Friday, August 24, 2012

Late Night, Groggy Morning

Normally I retire at ten o'clock, so as to be able to rise at six or so with a smile on my face and a song in my heart. Not so last night, when the season finales for Burn Notice (spy thriller) and Suits (legal thriller) were showing one after the other on the USA Network.

When people whine that there is nothing on TV, I am usually among the first to agree. But there's something about Burn Notice – Sharon Gless playing the mother, maybe. We aging mothers of feckless sons have no trouble identifying with her, even to the point of personal style. Gaudy earrings! Yes! That's the ticket. And huge explosions. What's not to like about a huge explosion? And wild plot twists. The end of the season finale leaves our heroes way up the creek, as always. It will be months before the next episode gives them the chance to start paddling.

As for Suits, their season finale is a similar thrill ride, in a corporate way, with the bad guys behaving worse than ever and the good guys pushed to the wall. Louis descends deeper and deeper into weaselhood. Harvey loses his cool. Mike gets in trouble with women. Again, it will be January before he has a chance to get out.

So when I fell into bed at eleven, I was far too restless from all that drama to sleep. Instead I picked up my IPad and read Cured, Donna Huston Murray's new medical thriller. (Look for it in October. Donna emailed me a review copy.) Her tough cancer survivor protagonist struggled against such dreadful ordeals at the hands of the bad guys that I was quite unable to put it down. Anyway, watch for it. October! You'll be able to see it long before the next episodes of Burn Notice and Suits.

Kate Gallison

5 comments:

  1. Burn Notice and Suits sound right up my alley. I'll try to catch them in the fall!! tjs

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  2. I've been watching Suits and Burn Notice since they began, but only on replay on the cable channels so to avoid the growing parade of commercials. Louis is my favorite Suits semi-villain ('Daniel Pearson' is the real McCoy!) and Jessica Pearson's looks mesemerize me (Spider-Woman meets Nyoka, Queen of the Jungle!). It doesn't even bother me that every week those corporate lawyers are piling up the felonies for the sake of a lowly associate!...I've come to like the voice-over by 'burned' spy Michael Weston as he outmaneuvers the bad guys while saving the poor shlumps that Sharon Gless foists on him in her inimitable voice, hand on shot hip!
    Bob

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  3. Okay, you've convinced me. If you two like them so much, i give in. I have put the first seasons of both Suits and Burn Notice on my Neflix queue. I never watch TV because I cannot bear the commercials. I spent hardly anytime watching the Olympics which I would really have enjoyed, but I gave up. That they make the ads so much louder than the regular programming makes me want to scream. In fact, sometimes I actually do shout at the TV. but I can watch these two shows without them by getting them on disc. Thanks, Kate for the tip.

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  4. Actually, I never watch tv either, except the foreign news, and sometimes the US news. I confess, though, I'm a CSpan junkie and try to catch whatever foreign news Time Warner will allow me on my schedule. . I hear more about what the Russians or the Middle Easterners have to say than here at home, and this does expand my intellectual horizons. I feel increasingly lucky to live here, but also get worried re the direction we are taking - I've lived long enough to see the earth as a constantly changing planet, and shiver on occasion re the direction our little place in the universe is headed. tjs

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  5. P.S. Lest you think I'm unAmerican, I read the NYT and often the WSJ cover to cover! tjs

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