Also taking part in the session were: Jamie Steniberg [Starry Constellation], Troy Rogers [thedeadbolt.com], Chandra Williams [TVJolts.com], Beth Ann Henderson [nicegirlstv.com], Jamie Ruby [Media Blvd], and Kendra White [no affiliation mentioned…].

J. Steinberg: I was wondering, how do you and Mary continue to maintain such great chemistry between each other?

F. Weller: Well, we try to get drunk together as often as possible when we’re not working. And our kids play together, and we’re friends. I think that helps. And also, on the set, Mary’s very professional, and so she doesn’t, both of us try to adhere to the unspoken codes of conduct on the set, so I don’t think that we give each other any cause for irritation in the work environment.

J. Steinberg: What’s been your most memorable moment you’ve had from filming season two?

F. Weller: Oh my goodness, what an excellent question. The most memorable moment would have to be when Mary was laughing so hard she was threatening to need a costume change from potential “laugh pee” after I was kicking in the door and my foot went through the door panel instead of opening the door. And then I was stuck there in the door, unable to retract my booted foot, and the cameras were running, so there is footage of that somewhere.

J. Steinberg: Now, Mary was on Chelsea Lately last night, and she mentioned an interesting event that happened between her and her daughter in order to get her to keep her shoes on. Have you brought your kids to the set, and do you have any interesting tales from their adventures there?

F. Weller: I brought my daughter to the set a few times. She’s not yet as sophisticated as Mary’s kids around the set. Mary’s kids will actually say, “Shh, we’re rolling.” She’s not really at that level. Let me see. Do I have any child-related anecdotes? Gosh, maybe one will come to me. She—

J. Steinberg: Does she like the catering station? Because usually they’re stocked with pretty good stuff for kids and adults.

F. Weller: Well, she’s a little bit of a social butterfly, something that I want to nip in the bud if I can. I’m hoping to eventually groom her into a very bookish child who doesn’t date boys at all, but, at the moment, she loves just being around crowds of people. So that was basically my experience of her being on the set was just one more setting in which I was concerned that she might get to be popular in school, and I want to avoid that at all costs. She just loves, she loves crowds and people, and she seems most content when she’s away from home and around a bunch of people who aren’t her parents.

J. Steinberg: Does that mean you’d shy away from letting her have an acting career?

F. Weller: I’m going to try to keep the secret from her that I’m an actor at all. It’s going to be tough. Obviously, you want to have publicity as an actor, but I’m going to try to persuade her I’m a professor of something, maybe, I don’t know, something really nerdy, comparative literature. I don’t know. I haven’t figured it out yet. I’ve got to figure it out before she really masters the alphabet ….

T. Rogers: How is Mary’s post-traumatic stress affecting Marshall?

F. Weller: Well, it’s one more occasion to evoke Marshall’s affection for her, his simmering romantic feelings. In a way, it helps him to be able to be there for her and to try to strengthen the bond between them, but it also concerns him because he is truly concerned about her well being and does want the best for her. But it enables them to bond and enables him to come in and try to be the knight in shining armor. It’s right up his alley. He dabbles in psychology. He dabbles in every other field. He’s ever the dilettante, so it enables them to bond. So like, of course, there’s good and bad for Marshall.

T. Rogers: Alright. Now, speaking of his feelings for her, how does he feel towards Raphael?

F. Weller: He feels competitive towards him. On the one hand, I think he’s also somewhat dismissive of him. I don’t think he takes their relationship seriously. Raphael is a big, handsome guy, so there is a lot to be jealous of, but he’s a nice guy, so Marshall’s, whatever resentments and jealousies he has, and he does have them, he’s got to keep a lid on them. He’s got to keep them repressed.

T. Rogers: Alright, fair enough. How will Marshall and Dershowitz’s relationship evolve this season?

F. Weller: They will become closer. You’ll find out, well, I think we, actually, you already saw on the first episode that Marshall … bonded over the near-death experience. They’re hanging out a lot, but we’ll actually take a road trip to Philadelphia to help out, in an unofficial capacity, an aging mobster go back to his son’s funeral, and that mobster will be played by Martin Landau.

So Todd and I had quite a great episode together, working with Martin Landau, who’s an amazing person and really loves to socialize and tell stories about all the many great directors he’s worked with. So that was a wonderful experience.

T. Rogers: I have one more quick thing and then I’ll let you go. Have you received any free food from the Artichoke Café yet?

F. Weller No.

T. Rogers: Not yet?

F. Weller: I haven’t even gotten a free drink.

T. Rogers: Sorry. I’m trying to help you, man. I’m trying.

F. Weller Thank you.

C. Williams: How fun is it playing not just any old law man, but a U.S. Marshal? Have you learned anything that helps you in your real life?

F. Weller: It’s really fun to play a lawman who, in theory, has jurisdiction anywhere in the country. Also, an undercover lawman is, I think, an especially cool thing to play because you’ve got an inherent inner, well, not a conflict, but an interesting dynamic that you are enforcing the law, but at the same time, trying to appear like you’re not. Our technical advisor, who is the head of WitSec in California, is on the set every day now, and one of his favorite reminders is that you’re always scanning the horizon for danger. In fact, we poke fun at him whenever he walks over to the set. We just say, “ABS, ABS,” which stands for “always be scanning.”

I don’t know if I’ve learned anything I’ve applied to my life. My life is pretty safe. I don’t have too many run-ins with unsavory characters, but when I do I plan to really scan the hell out of them.

C. Williams: We know tons about Mary and her family but very little about Marshall. Are you just as in the dark about his background, or do you know some details you can share with us?

F. Weller: Well, I’d love to see more on the air. We think about it and secretly joke on the set about what his apartment must look like with all his myriad interests. We hypothesize about what musical instrument he plays. There must be one, and it must be weird. I’m thinking the bassoon, sometimes a French horn. Does he have a bird? I don’t know. I do conjecture about his family life. All we know about his family life is he is a fifth generation U.S. Marshal. I imagine his father was a hard-ass and his mother was an intellectual, but this is just conjecture. The creator might decide something else, something I think is even better. He never ceases to surprise and amaze, I think, with his ideas. He’s a great writer, David Maples, and I’m sure what we do learn about Marshall’s personal life, it’ll be interesting.

B. Henderson: How does this role challenge you?

F. Weller: Well, it’s challenging for the same reason that it’s fun in that it requires comedic and emotional ability. Now, my emotions are not as … as frequently as are Mary’s. Her character is in emotional turmoil much of the time, but at least a couple times a season and certainly more times this season than last, Marshall is in some kind of emotional turmoil. And any time that you’re asked as an actor to exhibit some state that is out of control or should appear out of control, it’s a little more challenging. And then I think comedy is an exacting science. You don’t want to blow the humor if it’s there. If you do it wrong, it’s either funny or it’s not, so the fact that it’s a little, has comedy and emotion is what makes it rich, and it’s also what makes it challenging. You don’t want to disappoint. You don’t want to, when you’ve got such great material, it’s important to rise to it and get it right.

B. Henderson: Speaking of great material to work with, how much input do you actually get to give for the writers or for your character?

F. Weller: Well, I occasionally will talk to David Maples. We’ll joke around. I can’t actually think of something that I said that made it into the script per se, but we’re definitely on the same page about who he is. And David has said that who Mary and I are has started to influence his vision of the characters, sort of a symbiotic relationship because playing a character which you love for a length of time starts to affect your own personality, I think. So the lines tend to blur. I’ve never played anyone that I felt, I’ve never played a character that I felt was closer to me, but I can’t say that David has taken any particular idea of mine. Like I say, I can’t think of one specifically. There have been aspects of the character, ideas of mine that have informed the set dressing, what’s on Marshall’s desk, but I can’t remember saying, “Oh, I think my dad is such and such,” and then it was in the script. But we do have a good relationship with David, and I think that informs his take on the characters we play.

B. Henderson: What scenario would you like to see Marshall in that he’s not been in yet?

F. Weller: Well, I’d like to meet his parents, or one of them. But David likes the mystery of Marshall. He’s said as much. He likes to just discover little tidbits of weirdness that emerge through the course of the story, rather than making the story about Marshall. But I’m sure at some point we’ll see a little more about where he comes from. He claims to have gone to college at the University of Albuquerque and to have been the star of the badminton team there, for example. Does that mean he’s from Albuquerque? I don’t know. I’ll have to sit down and just write out everything that we know about him sometime and his various interests.

