Burn Notice
This was fun little throwback to the action series eighties where people operating outside the law would stick up for the little guy. Jeffrey Donovan plays Michael Westen, a covert operative who finds himself with a “burn notice” against his name – i.e. he has been declared unreliable or dangerous, and cut out of the world of international espionage by persons unknown. So he finds himself in Miami, using his skills as a freelance spy/detective/bodyguard to earn money to fund his own investigation into who burned him. Gabrielle Anwar plays his ex-girlfriend Fiona, a former IRA operative (who has a terribly exaggerated Irish accent in the pilot ep, thankfully she toned it down after that), Bruce Campbell is Sam, a friend of Michael’s, ex-Navy SEAL and the character who feels most like he’s walked off the page of an Elmore Leonard novel (middle aged schlub who survives by sleeping with rich Miami women) and Sharon Gless play’s Michael’s hypochondriac mother who inevitably finds her house acting as a safehouse for whoever Michael is helping. It’s another fun show from the USA Network that fits nicely in the same niche as Monk and Psych. The only weaknesses are occasionally dodgy gimmicky direction and when the character of Fiona borders on the irritating, otherwise it’s great stuff.
The Skull Man
Takeshi Mori and Yutaka Izubuchi’s take on Shotaro Ishinomori’s dark version of Kamen Rider was BONES best anime production this year. It moved seemlessly from a detective to action adventure genres culminating in a downbeat epilogue that makes you want to see the same team produce a Cyborg 009 series.
The Shape Of Broad Minds – Craft Of The Lost Art
2007 found me liking new music a lot more than I have the past few years. There was more music that sounded genuinely new and this slab of hip hop from the future is definitely up in there. Is it Space Rap? Probably, though it doesn’t actually sound like Space Rap of yore. It sounds like some kind of psychedelic jazz future.
Captain America
Ed Brubaker, Steve Epting and Mike Perkins work on this title has been my favourite new superhero comics material this year. I never really liked Epting’s art when I encountered it in the 90s but I love it now. He and Perkins have a realistic style that reminds me more of the war comics I read as a kid (Battle and Commando) than superhero comics and works wonders on Brubaker’s script. The realistic Arnim Zola was particular efffective, making him more unnerving and creepy than the more familiar four colour version.
Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job!
Tim Heidecker and Eric Wareheim’s follow up to Tom Goes To The Mayor was another nail in the coffin of the Cartoon Network’s original animated content, but at the same time it was a great, albeit frequently sinister, sketch comedy show. The episode “Forest” which aired a few weeks ago was the pinnacle of the series so far, bringing together a number of the greatest elements of the series (Uncle Muscles, Steve Brule and a Zach Galifianakis guest starring spot).