“Even before I knew your real name, I loved you. Before I should have, I trusted you. Because I’ve always known your heart. You do what’s right, no matter the cost to you. And I’ve learned that when you love a spy, you have to be willing to make that sacrifice too.

At times your job has made it hard to be with you, but it’s never shaken my faith in you.

I can’t let you ruin anyone’s life to save mine. I have to force you to tell what you know. If you don’t, you won’t be the man I love. Do the right thing. I love you Michael, forever.”

That was the letter Fiona left for Michael in the fifth season finale of Burn Notice, just before she walked up the steps of the Federal Building and turned herself in.

The sixth season opens right where we left off, as Fiona (Gabrielle Anwar) is taken into custody and questioned. Michael Westen (Jeffrey Donovan) and his partner/best friend Sam Axe (Bruce Campbell) are now on a mission to hunt down the man who put them in this situation, Anson Fullerton (Jere Burns), and prove Fi’s innocence. Meanwhile fellow spy Jesse Porter (Coby Bell) heads off to protect Michael’s mother in case Anson is targeting her next.

The sixth season of Burn Notice is far more serialized than ever before, and flows like one long action movie with lots of twists and turns. Instead of the usual bad guy or case of the week, the missions play out like arcs, flowing naturally from one to the next. While there is the occasional single-episode client, that mission usually has some ramifications in another episode.

I had not seen the sixth season prior to watching this DVD set, but I found that this serialization worked really well for marathoning the season. Each episode flowed from one to the next, and characters have overlapping arcs that made the progression feel so natural. As Michael’s goals adapt over the course of the season, it doesn’t feel abrupt or forced.

Since Fiona starts off the season in prison, she is not part of the central team for the first third of the season. Instead, she has her own story line that revolves around her trying to survive in prison. Michael’s trademarked narration is also present as he describes Fi’s actions. While Fiona’s prison story was interesting and actually worked quite well, I was happy to see her eventually rejoin the gang, and get back to her accents and undercover work.

Michael’s mother Madeline (Sharon Gless) also plays a larger role this season, and often finds herself a key piece of many of the gang’s plans. We also see the return of many familiar supporting characters, including Michael’s brother Nate (Seth Peterson), Michael’s former drug-dealing neighbor Sugar and Tech guy Barry (Paul Tei).

The season also featured some great recognizable TV guest stars who appear for their own arcs, including John C. McGinley, Faran Tahir, Brando Eaton, Kenny Johnson, Sonja Sohn, and David Fickas. I was also thrilled to see Patton Oswalt show up for a three-episode arc as smuggler Calvin Schmidt—I always enjoy the humor he adds to everything he appears in!

The picture quality on the DVD looks great. When this series first started, the show was quite grainy, but this season they seem to have really cleaned things up and it looks fantastic. Just compare the opening title sequence to the rest of the episode and it’s like night and day! The DVD picture quality is pretty much indistinguishable from its original airing on the HD USA channel. The soundtrack is also great, capturing all the explosions, dialogue and narrations.

The bonus features on this DVD set were a bit disappointing—just a handful of short deleted scenes, one episode commentary, a short but really fun featurette, and a short but not that funny gag reel.

Overall, I really enjoyed this sixth season of Burn Notice. It is another strong season that still provides all of the fun and action we’ve grown accustomed to over the previous five seasons, along with a lot of great dramatic moments as well. There are many times when characters are put in peril, and you really don’t know if they will make it through! The one drawback of the highly serialized nature of this season may be for casual fans who like to just drop in and out and watch episodes randomly. However, as a whole, the season works really great and this DVD is definitely recommended.

What’s Included on the DVD:

Episodes: (772 min)

• All 18 episodes of Season 6
  Disc 1: “Scorched Earth”, “Mixed Messages”, “Last Rites”, “Under The Gun”
  Disc 2: “Split Decision”, “Shock Wave”, “Reunion”, “Unchained”, “Official Business”
  Disc 3: “Desperate Times”, “Desperate Measures”, “Means & Ends”, “Over The Line”, “Down & Out”
  Disc 4: “Best Laid Plans”, “Odd Man Out”, “You Can Run”, “Game Change”
• Audio: English Dolby Digital 5.1
• English SDH, Spanish, French subtitles; Closed Captioned

Extras:

• Deleted Scenes (3:45)
  Six short deleted scenes for “Last Rites” (1:20), “Means & Ends” (:40), “Over the Line” (:31), “Best Laid Plans” (:47) and “You Can Run…” (:27)
• Audio Commentary (43:05)
  Executive Producer Matt Nix, director Renny Harlin and stars Jeffrey Donovan and Bruce Campbell provide audio commentary for the episode “Shock Wave”. They talk about making the episode, discuss making film versus TV and a whole lot more. As expected, Bruce Campbell adds a lot of levity to the discussion.
• Gag Reel (3:24)
  Just what you’d expect—flubbed and forgotten lines, prop malfunctions and general fun on the set.
• Matt Nix Gets Burned (6:27)
  Behind-the-scenes parody featurette following the production issues faced while shooting the season finale.

Final Thoughts:

The sixth season of Burn Notice provides all of the action and humor I have always enjoyed from the show while adding a lot of well acted dramatic moments. This season is highly serialized, which works really well to tell one long story, with lots of twists and turns. The DVD picture and sound quality are great, but the bonus features were a little bit of a let down. However, I definitely recommend this DVD set to fans of the series. And with the short, final seventh season of the show currently airing on USA, this is a great way to quickly catch up before the series finale.