B. Henderson: Okay. Well, thank you so much for taking the time with me, and if you’re in charge of the gag reel, I’d be looking forward to that. I’ll be lobbying for that.

F. Weller: Okay. We’re lobbying for it, too.

J. Ruby: So how did you come to get the part of Marshall? Did you audition or were you given the part? How did that happen?

F. Weller: No, I auditioned. In fact, I went to Los Angeles for pilot season. I had been in New York, and I still live in New York. And for years, I had been avoiding going out to Los Angeles for pilot season because it’s quite a grind. You audition for five TV shows a day. And so I’d been doing mostly theater and indie film out of New York, and I hadn’t been for pilot season in, I don’t know, six, seven years. And so I just went out, and it went well for me. And this was the best pilot that I read, and I was fortunate enough to go to network for, I think, half a dozen people wanted me to go. So this was, I think, the second thing I went for, and I was very excited to get it because, well, it’s not your average TV show.

J. Ruby: No, it’s not. So where do you draw your inspiration for your portrayal of the character?

F. Weller: Well, not unlike Marshall, I have a variety of interests and a variety of influences, and I mostly draw the information about Marshall in from our technical advisor. I talk to him when I can on the set, and in terms of his emotional life, it’s pretty much mine. And otherwise, I just try to figure out how to have fun with any given episode.

It’s an interesting thing to do television because it’s a work in progress for you—for the actor, that is—as well as for the writer. We’re all discovering it as we go along, different aspects of the character, they clarify themselves along with the story. It’s not like doing a play or film where you have the whole plot and the character arc from the get-go. You’re signing on with a TV show to do material, sight unseen. You’ve seen the pilot, which is, at least, less than 10% of what you’re going to do if you do this one season. If you do ten seasons, it’s less than, I don’t know how much, one percent. But it’s also exciting. It’s an exciting process to be discovering it like that, as you go.

J. Ruby: Great. So which do you like more: theater, movies, television? Do you plan on going back to theater, or—

F. Weller: Yes, I’ll still do, hopefully, whenever I can, it’s kind of an addiction, I love doing plays. It’s a little more demanding sometimes, but the satisfaction of doing a whole story all at once, going through it at the same time as the audience is very satisfying.

S. Wiebe: You were talking earlier about Marshall being a bit of a dilettante. I’m just wondering which of his many interests is your personal favorite and why.

F. Weller: Well, let’s see. I suppose my favorite would be his medical ability because it’s so far removed from anything I can do. The fact that he can patch up his own bullet wound to his lung, it’s an interest that I think would be useful, and it’s removed from my own fields of interests. I’m a little more of a music and literature person. My big brother is a man of science, an electrical engineer, and I always really admired him growing up. He had this strange capacity that didn’t seem to come from anyone in the family, it was just something that he was born with, and he was always intrigued by how things worked and just had an aptitude for it. And everybody else in the family is basically literature and arts, so that, to me, is fun because I get to pretend that I have that aptitude.

S. Wiebe: I was also thinking that, because Marshall is a bit of a dilettante, he’s more open to change than Mary, and I’m just wondering if that’s the capacity that gives him the wisdom to deal with her post-traumatic stress syndrome in the premiere.

F. Weller: Yes. I think that’s a very good point. I think Marshall is more flexible, more committed to optimism and to a kind of faith. You see in several episodes that Marshall seems to believe in a moral universe, and so when Mary, who is ever the cynic, which I think is really a kind of armor that she adopts to protect herself, when she has some kind of crisis like this I think that the apostle of faith and wisdom and optimism is going to be useful to her. I think that’s a very good point. It’s one of the aspects that I really love about the character is that he’s a believer.

S. Wiebe: Would you also say that, perhaps, because of his dilettantism, he’s also developed maybe a kind of a Zen attitude towards life?

F. Weller: Yes. I think so. It’s difficult to talk about Zen, isn’t it? Because, well, it just leaves the room as soon as you start talking about it, but I think that he certainly attempts to be in the moment and to let things go. I think it was Isaiah Berlin who wrote a famous essay comparing Dostoevsky with Tolstoy. It was about the fox and the hedgehog. He said that there are two types of people, there are foxes and there are hedgehogs, and the fox is someone who has myriad interests. He doesn’t believe in any one shaping idea. He simply embraces various and sundry ideas, and the hedgehog is someone who sees the universe through one controlling idea.

And he said that Tolstoy was a fox who wanted to be a hedgehog, who believed in the principle of being a hedgehog. That is to say he believed in having one controlling idea. I think, in Tolstoy’s case, it was God or maybe it was love. I don’t know, but the point is that he really wanted to be that, but really he was a fox, fundamentally. He just believed in sundry ideas, and I think Marshall is the opposite. I think he’s secretly a hedgehog, but he believes in the principle of being a fox. That is to say he embraces the notion of having a wide variety of interests and ideas, but really, he’s ultimately, he filters everything through the one, which is, I think, he believes in love and the transformative power of love. Anyway, that’s an extremely long-winded answer. Sorry.

K. White: Hello. You mentioned Martin Landau earlier, so I was just curious if there are any more guest stars we can look forward to this season.

F. Weller: Well, let’s see. We had Sherilyn Fenn. Who else was there? I mean, Martin Landau was the biggest. He was quite a pull. I was pretty excited about getting to work with him. Let’s see. Who else was there? I could check my, hold on one second. Oh, yes. We had Clarke Peters from The Wire.

K. White: Oh, cool.

F. Weller: In fact, he was my witness. That was great.

Kristen Schulman [USA] :Fred, can I help you out?

F. Weller: Yes, please.

K. Schulman: Richard Schiff will also be on the show, Cynthia Watros, David Denman from The Office, Kevin Rankin from Friday Night Lights. Those are a couple good ones.

K. White: How would you say the overall tone of season two was different from season one?

F. Weller: The overall tone. Well, the drama is ratcheting up between, I think, the Mary, the Mary, you’ll see Mary/Marshall drama increase. Raphael figures very largely. Probably bigger, Raphael probably is bigger this season than, whereas last season, I think Mary’s mom was sort of more a key figure, and Brandi. I think Raphael, in this season, is going to be a bigger component. Without giving anything away, some big events will go down.

J. Ruby: Hello again. So what got you started in acting in the first place?

F. Weller: When I was in kindergarten, I was in the Christmas play, and I sang, “I Ain’t Getting Nothing for Christmas.” And all the other kids were, seemed scared, and I don’t know. I just, for some reason, I wasn’t. Then all these older girls from the grammar school, these seventh-graders kept coming up to me in the hallway and telling me how cute I was and how good I was. So it occurred to me that this would be a great way to meet girls.

J. Ruby: So besides your role now, what’s been your favorite role to play?

F. Weller: I was in a play by Richard Greenberg called Take Me Out, which won the Tony and was nominated for a Pulitzer. … back in 2003, we actually started in London and then went to off Broadway and then went to Broadway. And I played the antagonist in that I played an inarticulate redneck pitcher who really was sort of the opposite of Marshall. He couldn’t do anything except throw a baseball, and even with that, he only had one pitch, basically. He just had a really mean fast ball with movement on it, and so he was simply a reliever. And he was just a wonderful character because he was extremely simultaneously despicable and sympathetic. And the audience really couldn’t decide from one scene to the next how they felt about him. And it was a role I played for over 400 shows, and I loved every minute of it.

J. Ruby: So what’s been your favorite scene this season that you filmed?

F. Weller: Oh, I just did some wonderful scenes in which I basically bond with Stan over something that happens to Mary, and it was rewarding because it really felt like there was this intimacy between Marshall and Stan, that we were family members in a way in that something bad had happened to a member of our family. Of course, it’s fresh in my memory because I just shot it a couple days ago. I also loved doing scenes with Martin Landau when he was going through distress, and then being able to do an emotional scene like that with such a titanic, such a giant, rather, of an actor, it was great.

J. Ruby: Great. So do you have any other projects coming up?

F. Weller: No, not really. I’m putting together, I’m editing a short film that I wrote and directed, with Mary actually acting in it. Mary and I both act in it, and … putting it together and now I’m hopefully going to submit it to festivals. That’s all I’ve got right now.

J. Ruby: Would you ever consider writing or directing for In Plain Sight?

F. Weller: Well, I’d love to. We’ll see how my short film does in festivals, but I would love to do that ultimately. Writing for television’s a real grind. Watching what David is going through polishing those scripts and … rewrites come in every day and change things so wonderfully. So I would love to come up with some kind of a script idea, but the real polish work that they do, as far as I can tell, they’re chained to their desks and sleep at the office.

