Burn Notice has been one of my favorite shows since its first season and, as such, I jumped at the opportunity to be on a conference call with the creator, Matt Nix. Matt was very informative about where he sees the show going, while at the same time guarded as to not reveal too much. I was able to ask 3 questions during my interview so I will go over those. The full transcript should be up in 24-48 hours.
My first question was submitted by “magnutude” and was originally going to be, “How does the loss of Nate affect the relationship between Michael and his mother?” However, before I could ask this someone else did. Great minds think alike I suppose. Matt answered this quite quickly in saying that Madeline will have some time where she is angry at the entire team for constantly putting themselves in danger. He said that she sees Nate’s death as a consequence to the teams constant dangers that they willingly put themselves in. Because someone already asked this question I decided to tweak it just a little. Instead I asked how Nate’s death affects the relationship between Madeline and Fiona. When I first watched the episode I saw it as such a bittersweet moment because Fiona was free, but Nate was dead so I was interested in what he thought about that. Interestingly, Matt commented that the focus on the consequences of Nate’s death will be between Michael and his Mom. There were a lot of questions about Nate’s death and the possibility of bringing him back which Matt denied universally. Translation – Just as everyone thought Nate is dead as dead can be.
My second question was about the possibility of a seventh season (which has not yet been confirmed) being the last season. This was a common request in the comments on our “Questions Needed” post. According to Matt, if I had asked him that at the end of last season he would have said yes, without a doubt that season 7 would have to be the last. Creatively, Matt didn’t think they could continue to make these stories interesting for more than 7 seasons if it was always procedural. However, this year we have seen more serialized elements to the show rather than every episode being a “client of the week”. Matt said he could imagine, not guarantee, a world where it all works out and there are further seasons, but only if the writing is still creative.
My third question was submitted by “MissyLissy” and was, “Is Tim Matheson’s Larry truly dead?” Matt talked about how his wife watches TV with him and that they both dislike the idea of saying for a long time, “Ok this person is dead” and then two seconds later bringing that character back. Matt at first made this comment in reference to Nate and later to Larry so, unfortunately, it would appear that Dead Larry truly is dead. He said that the writers feel the same pain that the audience does when making decision like this. He added that Larry was a mentor for Michael and now that we have John C. McGinley playing a different type of mentor, Larry is not really needed.
It was an extremely enjoyable conversation and from the looks of it should be an equally enjoyable season. Follow Matt Nix on twitter if you haven’t already here @MattNixTV .
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