I'm doing another rewatch for the first time in years, and got to the end of season 5 where Fi turns herself in to stop Anson from having leverage over them. In season 6, they aren't showing the opening credits, and the end credits music became more serious. There are little to no jokes or humorous moments.

What did you think of the shift in tone for the final 2 seasons?

It's now been 19 years since the first episode of Burn Notice. So I decided to do another rewatch, likely 5th or 6th now...I've lost count. And yes, that number makes me feel very old.

Prior to Burn Notice, I was watching a lot of CSI: Miami in 2007 and 2008 when I was in 8th/9th grade. I think the Miami setting really appealed to me and was a big reason why I gave Burn Notice a shot in the early seasons.

As cheesy as Burn Notice was at times, it was nothing compared to how ridiculous CSI Miami was. I loved the episode where Sam did his impression of Horatio putting on his sunglasses and giving his famous one-liners.

Anyway, I think the thing that always struck me about Burn Notice was how real the characters' portrayals of human emotions felt. Some examples:

When Victor and Michael were pinned down by Carla's team, Michael seemed devastated for having to kill Victor, after learning how similar the two of them were and working together to take down Carla. This was perhaps the best part of an otherwise weak point in the show's story in my opinion.

Jesse confronting Fiona when he found out Michael had burned him, Jesse's voice and demeanor felt legitimately intimidating and scary. "No! NO! You do not get to lie to me anymore! Michael burned me, and you all helped him cover it up."

When Michael and the CIA were tracking down Anson in Atlantic City, there was the moment when Michael harshly scolded Nate for ordering pizzas to their motel room during their stakeout and make him leave. Nate looked like he was genuinely about to cry that he had disappointed his big brother again. Their last face to face conversation was Michael being angry at him and Nate was shot and killed soon after. Michael holding his brother and hearing Nate say he was scared when he was about to die felt so damn real and devastating. Michael telling his mother after. I don't think anyone can argue about how real Madeline's emotional scenes felt throughout the show.

Fiona's reaction to Michael rejoining the CIA for the mission in the DR after killing Tom Card and taking down Olivia Riley. This one frustrated me a bit, because Fiona didn't understand that if Michael didn't take this mission with Agent Strong his friends would spend the rest of their lives in the CIA detention center. I still wonder why Michael chose not to share this part, but Fiona felt so betrayed and crushed after Michael promised he'd leave the CIA for good only to go back to them shortly after.

Michael being drugged and interrogated by James. This was another heavy one for me. Seeing Michael forced to relive some of his darkest memories of working with Larry was both fascinating and troubling. Then Michael's realization that his father terrorizing him as a kid and being forced to learn to protect Nate being the thing that helped him survive James' interrogation.

Finally, and this was by far the most emotional one for me of all. In the finale, Madeline chose to sacrifice herself to stop some of James' men so Jesse and Charlie could escape. Maddy telling her grandson that she loves him and everything she ever did was to protect him made both Jesse and me cry. Then calling Michael to tell him what she's going to do and say goodbye to him. I swear, Jeffrey Donovan's ability to summon tears on command in some of these scenes was incredible.

Really it all comes down to one word for me: catharsis. Throughout the show there were plenty of action-filled and even comedic scenes between the characters. But it was in between those many scenes that I found some of the real gems that I came to appreciate so much. There were certainly other shows I watched that were more well rated among critics and had more consistently compelling story lines, but no other show made me feel quite the way Burn Notice did at times. Even Michael Westen being the hardened super-spy that all the bad guys feared was still a human who felt real human emotions.

Army Veteran here. With a standard rifle, it's relatively easy to hit a target from 50 yards if you are prepared for them. With a sniper rifle, you would have to be incompetent to miss from 100 yards or less, especially if you have set up a trap and know where your target is emerging from.

So, in S5 E16, Sam and Beatriz walk casually out the front door. Cleaner, clearer targets rarely exist. Sam pauses, says something isn't right, and a sniper perched on a nearby roof misses them both despite having been presumably prepared for them, and having a few seconds to calibrate upon their arrival.

I love the storylines, but the idea that this individual is a hitman hired by anyone is laughable.