J. Ruby: A lot of work. So quickly, what’s the name of your film so we can look out for it?

F. Weller: I believe it’s going to be called The Sheriff of King’s County.

In the series – which focuses on two FBI agents who are assigned to a massive storage facility for “strange artifacts, mysterious relics and supernatural souvenirs” – Scagliotti will play Claudia Donovan, a young, hip, brilliant techno-whiz who cracks the facility’s security in search of Rubinek’s character, Artie. Her natural aptitude for science and technology enable her to figure out and manipulate many of the facility’s pieces in order to help the team.

Artie is the caretaker of the Warehouse, while Pete [McClintock] and Myka [Kelly] are the FBI agents who are charged with finding and securing new objects to cache there.

Warehouse 13 premieres with a two-hour episode on July 7^th, 2009, at 9/8 Central.

The set up is this: Mason [Eric McCormack] and Conner [Tom Cavanagh] are partners in a creative group for ad agency Rothman, Green & Mohr. Mason is a bit uptight, a bit square and a draughtsman as opposed to an artist. Conner is sly, charming, talented but incredibly immature – and us brilliant at coming up with concepts and taglines.

When one of their biggest clients, Arc Mobile, wants to change their approach, Mason and Conner are pulled away from a cushy assignment to come up with something new – only their boss [Life on Mars’ Jason O’Mara] hasn’t been told. When he finds out, he retreats to his office and has a heart attack. The group’s creative director, Tony Mink [Griffin Dunne] promotes Mason to take his place. Conner has a fit of pique.

Trust Me’s first two episodes [Before and After, All Hell The Victors] deal with the ramifications of the client’s need for change and the fall out form Mason’s promotion – working a newly hired hot shot writer, Sarah Krajicek-Hunter [Monica Potter] who was promised “a window;” two junior copywriters, Tom [Mike Damus] and Hector [Geoffrey Arend] who think taglines are passé, and Mason’s wife Erin [Sarah Clarke] into the mix, along with all their unique arcs.

Between dealing with Arc Mobile and the inadvertent plagiarizing of a tagline from a potential employee, the first two episodes do a good job of setting up the characters and situations that will be the foundation for the series. If the ad agency stuff feels real it’s because series creators, Hunt Baldwin and John Coveny have between them over twenty years experience in the field.

Trust Me wouldn’t be out of place on a major network [or on the “Characters Welcome” cable net, for that matter]. It’s hugely entertaining despite still needing a bit of work on the drama/humor balance and figuring out how to maximum effect out of its minor characters. It’s certainly a better than average series, but it has the potential to be much more.

Final Grade: B-

In our interview with Bruce Campbell [Westen’s right-hand man, Sam Axe] mentioned that he thought the show had a core of innocence, like The Rockford Files. Actually, I’d take that a couple of steps further and suggest that Burn Notice is a mash-up of Rockford and It Takes a Thief – only the hero is I Spy’s Kelly Robinson [in an upcoming interview, Nix talks about the way classic TV influenced the show].

In Do No Harm, the Season 2.5 premiere, Westen, who was pretty banged up after surviving the explosion, decides that he’s not exactly in the mood for subtle –something to do with almost dying [attempts on his life, he says, “are like snowflakes. Each one is different – and icy cold]. This puts Sam a bit on edge, and makes Fiona [Gabriel Anwar] a hair crazier than usual. It also means babysitting duty for Westen’s mom, Madeline [Sharon Gless].

The episode – which was written and directed by creator Matt Nix – seems to move a bit faster than usual. Probably because of Westen’s decision to forego subtlety. Also probably because of a twist in regard to his would-be assassin. Mostly, though it’s the combination of the above and con artists who target fatally ill children. As a result, the voiceovers aren’t quite as matter-of-fact as usual. There’s just a slight tonal difference, but we can tell Westen’s objectivity isn’t exactly intact.

Nix proves to be a capable director. He keeps the pace up and knows when to let the show’s trademark humor relieve the tension. Because he is so good, it should come as no surprise that Do Not Harm is one of the series’ best episodes, to date. After all, there’s compromising of the writer’s vision.

Final Grade: A

USA’s popular spy series, Burn Notice, is returning this week [Thursday, 10/9C] and we had the opportunity to chat with Bruce Campbell [crusty, semi-retired spy Sam Axe] on what to expect in Season Three. Campbell didn’t dip into any classified intel, but it was definitely a fun interview…

Bruce, thank you for your time today. How much creative input do you have with your character for the show?

Bruce Campbell: Well, every situation is different and Burn Notice is very structured. Matt Nix, it’s his show, it’s his concept, it’s his idea. So when I came on board, I’m going to give smaller stuff. You know, I might ad lib some stupid joke at the end of a scene or whatever. Or I might suggest a tone of maybe treat Michael’s mother more gently at some point. So it’s really for me mostly smaller stuff; the captain of the ship is Matt Nix and he’s also allowing us to think through scenes and if we want to throw in a line or so, he doesn’t have a problem with that. But I never show up on a set going, “Man, I got to ad lib today.”

It’s really cool to talk to you today. We talk to a lot of people on a lot of shows, but it’s rare that you get to talk to ones who you really, really love the show.

BC: Well you have great taste, obviously. I can’t speak for Mr. Donovan, I think he’s going to join us shortly. But look, it’s fun to be a part of a project that has been accepted.

As an actor, we tend to work pretty hard on TV shows. They’re non-stop for a long time and you never know – you’re acting in a void; you never know what the reaction is going to be. And it’s just nice to come across a show like Burn Notice that has caught on and it’s grown every year.

So, hopefully this new batch of episodes coming in January is going to be something they’re looking for.

Did you see the success of the show coming up? Like did it surprise you? Are you at all surprised about how successful it has been?

BC: I’m surprised by everything these days because you never know.

My basis for accepting this script when it came across my desk was I loved the fact of what it wasn’t. It wasn’t a cop show, it wasn’t a doctor’s show, it wasn’t a lawyer show. There’s plenty of stuff that goes on, but this is basically the human side of spies and I went, right, I can get into that.

I really enjoyed the fact that it’s a good blend of a show that does have strong main characters, and not a lot of them. It’s got four main characters. And that’s what the emphasis is.

And, oh yes, stuff blows up and every week there is a caper where you defeat the jerk of the week. But I think it’s mostly you watch these characters from week to week, and that’s what I enjoy. And that’s what appealed to me and that’s what keeps me interested in the show is it’s not really about the explosions, it’s about the people who are doing the explosions.

So for someone who hasn’t seen any episodes so far, what would you say to somebody coming in like totally virgin coming into the show?

BC: Well, I think if you come into the show late, you’re going to be okay because they always do enough recaps to kind of fill you in. And the lead character, Michael Westen, has very heavy voiceover, he’s kind of guiding you through the show, so I think you’re going to be fine. He’s going to give you any kind of recap that you need to jump in.

Those people that have followed everything, I think they’re going to be all over it because they’ve been waiting for it for, whatever, four or five months now.

What about your role continues to challenge you?

BC: To try and figure out how to sweat less.

No, I would say just to keep Sam interested in the stories and participating on stories. If the writers do most of the work, which they will then do that, that they’ll keep the character engaged.

If the character’s engaged, then it’s easy for me to be engaged in the character. So hopefully whenever Sam was around in his portion that he’s involved in something or has an opinion about something or whatever.

No actor likes to just sit around. So as long as it’s the same as the first two seasons, I’m good to go.

Do you have a most memorable moment you’ve had from filming the seasons?

BC: For me, I’m just convinced one day that some bystander’s going to shoot me with a gun.

The reason why I say that is because my character Sam has a rifle with a scope and often he’s up on high rises and overpasses taking potshots at people. And sometimes you can’t see the crew connected to me, because they put me sometimes far away.

Miami has a lot of guns, and so I’m just afraid some do-gooder’s going to see me up there firing away and they’re going to save Miami from that criminal. And then Burn Notice will have three main characters.

One of the aspects I love most with your character in the previous season was your relationship with Veronica. I was wondering if we’re going to see any more relationship drama from Sam with any ladies in the future.

BC: They do, I think that there are efforts. But, you know, Sam’s a tough case because he’s kind of a, he’s a bit of a handful and they’re always doing capers, so it’s tough to have any kind of romance. But there is another brush with romance in some of these upcoming episodes. Which is fun, because I actually think if Sam is not so much button-down that we can see perhaps his exploits, if you will.

