guy who is hunting himself.

I don’t need to get into it much more than that, but suffice it to say that that’s an episode where Michael actually gets to have a little bit of fun. Like you kind of— I mean, it’s not like he’s laughing maniacally, but you actually get to see that he appreciates the irony of his situation, and it’s just a really fun episode.

And then, for the MacGyverisms, the 13th episode is, well— It’s sort of the Burn Notice answer to Die Hard, I’ll say, and we really wanted to look at— We were looking at the idea that running around with a gun in a building full of hostages was perhaps, you know, it makes for a lot of action, but it’s also a great way to get a lot of people killed.

And so we thought, “Okay, well, what would Michael do in that situation?” The answer is, he would do a lot of really cool things, really subtly, and really hidden. And so I don’t want to give too many things away, but basically watching Michael sneak around in a situation like that doing those— And he builds some amazing things and comes up with some amazing ways of turning the tables on the bad guys without them even knowing it, and it’s a lot of fun.

I was reading that you just got signed on to do a Hot Wheels movie. How do you think working on the movie is going to affect your job with Burn Notice?

MATT NIX: I actually wrote the Hot Wheels movie at the beginning of Season Two, so I can tell you how it affected me. It was really hard, but I did it. But basically that project is— I think that it was not a particularly good time for Warner Brothers to make another car movie, if you look at what was being released at the beginning of last season, Speed Racer, and it was a tough time for them.

And so, I should say, as a feature writer in Hollywood, it’s not like you get a lot of calls telling you, “Hey, writer, here’s what’s going on. We just wanted to fill you in.” So, I think it’s on hold right now until such time as the stars align to make another big-budget summer car movie. I had a blast working on it, and it was a fun thing, and I found actually that working on Burn Notice had given me a lot more comfort in the area of writing. You know, fast cars and action, that kind of thing.

So, I will say, because I wrote it at the beginning of last season, and because it sort of ended up getting put on hold at the beginning of last season, if you read the Hot Wheels script, you would find that, like, there are any number of snippets of dialog and action bits that were in the Hot Wheels movie that made their way into the season. So, that was sort of a fun thing to be able to cannibalize some elements of that script and throw them into Burn Notice because by the time anything happens with that movie, it’ll be a whole new world.

Yes, I think if the distance between a movie that gets mentioned in the trades and a movie that makes it into the theaters is, you know, there are many, many miles between those two. Suffice to say, it was fun to work on. It was sort of tough to do at the same time as the show, but it ended up working out fine.