Who cares about tennis?

[gwyn]

Damn, no Burn Notice this week or next, due to the stupid US Open tennis tournament. I ask you, who cares? No one watches tennis anymore except Muffy and Ted down at the club. Yet USA insists on carrying it every year.

I have really got hooked on this show over the course of the summer. If you're the kind of person who likes lighthearted TV fare over serious or scary, you should be watching. It's kind of like a cross between the movie Sneakers, and MacGyver, with some Equalizer and, as someone on my flist pointed out, The Rockford Files thrown in.

I love the gentle sarcasm and misanthropy the title character, Michael Westen, carries through the series, and I adore how "trigger-happy" his ex girlfriend and former IRA gunrunner Fiona is. Bruce Campbel is a delight as Michael's former spy friend who now enjoys living off his lady friends and pretending to be a playa. When the series comes back for its final couple episodes in a few weeks, looks like Campbell will be reuinted with his old friend Lucy Lawless, guest-starring.

Jeffrey Donovan is great at spinning his lines. Last week's ep made me laugh out loud when Michael was on the phone with a bad guy (whom they will often identify with a tag "Joe Blow -- head bad guy" or something; my favorite recently was a guy who greeted Michael at the door with "Dude, I've got a serious problem" and the tag was "Dude with a problem") who told him there was a sniper trained on him right then. Michael says at one point, while turning around to show off his assets, "How do I look? I look goood, right?" He's really fun, and they take a lot of opportunity to get him stripped down so we can enjoy the eye candy of his physique. Yum.

USA's web site has a lot of interactive things, which I don't care about, but the "Ask a Spy" weekly feature, which has Donovan answering reader questions like "how can I burglar-proof my home" in character as Michael, is really delightful.

Seriously, check it out before it goes away. It sounds like they are bringing it back next year, so yay, but I don't totally trust USA when it comes to things like that, so don't miss it while you have the chance now.

Comments

[leela-cat.livejournal.com]

No one watches tennis anymore except Muffy and Ted down at the club.

And, sadly, my in-laws. They even paid more for cable just so that they could get the Tennis channel. Then again, they belong to a tennis club so....

And burn notice was vaguely on the radar, but never made it to the Tivo.

[ladypeyton.livejournal.com]

It was definitely renewed, so YAY! IIUC it's doing really well for a cable series.

I loved everything you mentioned above, PLUS Bruce Campbell! How can they go wrong if the have Bubba Ho Tep along for the ride?

I especially love the little inside spy-tricks MW gives us. I don't know how true they are but they're certainly believable.

BURN NOTICE

[valkyrie4clex.livejournal.com]

I agree about the tennis - I know some people want to watch it but isn't that why there about 5 or 6 ESPN channels?? I thought once these sports channels started up I wouldn't have to worry about football and baseball - and now tennis - screwing up my TV programs. Boy, was I wrong!

I agree about Donovan -that scene where he's laying on a mattress partially covered by a sheet - WOW! I've liked him since he played the "Pretender"s brother. I also liked his short lived show -w. Peter Wingfield -TOUCHING EVIL - he was so good in that I was shocked when it was cancelled. I'm glad this one is staying around.

[claire.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I love that show so much - I too was all "WTF tennis?"

Also I kind of maybe not so sekritly want Sam and Fiona to hook up, I think that would drive Michael nuts ;)

yep

[talking-sock.livejournal.com]

loving it loving it. And thanking them for the eye candy every time he gets sweaty and bare :-)

[rainkatt.livejournal.com]

I still have one ep on the DVR, which I was going to watch this weekend, but I've spent most of it feverish and in pain, so it still waits. I LOVE this show. I missed the beginning, caught it on rerun, and started recording, for which I'm very grateful. It's light and fun and Jeffrey Donovan has definitely grown on me. :-) Fiona and Sam and Michael's mom all crack me up--it's partly the way Michael deals with all of them.