Are there any upcoming guest stars that we can look forward to seeing?

BC: Oh, yes. In these upcoming episodes it’s pretty full on. You’ve got Patricia Helfer back as Carla. So she’s going to be causing lots and lots of trouble. Michael Shanks is back as another one of these fellow cohort guys who you’re not sure if you can trust or not. The great John Mahoney, who I worked with in the Hudsucker Proxy, John Mahoney from Cheers, he’s back as someone I can’t tell you about because I’d have to kill you.

Former Dallas Cowboys Michael Irvin is joining us. He’s Mr. Football, so it was kind of fun to do a football theme episode. Dina Meyer shows up as, well, let’s just say someone who perhaps was close to Michael Westen. And, of course, with Fiona that’s going to cause some sparks. And there will be some sparks flying in these next seven episodes, I can guarantee you.

We were introduced to a little bit of Sam’s backstory this past summer of season two where it was revealed the character was married in the ‘70s and that actually ended your relationship at the time. Are we going to get any more information about this woman that Sam was married to or any more backstory into Sam’s life?

BC: I’m sure some back story’s going to come squeaking out in some way. I kind of was amused myself finding out that Sam had a wife in the past. I think it’s fun.

That’s the beauty of these characters who have a history – that things are going to come up that are complicated in their life. The first season Sam had some kind of questionable relationships from the past that have come back to haunt him, so I think that’s always going to happen.

When you have three spies, former spies, that are kind of damaged goods, there’s going to be enemies that come back, old friends and people that you may or may not want to see again.

Do you feel like Burn Notice is sort of bringing back the escapist action series? There are other shows on the air now like on TNT they have Leverage. While most people compare it to something like Oceans Eleven, I feel it has a lot of Burn Notice influence to it because it involves people sort of helping out the little guy and fighting back…

BC: I’m glad you said that.

Look, I’ll tell you, I think the reason why this show, aside from the magnetic Mr. Donovan and the wonderful Ms. Gabrielle Anwar and Sharon Gless, is the fact that it is iconic. And I don’t mean that to make the show any better than what it is. It has iconic aspects.

Little Billy’s always going to get his medicine, for the most part. And it’s a show that lacks cynicism in a way. That there’s a sweet core to it of just human beings and I think anybody can connect to that. Not everyone can connect to the Bourne Identity type of spy, but I think people can identify with this Michael Westen because he’s fixing his mom’s garbage disposal when he’s not doing some covert thing, so that’s what appeals to me.

I like the fact that everyone in this show is an adult. It reminds me of shows when I was a kid. I watched Rockford Files and James Garner was an adult; he wasn’t some kid actor. And so I like the fact that this show is just geared for anyone who wants to see this type of story. It’s not geared for kids or whatever. It’s just a show that I would watch when I was in high school, too. So, I don’t know, I think that’s what appeals to me.

There’s been a lot of cool spy tricks and set ups they’ve done on Burn Notice. And I was wondering, what’s been your favorite thus far?

BC: Oh man, mostly it’s just the bravado. I love the fact that in Burn Notice we not only, see… like, here’s the difference in Burn Notice and it’s just more of a thematic thing, is that if the police catch someone who’s done identity theft, they might catch the guy. They might, not necessarily, but they’re not going to get your money back.

In Burn Notice we’re not only going to catch the guy, we’re going to get every penny of your money back, and maybe a little more. And if the guy’s [not] careful, he might die. So our characters don’t crap around.

Fiona is, basically, crazy. She’ll blow up anything for any reason.

So, these are not three characters that you need to mess with. So what I like is whenever they’re confronted with something, they’ll come back at it in such a way that is very bold, usually, and that’s what I like.

And I think the show is potentially appealing to people because it does give you a sense of justice. For the most part, we are going to catch these guys and we’re going to punish them, and we might torment them at the same time. So as far as any one particular schtick, I don’t really have a favorite.

My favorite thing is, you know, there’s an episode coming up where some kid gets in trouble with a gang banger who is a car thief. So instead of just telling the guy to knock it off, the Burn Notice guys what they’ll do is they’ll pretend that they’re a bigger band of car thieves in town to just run the guy out of town. They think bigger than just kneecapping a guy in the parking lot. So it’s kind of fun.

I just like the inventiveness. Because they’re spies they’re used to being in tricky situations, they’re up against this and that. And I also like they’ve got a little old school/new school. Michael Westen’s more new school; he fights differently, he thinks differently, he’s a little more outside the box. Sam is more like, well, let’s just hurt somebody or plant a bug. Good ole fashioned espionage. Fiona is a little bit of a loose cannon, so that makes it okay, too, because we can’t always control her.

The dry humor is kind of a big part of what keeps me tuning in, so how important is it to keep that humor in the show to kind of break up some of the tension that can be present.

BC: I think it’s imperative. And I think Matt Nix has always started with that dry humor right from the beginning. The voiceover that Michael Westen has is very dry. It’s very urbane sometimes. It’s very erotic, it’s very wry, it’s very witty, so I’m right there with you; I think it’s imperative. Otherwise, we’ve all seen movies where spies take their jobs so seriously.

If you really think of it, at the end of the day spies are just people; they’re just schmoes. They have the same issues as everybody else, but you wouldn’t think of it. You wouldn’t think that a former CIA spy would be having personal problems that would interfere with his work or whatever. You just think of them as being robots, but they’re not.

Do you kind of feel that that’s what helped viewers kind of relate to these characters?

BC: There’s no question about it. If we were doing nothing but spy-speak all the time, I think you’d get some guys to watch and go, “Yeah, okay, cool. They’re talking that cool spy stuff” – but I think at the end of the day, I want the soccer mom to be able to watch this show and go, “Oh, cool, they’re trying to patch up their relationship with something.” Or Michael’s working on some old problem in the past that is now coming back to haunt him.”

I think that’s what’s getting a wider range of viewers. It really isn’t just squinty-eyed spies shooting the gun sideways looking cool. That they are flawed, all of these characters are flawed, and they’re all kind of doing the best they can. They’re tap dancing as fast as they can.

A question about your character and also Michael’s. What are the fatal flaws that you all perceive within the character and how do you work those in, because you guys are naturally funny, you’re naturally accomplishing the jobs and getting it all done, yet Sam definitely has his own quirky side that sometimes interferes but also makes it move forward, but there is a fatal flaw in every character.

BC: Sure. They are damaged goods. These are people who have had histories and pasts and sometimes they didn’t go well and something went weird enough for Michael Westen to get burned.

You know, the Michael Westen character, Jeffrey can speak more toward that, but he comes from a weird, messed up family. He’s got family issues. He’s got issues with his brother, he’s got issues with his mother and issues with his ex. So everybody has issues.

He and Sam get along pretty well now, but in the first season he wasn’t even sure if he could trust Sam because Sam, in order to save his own skin, was willing to chat occasionally with the Feds and give them some information to keep his butt out of the fire.

Sam’s flaw, obviously, he’s a party boy, so it’s going to distract him a little bit; it’s going to slow him down. He’s going to be probably putting his nose in some of the wrong places sometimes. But yet he’s coming around as a pretty loyal character.

Fiona, I’m not sure what her excuse is, but she’s just mostly nuts. And I think that’s good. I like it when… like, there’s a couple of upcoming episodes where she gets really angry because of what’s going on with either kids or something like that. When she steps in, it’s kind of fun to watch. She’s good at getting angry and wanting to hurt someone.

Because Sam’s character has evolved and become much more loyal, how is this going to play out in terms of what happens with Carla?

BC: Well Sam never liked Carla.

I mean in terms of how much is Sam going to go the difference in terms of just let’s get rid of Carla, let’s find…

BC: Oh, Sam’s going all the way; he’s in. Carla’s going down. I mean, they’ve got to do something about that woman.

It’s going to be an exciting season.

BC: It’s coming head-to-head. After the end of this seven episode run some things are going to change in Washington. There’s going to be some fascinating changes coming. That’s all I can tell you.

Otherwise, Matt Nix would send Michael Westen to kill me if I told you more. But yes, some stuff is going to go down.

You kind of hinted at this a little bit, so one of the things the show does is have like the long story arc with the sniper going on and all that in addition to like an episode having a different second plot line. Is that going to be the staple for the remainder of this season as well?

BC: There’s always going to be two things going on. One is the problem at hand, which is somebody needs help and it’s worthy enough for him to help someone in the middle of what his overlying problem is, is who is causing all these problems for this guy. And so that’s, the one is the constant, but the other one, the overall problem that he has is going to, that’s going to be ratcheted up consistently throughout the seven episodes to its final explosion point, where it’s a point of no return.

