Bruce Campbell and Jeffrey Donovan by Dan Littlejohn/USA Network
A first-season-ending cliff-hanger. Growing Internet buzz about the murky conspiracy story line. And a mysterious new character played by everyone's favorite Cylon, Tricia Helfer. These three facts about Burn Notice, USA Network's surprise hit (premiering tonight at 10 pm/ET), might lead you to conclude that the Miami-set show's second season is gearing up to be an espionage-themed homage to Battlestar Galactica. Not so.
"Sadly, we can't afford to go in that direction," explains creator Matt Nix. "We can't have huge revelations about characters all the time because, well, we only have four characters."
That quartet — led by tanned-and-toned Jeffrey Donovan and supported by Bruce Campbell, Gabrielle Anwar and Sharon Gless — has reeled in viewers by blending high-adrenaline intrigue and smart-aleck humor in a way seldom seen on TV since Magnum, P.I. The show follows the exploits of former spy Michael Westen (Donovan), who's forced to hole up in southern Florida by the shadowy government entity that issued him a "burn notice" — the intelligence community's version of a pink slip — for reasons he can't comprehend. While searching for answers, Michael keeps himself in designer duds by working as a mercenary do-gooder, often wielding homemade gadgetry that would impress even MacGyver.
When presented with the opportunity to make the cast a party of five, Helfer enthusiastically signed on, even though it means whirlwind commutes to the Battlestar set in Vancouver while both shows are in production. "You can't be a Cylon forever," laughs the 34-year-old Canadian, who'll soon shoot Battlestar's series finale, due in 2009. "And I tell ya, we were starting to get to the point where we'd have to discuss how Cylons age. Because I don't really look like I did five years ago."
Playing Carla, a former operative, she'll appear in roughly half of the new season's 16 episodes — including the premiere, which picks up where the big cliff-hanger left off, with Michael driving into the cargo hold of a semi truck at the behest of his governmental tormentors. But apart from adding the new character and ratcheting up the number of guest stars — like rapper Method Man (The Wire) and comedian Larry Miller — only one other major change will take place this season: no more stunts for Donovan.
"Last year, I got hurt six times doing my own action, so they don't let me do that anymore," says the 40-year-old Massachusetts native, rattling off a list of injuries ranging from an arm lacerated by shattered glass to scrapes caused by a motorcycle crash to "a couple of other ones that I can't remember or maybe I've blocked out." Donovan plans to stave off the resulting on-set boredom by unleashing his new jujitsu skills on bad guys during each episode's inevitable hand-to-hand combat scene. "It's important that the audience believes that I can do these things," he says.
One thing the audience wouldn't believe? A Burn Notice-Battlestar Galactica crossover. Helfer says it ain't gonna happen: "I think that would change the premise just a little bit." Sorry, fanboys! — John Sellers
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