Ohhh, you guys!! I just got home from dinner with Matt Nix, the showrunner and creator of USA’s Burn Notice and it was fucking awesome. I think I’ve got a thing for TV writers because I fall in love with every one of them that I meet. I think it’s their brains. Oh so pretty.

Anyway, I don’t even know where to start telling you about the evening. So how about I just tease you with a few things and promise to elaborate after tomorrow’s set visit?

Matt ordered… heh. Alright, alright, I know that’s not the information you want, so here it goes…

• First and foremost, Matt is awesome in every way. Not only is he funny, I think we laughed through the entire dinner, he’s so down to earth and approachable that I have no trouble believing his stories about being mistaken for production assistants on the set and extras not realizing the guy wearing backpack and typing away is actually the showrunner. The lack of an ego there is so refreshing. Not to mention he was very candid with us and that’s also another rarity.
• You know that shot in last season’s finale? Actually filmed on that bridge and when they pull back it really is a camera in a helicopter pulling away. Niceeeeee.
• Stunts on this show are not like stunts on other shows because of the way Michael explains things in the voiceovers. It means that they have to show specific steps and changes how they film stunts. Matt did tell me that they do end up throwing out several voiceovers per episode and sometimes even the ones they keep get re-worked depending on the shots they got.
• The soundstage for the show is in an old convention center that was no longer being used once the new center opened. It was sitting empty and the show worked out a deal with the city to use it. This also means the show shares a parking lot with several of the city buildings including the mayor’s office… which is kind of funny since they are constantly blowing things up right outside these official’s offices.
• The S1 DVDs have commentary for each and every episode of the season but Matt picked out a few things he felt were key about the episode instead of just rambling through it and trying to remember things while watching it on screen. (Oh, and the place where they do commentary has some kind of Mexican theme going on and they really do serve drinks there. HA.)
• We were talking about how there’s always explosions happening on the show and there never seems to be any reaction from Miami authorities about it. Matt explained that they do sometimes rationalize it in the writer’s room by assuming the police are investigating these things offscreen and they’ll double-check themselves to make sure there’s nothing that would lead back to the characters if investigated. Thus, while Miami might be in a panic because there is a serial bomber on the loose, it’s ok… Except then he told us about watching the dailies of an explosion (”because, you know, you want to watch the explosions first, then the fights, and then maybe the acting if there’s time…”) and, as he was looking at the huge (cool) mushroom cloud it caused, he noticed that all of the cars in the background just kept driving right past it, as if nothing out of the ordinary was happening. Why wouldn’t the crew have had the cars “react” to the explosion by swerving to a stop, etc. Then he realized that they weren’t production cars and that not one of the people driving on this actual road in Miami seem phased by this big huge mushroom cloud in the sky in front of them. So, maybe the what’s happening on the show’s not so unusual after all. Maybe explosions really are an every day occurrence in Miami, hmmm?
• He said that they like to describe the show as “serial but missable” and just the way he said it made us all laugh. But, really, they try to make sure the burn notice/serial aspect only has a very small part of each episode and that they constantly restate what’s going on or that what’s going on isn’t important so that viewers won’t feel like they’ve missed something if they haven’t seen an espisode or two of the show.

Welp, I do have more… lots(!) in fact, but it’s late, I’m exhausted, and I have to get up early to meet the others for breakfast. Be sure to check back later this weekend and early next week for some more peeks behind the scenes of Burn Notice!