I would certainly say that with as much as he drinks, he would not look as good as you do in real life, that’s for sure.

BC: Well, you can’t be a total method actor.

Congratulations on the third season renewal.

BC: Thank you very much. We’re excited, too, because it’s a show that we all want to be a part of. We’re not grumbling back to work. I’m really excited to read the first script.

Between this role and also a lot of roles you’ve done in the past, and your new movie My Name is Bruce, you have a good time toying with the image of a hero. You enjoy playing characters that are flawed and self-obsessed, yet they’re eventually able to put it together to save the day. Why do you find that kind of an interesting character to play?

BC: Because me, personally, as an actor can relate to that more so that I can, it’s just easier for me to do. I’m not good at playing someone who doesn’t have weird quirks, because I’ve never met someone who didn’t. That’s why I tend to avoid a little bit of the traditional hero thing, and that’s what appealed to me about this show.

This show is very untraditional, yet, having said that, there are traditional story elements that things are going to be made right by these people. So, I don’t know, those types of characters have always appealed to me, hoping that they will appeal to the average garage mechanic who’s watching the show. As an actor, I want my work to be as appealing to as many people as possible.

Also, like you said, for traditional characters you were talking about Fiona, there are a lot of really tough women in this show, like Trisha’s character.

BC: Yes, these are mostly, they’re ball busters, these women, and I think that’s fun.

Why not have strong characters, because honestly, that’s how you get good actresses to come work on the show. We’ve had Lucy Lawless and that was really fun, and I knew that we could get her because they could come up with a good character for her. So I’m glad that worked out.

Yeah, it’s fun. If you have strong male characters, you better have strong female characters.

Absolutely. One other thing that is sort of I’d feel is almost a character in the show is Miami itself. It’s so beautiful. How do you feel that filming in this city really helps the vibe of the show?

BC: It matters, it really does. People can tell. We’re on beaches and we’re in swamps and at the edge of the everglades and running around in funky alleys and buildings, you don’t have to fake your angles. The main difference is that by shooting there, you know, Florida is a flat state. You don’t see mountains anywhere. With CSI Miami, they’ve got to be careful because if they tilt up about 10 degrees, they’re going to be looking at the Santa Monica Mountains there.

So, you don’t have to fake anything. You’ve got boats left and right, anything you need saying it’s Miami, it’s there. And we’re really the main show that has stayed. Dexter left, CSI Miami left and we’re it. So we actually get great cooperation. So we get into as many cool places as you’d ever want to get into just because people are excited to have us there. So we’re really capitalizing on it.

USA has kind of given us the edict of 60% of the show has to be outdoors. Because if they’re shooting in Miami, they want to see it.

I wanted to go off something that was said earlier. You had mentioned the Bourne Identity and about the way you kind of like the human side of the show, the human side of spies. Since 9/11 and Bourne Identity, I think the whole spy genre has changed quite a bit and so it was just continuing with that, altering those old archetypes. Where do you guys think you see yourselves fitting into that whole thing with just the humanization and maybe just the little bit of ambiguity and the whole political side of the spy world or whatever?

BC: We’re being very apolitical in this. We don’t really take any of those sorts of sides. I just like the fact that we’re not cynical. There’s a lot of spy shows that can be cynical because spies themselves can be cynical because they enlisted for an altruistic reason and sometimes, like with Michael Westen, he would be perfectly justified to be cynical because he got burned after doing what? He doesn’t even know. He was a good spy.

I like the fact that even with that humor has won out over cynicism and so hopefully our show will be placed in that mode that it’s not really a serious kind of Bruckheimer kind of movie.

One thing I know, at least for myself, part of the reason why I was drawn to the show just seeing your name on the bill. Like this was going to have that humor, this is going to have that fun that really is lacking sort of thing. If I could change directions a little bit, I just have to ask who fights dirtier, spies or zombies?

BC: Zombies because they’re not as smart as spies. Spies don’t have to fight dirty, they just fight hard.

You’ve been on a lot of shows that have only lasted one season. How does it feel to be back on a show that has not only been picked up for a third season but is a hit?

BC: Ask yourself the same question: How would you feel? You feel good. I just learned that people like me in small doses. So whenever I’m not the star, like with Hercules & Zena, the shows run for six years, so I’m good.

This show will be on the air forever because I’m not the star of it, so it worked out fine. It feels good to be part of a hit show, though, too. Honestly.

The crew, any of them, I think are very grateful to know these are people who work harder than any actor. They’re busting themselves 14, 16 hours a day and it’s nice to know that it’s a hit show. Because sometimes you do that and the show’s a dog and it gets cancelled.

I was actually able to attend your premier of My Name is Bruce here in Austin. It was wonderful. Are you planning on directing anything else soon?

BC: I can answer that question after February 10^th when the DVD comes out. Then I’ll know if anybody’s watching what I do. As you know, it’s economically driven. I would like to and I’m hoping to do another movie in the fall of this year.

The thing I’m wondering is that when they build up the backstory between your character and Michael, it seems almost like Michael is learning from you, and now he’s the boss and you’re the sidekick. How does Sam relate to that?

BC: Sam was always a sidekick, though.

Well on the show, but in the backstory he was the heavy hitter.

BC: Oh, you’re referring to Sam?

Yes.

BC: Well, I think it’s just different, though. I think Michael Westen’s probably a better spy than Sam ever was, only because he’s more disciplined. He doesn’t get drunk every five minutes. Plus, they’re just different; old school/new school. I think Sam, his fighting style is different, a little more John Wayne and Michael’s is a little more Bourne Identity. But if you’re asking what it’s like being a sidekick, I love it.

Cool. As a director yourself, what do you think of the style of the show?

BC: I think it’s very cool without being overdone. We’ve all seen movies and TV shows where you go, “Geez, give it a rest” stylistically because it’s either too handheld or it gives you a headache or it’s over-editing.

I think Burn Notice is very stylish without being obnoxious. I like the voiceover. I think it’s a very unique style. I like the freeze frames where the title comes in Joe Blow, Client. And then another one comes in, Joe Blow, Loser, or whatever. It’s just kind of a fun, makes it a little cool and jazzy and freewheeling.

They also mess with the colors, too. The show’s very colorful. If you look at the ocean in any of the shots, it’s bright green or blue. The clouds are amazing, too.

What are the chances of Michael and Fiona becoming an official, committed couple by the end of this season?

BC: If I was Matt Nix I could answer that. Who knows? These are two volatile people, so the chances are probably not great. That’s the best I could guess.

One of the strengths of the show seems to be the fact that we’ve got four really great, simple characters. Talk about the relationship you have with each one of your costars. What it’s like to work with each one of them.

BC: Character-wise or person to person?

Both.

BC: Okay. Well, basically, Sam and Michael, they did work together in the past. They didn’t really have too many issues in the past with each other. Sam is a different personality. At first, he wasn’t sure if he could be trusted. Now I think it’s pretty clear Sam is in it for the long haul.

Otherwise, what would he be doing? He would be on some beach drunk somewhere, so this gives him something to do. And so their relationship has definitely solidified because they hadn’t seen each other in a while and all the crap they went through in the past was the past, but now they’re going through a bunch of new crap and it makes them even tighter, I think.

Sam and Fiona were probably never close; different styles. He thinks she’s too impulsive and too over the top, overkill. She never thinks that these guys are doing enough. Sam, I think, was less tolerant, you know, when they first met they almost got in a fist fight because they hated each other from the past.

And.. oh, I’ve got finish my Donovan part of it, though.

Person to person, Bruce and Jeffrey, I feel that our personal relationship is kind of the same as Sam and Mike; it’s his show and I respect him a lot as an actor and my job is to support. I’m the supporting actor. So, we currently… I call him Mr. Donovan and we get along great.

So getting back to Sam and Fiona, now Sam and Fiona are, I think, more, they know that neither of them is going anywhere, so they’ve got to deal with each other. So you can have your banter and then occasionally Sam will ask her about girl stuff or whatever. So you do have that ability to not only deal with case stuff with Fiona, arguing about tactics, but Sam can also have a softer element with her by talking about dames, about women.

Then, basically, with Michael’s mother, Madeline, who now Sam I think calls Maddy, I think it’s always been respectful. Didn’t know her all that well and now they’ve actually spent more time. And you’ll see in some of these upcoming episodes, Sam and Madeline spend more time together for a bunch of different reasons and they get to know each other more, and you see more of the dynamics. They’re much more comfortable with each other now as a pair.

