Burn Notice: Money, violence, and lust in America?

Burn Notice, a new show which began airing on USA two years ago, is about former covert operative, Michael Weston, who’s had a “burn notice” put on him, which means that his intelligence agency has put word out to other agencies that he is unreliable to do his job or can be seen as a threat. The show takes place in Miami, Florida, where Michael, along with his ex-girlfriend Fiona (a expert in explosives such as bombs and guns), and his buddy Sam (a former Navy SEAL and FBI informant) try to find out who sent out the burn notice on Michael and why. However, even though he pursues his own goal throughout the season, Michael always ends up helping someone out in Miami who’s in trouble with bad people such as a gang, a wrong business, or anything of the liking. I believe money plays a big role here since most of the time Michael does these jobs, they either involve someone with a lot of money or he gets offered a decent chunk of change to complete the task. Like money, power also plays a very big role in this series. And like power, lust between two incredibly sexy stars takes place. Between money that is exchanged between many hands, power that is spoken like it is from G-d, and lust from two ex lovers, this show is full of issues in popular culture.

Power is the topic that will be discussed here. Michael takes direct orders from this higher authority as he gets closer and closer to finding out who really burned him and why. As the series continues he is threatened in many different ways, usually involving his family, just to prove how powerful these people he is dealing with are.

In Cullen's chapter 3 of his book, he discusses in great detail about white elites and white culture. Here you have your everyday middle class white hard working American male. Michael gave a good portion of his life to protecting this American nation and what does he get back when all he wants are answers? What we have here is an example of an elitist society. However, what is fascinating in this show is the control of white on white. Even Cullen points out how white elitists truly believed they could control popular culture in America solely due to the fact that they had enough money. Well, thanks to freedom of speech and people like Michael Weston, the middle class spoke up for itself against these elite reformers. With the cultures mixing from various classes, came a real look at what a true American popular culture could look like.