We screenwriters get to create all the TV action on the page, and that’s pretty cool, but it’s the actors who get to have all the fun. They actually get to be the heroes; I just write them that way. So I can admit that I’m horribly jealous of Ben Watkins. Not only is he a writer and producer on Burn Notice, but he also gets to pretend to make bombs and shove guns in people’s faces.
That’s because Watkins doesn’t just write and produce, but he also plays Michael Westen’s childhood friend Ricky. In “Breaking Point,” Ricky’s brother Andre is gunned down, and understandably Ricky doesn’t take this very well. He turns to Michael to help him find the shooter, who’s quickly identified as a gangster named Dion.
When Michael and Jesse don’t bring down Dion quickly enough for his taste, Ricky decides he’ll make a bomb and blow up the place where Dion and his crew are meeting an undercover Michael. And when Dion survives, Ricky knocks him around a bit and threatens to shoot him before Michael convinces him not to become a murderer. It’s drama, action, and getting some serious face time with the star of the show. That’s a pretty sweet gig, especially for a writer!
It’s business as usual for Watkins, who was an actor (including a two-year stint on The Young and The Restless) before he started writing for Burn Notice. But I certainly wouldn’t mind trading places with the guy.
“Breaking Point” is also a treat because Sam and Jesse create a pair of hilariously fun characters for themselves. Chuck Finley’s newest job is environmental attorney, as he visits a local college to recruit some free labor and throws out phrases like “ratio of power suckage” and a line about saving a “nest of baby penguins.” No one can make a sales pitch like Bruce Campbell. No one.
Meanwhile, Jesse goes gangster himself to ingratiate himself with Dion. It’s as if his character Jason Pitts from The Game got even more arrogant and started dressing worse, and it gives Coby Bell a chance to show off his comedic chops. He and Bruce need to do a sitcom together after Burn Notice. I think it would be epic.
At episode’s end, Michael does the deed he’s been avoiding for awhile now: he walks right past Agent Pearce and begins the process of erasing Anson’s existence from the CIA computers. It’s obvious that this will come back to bite him in the behind big time, and I am curious to see how it all ends. Right now, I don’t have a clue.
But I’m not really thinking about that. I’m still giggling over how Chuck Finley had to tell a bunch of college kids that Sri Lanka is a country. Burn Notice: it’s a little bit of everything, and a whole lot of awesome.
Clacked by Brittany Frederick 
on Nov 12, 2011 @ 01:31 EST5EDT