As far as Bruce and Sharon Gless, look, I respect her as a television icon. I mean, what’s not to love about her? And as a person she’s really kind of shy and cute and kooky, and it’s a great thing. And she lives down there in Miami and she just has a ball. So it’s been fun to work with someone who is so iconic, you see how nothing is as forced; they’re very comfortable in their skin because they’ve been around for so long. So I have to say the dynamics I feel are fine on the show. We don’t have anything that’s interfering with doing our job.

How much do you see of yourself in Sam and how much do you see of the others in the characters they portray?

BC: Well, that’s always a tough call. Actors can’t escape their own physical being. You’re always going to see Bruce Campbell there doing whatever. I don’t drink as much as Sam does and I don’t womanize as much as Sam does because I’ve been married for 17 years to the same woman. So, it’s always fun to just let loose. Sam is a much more relaxed character than me.

I live in the Pacific Northwest and by the time I show up in Miami this March, I’m going to be white and pasty and I’m going to be squinting at the sun because it’s been raining and snowing here in the Pacific Northwest.

So I’ll go back down to Miami, I’ll strip my work boots off, my jeans off and get back into that character, get back into that basically removing clothing. You know, I get my t-shirts off, I get my flannel shirts off and start getting back in flip flops and shorts.

I literally live at the complete opposite end of the country and it’s a huge adjustment every year, but it kind of cracks me up that people perceive me as this kind of, hey, beach guy with a beer in his hand and I’m kind of the opposite. I’m such a woodsy guy. I like mountains and streams and rivers and lakes.

Have you ever been approached or are you ever going to direct any episodes of Burn Notice yourself?

BC: I’ve never really discussed it officially or had it posed to me. I’ve directed television in the past, but I think in this case it’s really, I’m in a fun situation where Jeffrey Donovan and Gabrielle and everyone, we have a good relationship and I’m kind of a bossy director and I’m not sure if it’s right for television.

So, I think I’m just going to step back. We have a good group of guys that’s come in and out now of men and women who have directed some really good episodes. So I think I’m just going to get out of the way and be a good little actor boy.

What would you like to say to everyone who’s a fan and supporter of you and Burn Notice?

BC: As always, I bow to anyone who watches or supports what I do or the show, because that’s what keeps the show on the air. You have to have that support. So to them I would say we will try and come up to be equal with your devotion to give you hopefully a good show from seasonto season.

We’re all looking forward to season three because we don’t know what to expect. It’s going to be really interesting to see where it goes this year. So like everybody else, I’m hopefully just as excited to see what’s going to happen.

Every time we see Sam it seems like he has a beer in his hand and I was wondering what you are actually drinking.

BC: Well, as an actor you can’t even really go near that these days.

The days of sort of the John Wayne drinking in your trailer days are kind of over. It’s just good old fashioned water, because sometimes if you put real fizzy stuff in there or even like they have the non-alcoholic beer, which still has a little percentage of alcohol, but it will just make you burp. It gets you all bloated and burpy.

I just go for water.

What we do is we use always a colored bottle. You’ll notice it’s either a green bottle or a red bottle, and it kind of disguises what’s inside.

You’ve blown my cover. Sorry.

I was wondering, Carla has been the main archenemy on Burn Notice this season. I’m expecting her, of course, to return for the second half. Is there going to be anyone else beyond her, her boss, perhaps, or another arch villain coming into the picture?

BC: I think I’m allowed to say very likely. Very likely. Everyone has a boss, so I think the season will prove no different. Because Michael’s being manipulated by someone who might be manipulated by someone.

You never know. I think the layers are going to get deeper this season and it will start to get to the point where something’s gotta give.

What would you say to someone if they came up to you and said that they were such a big fan of yours that they named their son Ash?

BC: I’ve already had that. Multiple times, as a matter of fact. I would say have a long and prosperous life as Ash. And hopefully he’ll have a life that’s not as bad as being named Sue, you know? But Ash is a little on the girlie side, so he might have to stand up tall.

I just want to know where you would like to see the character of Sam go in season three.

BC: I’d like some new shirts. Actually, Tommy Bahama is going to sponsor season three, so you will see some new shirts.

I would like to see, I think like any show you just want to see your character used. I don’t know if I have to have a whole, completely different life revealed, but I think showing people off duty is always good. We see a little bit of that with Michael and Fiona.

We don’t really see what Sam does. I guess he’d be sitting in a bar somewhere. I never really know. I never know what to suggest in those cases because the writers have so much going on. They’ve got a lot they’ve got to deal with.

I think they struck a pretty good tone of not getting too involved in your personal life that you’d forget about the caper of the week. So I think, also, until you deal with some huge, bigger story lines, until those play out, you don’t have time to see someone go fishing or whatever.

Burn Notice started out with being just that, Michael was burned. And then we go into now someone’s trying to kill him. How much further, what else could possibly happen?

BC: It’s going to get bad because it’s not only you that they’re after, meaning Michael Westen, but they’re after friends and family. They want them all. And so we’re going to get into kind of a no mercy situation that I think is going to be very interesting and fun for people to watch. And it’s really been great!

Jeffrey Donovan has some absolutely wonderful tour de force stuff. He’s just so good for the show because he’s an animal; he’s a really intense actor and he can hold up for a whole season, which is a lot of work for him. And it’s good, these next episodes kind of let them strut his stuff.

Incidentally, the first episode back was written and directed by Matt Nix who created the show. I think this is his first television foray and I think he did a great job.

It’s a really cool opening show.

Just wanted to know, with all the shows and channels out there, do you feel like it’s harder to find a show or is it easier with the technology and things like TiVo?

BC: Oh, I think it’s easier. Definitely. Between YouTube, just Internet stuff, it’s easier. Well the trick, though, is to find out how to tell people that you want to tell, the people that you want, you’ve got to find out what they’re watching and how they’re watching it.

Are they watching it live, are they streaming it, are they downloading it, are they doing a DVD the first season? Are they TiVo’ing it? There’s so many ways now. So I’m glad that people don’t have to sit down, love to have them Thursdays at 10, but it doesn’t matter as much as every year goes by, because now they’re factoring in the TiVo ratings, thank God, because our ratings actually go up.

Look, the average person, I have to say, I think the numbers are way off, still. I think 30% of America is not watching live TV, maybe more, and every year it’s going to change. So I just hope that we all as a show and as a network that we stay on top of it and figure out how to find these people who are watching it in different ways.

UST was created by Steven Spielberg and developed by Diablo Cody – which as likely a combination as Juno and Paulie from Cody’s first film, and turns out to be as an unexpectedly good one. It takes a lot of nerve to tackle DID in the manner of UST – the premise is that Tara has gone of her meds with the approval of her family and therapist in the hope that the appearance and behaviour of her alter-egos might lead to the discovery of the events that led her to develop them in the first place. Not the simplest premise, and one that probably be watched closely by mental health professionals and families of DID victims.

From the moment we meet each of Tara’s “alters,” it becomes apparent that Cody is playing for keeps. There moments with each alter that reach almost profound levels of accuracy – and the humor that arises from these situations ranges from dark to light to dark again. In most instances, the humor is used to relieve the impact of the drama, as when Alice takes umbrage with Kate’s attitude and language in the third ep, Aftermath [in which the family attempts to clean up after the damage T and Buck caused in the first two eps.

The United States of Tara is not an easy show to watch, but despite it flaws [the children are woefully underdeveloped and it’s a tribute to Gilchrist and Larson that they have any presence at all], it is smart and refuses to take it easy on its audience. There are moments that are genuinely raw – that will definitely have an impact on you – and moments that leave you rolling with laughter [and you might feel guilty only about half the time].

The United States of Tara will make you think and feel – and isn’t that what the best television should do?

Final Grade: B+

This season finds Hannah attending a christening as godmother, and having to deal with the prospect of being the featured prostitute in a political scandal; considering cosmetic surgery, and trying to figure out a way to have a real relationship without leaving the profession. The potential relationship thing begins with Belle picking up a guy named Alex [Callum Blue, Dead Like Me], thinking he’s a client, and then being unable to stop thinking about him. This is complicated by a would-be call girl named Bambi [Ashley Madekwe] who picks Belle’s mind for pointers – and steals one of her clients, with near disastrous results.

