Burn Notice is a American television drama series created by Matt Nix and starring Jeffrey Donovan as Michael Westen, a blacklisted spy. Dumped in his hometown of Miami without money or resources, Michael struggles to put his life back together and find out why he's been burned.
The title refers to the burn notices issued by intelligence agencies to discredit or announce the dismissal of agents or sources who are considered to have become unreliable.
Most people would be thrilled to be on the warm, beautiful sands of South Beach however, Michael Westen (played by Jeffrey Donovan) is not most people.
He's got a pesky FBI tail following him, a violence-prone ex-girlfriend looking for closure and a hypochondriac mother calling him 30 times a day. Yet these are the least of his problems...
After 10 years of serving his country, working in Eastern Europe and the OPEC countries as a covert operative, Michael is living every spy's worst nightmare.
While in the middle of a dangerous mission in Nigeria, Michael's contact informs him that he has been burned, i.e. the intelligence agency has dismissed him, claiming he's unreliable and not to be trusted.
The consequences for him: his life is jeopardized, his bank accounts are frozen and he's been dumped in Miami, flagged on every government list known to man. They can't take away his skills or what's in his head so they take away his assets and his resources to make sure he can never work again.
Now Michael has a new and different mission: he must find out who issued his burn notice and why he was blacklisted so that he can put his life back together.
In order to survive in Miami and fund his own personal investigation, Michael enlists the help of the only two "friends" he has: Fiona Glenanne (Gabrielle Anwar), an ex-IRA operative - who also happens to be an ex-girlfriend - and Sam Axe (Bruce Campbell), a washed-up military intelligence contact whom the Feds have keeping an eye on Michael.
Burn Notice combines the best of the action/thriller elements with humour and a whole new breed of spy.
Burn Notice was created, written and executive produced by Matt Nix. Mikkel Bondesen, Alfredo Barrios, Craig O'Neil, Ben Watkins, and Terry Miller serve as executive producers. The series comes from Fox Television Studios and Fabrik Entertainment.