In the early days of TV drama, two-dimensional characters were the norm, and viewers didn’t mind.  It was all about the stand-alone story of the week.  These days, though, we ask for a background story, recognizable quirks, idiosyncrasies or traits, and believable and interesting relationships for each character.

This is where Burn Notice (Thursday 10/9C) fails.  The producers and writers make an attempt, but there’s just not enough here.  We’ve seen these characters before, and they were more interesting.  Burn Notice is about a former CIA spy who has been cut off (burned) by the agency.  Now, he must find out who burned him and clear himself of the wrongdoing or disloyalty that caused the burn.

Besides the character issues, which are disappointing given USA’s motto, “Characters Welcome” and their proven record of giving us great characters, the effects used here are annoying, and the writing is unspectacular (at least the technical explanation is a voice-over instead CSI: Miami’s device of characters telling each other what they already know so we’d know what they were doing).  Speaking of CSI: Miami, the look of this show this show is very much the same, and as with that show, plasticized beautiful people plus South Beach does not equal good TV.

In my review of In Plain Sight, I wrote that USA shows always seem to get it right eventually.  This seems to be the exception that proves the rule.