Season Two of Secrets of a Call Girl is pretty much what you might expect if you saw Season One. Belle’s clients are the source of some humor – as well as some drama, and her personal life, her real life, continues to intrude on her professional one in ways that make her think about changing her line of work. The writing is mostly frothy, but occasionally darker, with the result that we can laugh, cry, shudder and, occasionally, cringe as we watch.

The characters continue to be drawn well enough for us to care about at least a few of them. Blue’s Alex is awkwardly charming; Madekwe’s Bambi is an innocent who thinks she isn’t, and there’s always ex-boyfriend Ben [Iddo Goldberg] to call Hannah on her BS [being the only person from her real life who knows about her profession].

Technically, the show is as glossy and sleek as ever – though the rather awkward cuts from Belle to her body double are a weak point. Secret Life of a Call Girl is occasionally erotic enough to make us feel naughty as we watch, bit just as often so matter-of-fact that we can relate to the characters as people.

Final Grade: B-

I’ve had my review copy of Freaks and Geeks: Yearbook Edition for awhile – but only now have I managed to get through all of its many features. This is the kind of DVD package that you have to actually see, full-size, to really appreciate.

Freaks and Geeks, of course, is the classic one-season wonder set in 1980 that revolved around siblings Lindsay [Linda Cardellini] and Sam Weir [John Francis Daley]. Unlike other shows that used metaphors for “high is hell” [Buffy the Vampire Slayer], or “high school is cruel” [Veronica Mars], Freaks and Geeks proud asserted that high school is real – and it may seem earth-shattering while you’re, but in the end? It’s high school. By using siblings who were at different ends of the school population’s periphery, the series [all eighteen episodes] gave us a look at an institution that was far more real than we’d seen before – and because we saw it through the filter of a newbie freak [Lindsay] and an entrenched geek [Sam], it brought back all the epic highs and devastating lows of that period of our lives.

The series was loosely based on some of the events of creator Paul Feig’s time in high school [frequently mentioned in the copious audio commentaries] and thus, had a lot of truth at its core. From Sam discovering that a pretty cheerleader actually liked him, to freak Daniel Desario [James Franco] discovering that he had a sense of pride, Freaks and Geeks worked because of that sense of reality. Even the Weirs’ parents felt real [if slightly exaggerated] with their over-the-top efforts to keep their children safe [“I know a kid in high school who smoked. You know he’s doing now? HE’S DEAD!].

The cast was a roll call of past future stars – in front of and behind the camera. Judd Apatow [how many hit movies?], Linda Cardellini [Scooby-Doo, ER], John Francis Daley [Kitchen Confidential, Bones], Seth Rogen [see: Judd Apatow movies, Undeclared], Zack & Miri Make a Porno], James Franco [James Dean, Spider-Man 1,2 & 3, Milk], Paul Feig [The Office, Arrested Development], Jason Segal [Undeclared, How I Met Your Mother, Forgetting Sarah Marshall] and Joe Flaherty [SCTV] – to name a few.

The series was also able to find a bit of creative in the dross of its early cancellation. Because they new when the show would end, the writers were able to bring Freaks and Geeks to a satisfying conclusion, with all the major characters finding themselves in a better place than when the series began. Who knew that Daniel would be good and Dungeons & Dragons, or that Sam would’ve been the one to break up with the cheerleader – or that Nick would find a talent for disco dancing? No one could have predicted that a major character would become a Deadhead, or that guidance counsellor Jeff Russo’s loan of American Beauty would have such an impact?

As a member of one of the peripheral groups in high school, I found Freaks and Geeks echoed many of events from my personal experience, though time had made them both funnier and less painful [though Dungeons & Dragons came along well after my high school years – and, yes, I did play it].

Freaks and Geeks: Yearbook Edition is exactly what it says it is – the complete series plus two discs of bonus features in a copy of the William McKinley High School Yearbook. It’s a full-size yearbook package with all the things you remember: the inside front and back covers are covered in messages and signatures from classmates; there are candid [and frequently embarrassing] photos from the school year; The Class of 1981; student photos [with the names listed at the bottom of the page [I never did understand why they did that], and a number feature articles about the series – Greetings from the Front Office [Paul Feig’s essay on the series: from making it to doing this ultimate set]; Answers to Questions You Haven’t Asked [Judd Apatow on the such topics as “Why did this set take so long to come out?]; From Our Favorite Substitute Teacher [Director/Consulting Producer Jake Kasdan reminisces]; and so much more – the pages that act as the episode guide also list all the music credits for each ep! And we haven’t even gotten to the actual DVD Bonus Features!

Discs One to Six – Twenty-eight Audio Commentaries [involving various configurations of cast, crew, writers, fans]; Extra Credit [clips and deleted or expanded scenes from each episode]; Auditions; NBC Promos [Disc One only].

Disc Seven: Museum of Television and Radio/William S. Paley Festival Q&A [Instructions for a Freaks & Geeks drinking game at bottom of page]; Table Read: Kim Kelly Is My Friend; 5 Deleted Scenes; Auditions: The Freaks [Linda’s First Audition, Grandma Scene; Linda’s First Audition, Cold Open & Dinner Scene; Jason Segal Audition, T-short Scene; Seth Rogen Audition, T-shirt]; The Geeks [John’s First Audition, Cold Open; John’s First Audition, Cindy Scene; Martin Starr Audition, Geek Talk; Samm Levine Audition, Fight Talk]; Students of McKinley High [Sarah Hagen Audition, Dance Discussion; Sarah Hagen Audition, Academic Decathlon; Natasha Melnick Audition; Chauncey Leopardi; Mark Allen Staubach; Shaun Weiss Audition]; Smorgasbord: Raw Footage; Odds & Sods; Long Live Rock; Sober Students Improv Players; Tales of the Secret Service, and Photo Galleries.

Disc Eight: Table Reads: I’m With the Band, Boyfriends and Girlfriends; NBC Promos [Original NBC Electronic Press Kit, Five More Promos]; Auditions: F&G Alternate Universe: Linda’s First Audition [As Kim Kelly]; Samm Levine’s First audition [as Sam with Shatner]; Busy Phillips’ Audition [As Lindsay]; Seth Rogen audition [As Geek]; Joe Flaherty Audition [As Mr. Fredericks]; The Authority Figures: Joe Flaherty Audition [She Died]; Becky Anne Baker [Smoking Scene]; Becky Ann Baker [Homecoming Dance]; Tom Wilson Audition [Dodgeball]; Steve Bannos Audition; Dale [Gruber] Allen Audition; Stephen Lea Sheppard Audition [Geeks Fighting]; Stephen Lea Sheppard [Freak Reefer]; Smorgasbord: Raw Footage; Odds & Sods; Seven Minutes in Heaven; Graduation, and Thanks, Goodbye.

Grade: Freaks and Geeks – A+

Grade: Features – A+

Final Grade: A+

Former insurance investigator Nathan Ford [Timothy Hutton] put has a team put together to steal a supposedly stolen set of plan for a new aircraft on the series premiere, The Nigerian Job. Part of the reason he takes the job is because that insurance company, for which he saved untold millions of dollars in claims, refused his son’s medical treatment and the boy died.

The other four members of the team – grafter Sophie Deveraux [Gina Bellman – Coupling], retrieval specialist Eliot Spencer [Christian Kane – Into the West, Angel], cat burglar Parker [Beth Riesgraf] and hi-tech thief Alec Hardison [Aldis Hodge – Friday Night Lights] – aren’t especially interested in doing the right thing. For them, the money is where it’s at.

Leverage is smart, showing its influences without losing its own identity. One of the keys to its success is that Ford puts together his team from thieves he’s taken on in his old job. As the team leader and token “honest man,” Hutton takes the still grief-stricken Ford and gives him enough dramatic weight that he anchors the show as well as the team.

The rest of the cast fills out their roles in various idiosyncratic ways – all of which work, because series creators John Rogers [Transformers, Global Frequency] and Chris Downey [The King of Queens] have written them with a depth that is striking. There are also twists on the standard caper personalities, the biggest of which is that, whereas the “crazy” member of the team is usually a guy, here it’s beautiful, blonde Parker. That’s only one of many variations of the usual themes that sets Leverage apart – in a good way.

Over the first four eps, the team will steal top secret plans; save a church; tackle the ownership of a thoroughbred and deal with a Blackwater-type mercenary company. In each case, the caper is different – especially when the man who moved into Ford’s old office [played by Mark A. Sheppard, Firefly, Battlestar Galactica] appears on one of their cases!

