Tuesday 29 May 2012

My name is Michael Westen I used to be... Pinocchio!

I'm listening to the Brian Jonestown Massacre while writing this. Know that I have NOT been influenced in any way by the band...

The Players - Burn Notice
  • Michael Westen - Pinocchio - please, it's so obvious. What with the multitude of bad guys pulling on his strings. His impeccable posture (read wooden) and his seemingly selfish desire to regain his status within the CIA. Oh yeah, spies lie - a lot!
  • Fiona Glenanne, Sam Axe, Jesse Porter, Nate Westen, Maddie Westen - Jiminy Cricket. All Michael's friends and family have taken on the role of "conscience" to Michael's Pinocchio - none more so than Fiona.
  • Maddie Westen - The Blue Fairy - She brought Michael into the world and increasingly gives him advice on how "normal people" behave.
  • Fiona and Sam - Figaro and Cleo - two characters who do not like one another in the beginning but warm up to each other the more Michael becomes "humanized".
  • Dead Larry - John Worthington Foulfellow  - criminal fox who tricks Pinocchio a couple of times. Need I say more?
  • Tyler Brennen - Gideon -fox's criminal accomplice. Brennen is not mute but he sure adds a lot to the humour of the show.
  • Anson Fullerton - Stromboli - There have been many adversaries representing the machine that "burned" Michael Westen. None however, as powerful as Anson who we learn is the mastermind behind Michael's burn notice and the CEO of the entire subversive organization. 
  • FBI, CIA, Anson - Monstro - The whale that has swallowed Fiona Glenanne (see season 5 finale) who has also taken on the role of Geppetto as her desire for Michael's transformation into a "real man"has  increased over the course of the show. 
The 2011 television season created much hype around two new shows which were inspired by Fairy Tales (Once upon a Time and Grimm). I'll argue that for the past five years, Matt Nix has had the longest running "Fairy Tale inspired" program on television. Whether or not you agree with me, I'm convinced that Burn Notice is the modern day Pinocchio .

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