Final Grade: B+

Bella [Elizabeth Reaser] is following her plan to revisit her past boyfriends as per the fortune teller’s [Anne Bedian] prophecy that her soulmate is someone with whom she’s had a romantic relationship – and that if she hasn’t found him within a year, she’ll never marry. As a result, she’s encountering – in various unexpected ways – past boyfriends by the bucket load. This week it’s Shane [Brian Van Holt], a surf bum who has “grown up” to be famous and surprisingly business savvy.

The episode begins when the two meet cute and begin to see each other. We get a token look at Bella at work and there are arcs involving her engaged sister, Daphne [Rachel Boston], getting some photos done; her roommates, Augie [Adam Rothenberg] and Vivian [Alex Breckenridge] having some relationship problems [a showerhead and little to no imagination are involved], and Cyrus [Amir Talai] trying to scam a free board to teach a gorgeous woman to surf.

Although the subject of Bella’s quest is different, the pattern is pretty much beat for beat the same. The reconnect; they feel the generated chemistry; they learn how each changed over the years, and they fall apart just as things might be getting serious. The only difference here is that Shane has the potential to reappear in her life. Of the rest of the arcs, the only one that works is the showerhead one. Daphne might as well not have appeared in the ep, and Cyrus has gotten really old, really quickly.

In the pilot, written by series creator Diane Ruggerio, there were suggestions that we would see more of Bella’s life than just the fun parts and the ex-boyfriend parts. It seemed like we were going to get to see her at work as well as at play – and that her friends were going to actually be characters. The network, apparently, thought that the show should focus on just the play and romance and not the other [biggest] part of her life. The result is a show that entertains only sporadically, held aloft by the sheer charisma of Reaser and the characters of Augie and Vivian.

Given the potential in the pilot, this simply isn’t good enough. After invoking The Three-Ep rule, I was ready to stop watching, but CBS made a screener of the fourth ep available for review, so I asked for one. Sadly, it shows improvement only insofar as the ex of the week has the possibility of returning. In every other respect, The Ex List has not found the balance it needs to make it worth continued viewing.

Final Grade: C

The series two-hour premiere finds Molly trying to get motivated as a writer, so she decides to take a writing class being given by bestselling author, Zach McNeill [Hart Bochner]. When she reads from her first children’s book, the class is quietly dismissive – though she does return for a second class where she reads from her journal – to very positive response. Positive enough that Zach invites her to a party where he can get her together with a magazine editor who is looking for a columnist with her skills. Not only does the party go badly for Molly, someone steals her journal and leaks bits of it to an influential gossip website.

Meanwhile, Molly’s friends, Rodney [Chris Diamantopoulos] and Joan McAllister [Judy Davis] have interesting problems of their own. Rodney’ interior decorating business is flourishing while his social life is a disaster. Joan is finding her sobriety difficult to maintain and when she takes a job at a posh rehab facility, her first assignment is watch over a faded movie star who is very creative in his approach to getting drunk.

Like most of USA’s “Characters Welcome” programs, The Starter Wife features a mystery – who stole Molly’s diary. Unlike the rest of USA’s shows, though, it goes more for the odd balance of soap opera storylines and dark humor –both of which Messing and Davis, in particular, can play adroitly. Those moments of pure soap melodrama are folded into a mix that gives the entire cast moments to shine but the success of the series rests squarely on the shoulders of Messing, who does indeed get all the best material [in her dreams she translates her many crises into versions of hit movies – Elizabeth and Mission: Impossible are among the films referenced in the premiere].

While the dark humor and melodrama work relatively well here, The Starter Wife does have a tendency to get a bit too frothy from time to time. If it keeps that tendency under control, the series should be able to hold an audience geared to the kind eccentric characters at which USA programs excel. If not, the show will be hard pressed to survive.

Final Grade: B-

Bella’s situation arises from the bachelorette party for her younger sister, Daphne [Rachel Boston], and her own weird thought that visiting a psychic would be the perfect way to cap the evening. When other predictions she made come true in wildly unexpected [and funny] ways, she begins to take the psychic seriously – not least of all when bird poop leads to her discovery that former boyfriend Johnny Diamont [Eric Balfour] is back in town – and has a punk rock band. When she and roommate Vivian [Alexandra Breckenridge] go to his show, his first song shows he remembers her, and not particularly fondly…

The Ex List is based on an Israeli series, but seems to be of a vastly different tone [Diane Ruggerio, who adapted the series for America, left the show over creative differences – and she wanted to maintain the tone of the original]. In the premiere, she has a life – she runs a flower shop and has a core group of friends who share a house with her: the aforementioned Vivian, her best friend; Augie [Adam Rothenberg], Vivian’s boyfriend, and Cyrus [Amir Talai], who is a bit of a cynic and a slacker.

Although Reaser doesn’t have to do all the heavy lifting, she is the principal here, and her ability to shift from comedy to drama to melodrama in mid-line [and to look really, really good in a bikini] is the show’s primary plus. The cast has solid chemistry [always important], but the writing isn’t quite right, yet. The balance between humor, drama and melodrama needs to be tweaked [less melodrama, more drama – the humor content is about right]. I enjoyed the pilot, but I hope that the show will find that balance – that sweet spot – that can elevate it to the next level.

Final Grade: B-

Breaking and Entering, the second season premiere, deals with stealing information from a civilian military [mercenary] company. If it’s not done by a certain time, it will result in the death of the wife and child of the man who set up the firm’s security. The carnage that greets Michael when he clambers out of the trailer is what remains of the computer expert, Richie’s effort to flee. Plus, there’s always Michael’s manipulative mom [Sharon Gless], fellow ex-spy and buddy, Jack [Bruce Campbell] and ex-girlfriend/former IRA demolitions expert, Fiona [Gabrielle Anwar] to help and/or hinder. Topping that, Carla is one of the people who had Michael burned in the first place!

The follow-up ep, Turn and Burn, finds Michael helping a young woman with a stalker problem – by the number two man of the local drug kingpin! Even worse, he gets manipulated into attending a “counselling session” with his mom. [Oh, the humanity!] And these are just the side gigs! His assignment from Carla is to get a computer key card copied – and that requires a special kind of expert…

Burn Notice was probably the best series of last summer, in terms of pure entertainment value. It certainly filled the requirements of the USA “characters wanted” brand – though Michael is the most normal of the characters [it’s his mom and Jack who are the real characters!]. If anything, it seems that the series has gotten smarter, funnier and maybe even a bit edgier this season.

The first two scripts are killer and the ensemble certainly makes the most of that. Each ep is paced just quickly enough to maintain interest without trying to do too much too quickly [a real potential problem here]. Donovan has really done a nice job of keeping the balance between nice and twisted in Michael’s character. He gives the show its calm center in the eye of the hurricane that is his mom, Jack, and Fiona [though Fiona seems to have calmed down a bit from last season – let’s see how long that lasts]. Tricia Helfer nicely underplays Carla’s menace, thereby seeming even more dangerous, and she definitely adds a bit of spice to Michael’s life – which makes it even harder for Michael to find out who she really is – and who she works for.

If you liked Burn Notice last season, you’re going to love it this year.

Final Grade: A

Will Proudfoot [Bill Milner] is a member of a religious sect that doesn’t allow watching television, so when his teacher plays a tape for the class, Will has to sit in the hall until it’s over. Lee Carter [Will Poulter], on the other hand, is the school’s resident hellspawn, who is frequently ejected from class.

The day after Lee has boldly videotaped First Blood at the town theater, he is ejected from class at the same time as Will is sitting in the hall awaiting the completion of a class film. A series of incidents involving a tennis ball and a few less than white lies later, Lee and Will are on their way to becoming friends – a process heightened when a hiding Will gets to watch Lee’s bootleg of first Blood and prods Lee, a budding filmmaker, to film “Son of Rambow.” Before long, a seemingly cool French exchange student named Didier [Jules Sitruk] has become a lead in the film; Will has become cool by association, and friction develops between Will and Lee.

The parts of the film that deal with the growing bond between Lee and will, and the relationship that Brother Joshua [Neil dudgeon] tries to build between Will and his mother [Jessica Stevenson], are charming and real in a low-key way. Didier and his entourage – who have become cool by hanging with him – are a clever bit at first, but wear out their welcome before long. [A clever insight into how his fellow French students see him comes just a bit too late for us to care overmuch.]

Writer/director Garth Jennings has a knack to getting to the kernel of truth in each of his main core of characters and directs with a slightly stealthy, not quite sprightly touch. If you’re tired of summer blockbusters already, Son of Rambow will probably going to charm the socks of you.

Final Grade: B+