I wasn’t the only person who was a wee bit disappointed with Burn Notice‘s Season 2, and had hoped Season 3 would somehow manage to recapture the whimsy that made Season 1 so much fun.

I’m not convinced yet, though I’m not ready to kick Michael, Fiona and Sam off my DVR season pass, either. (And Michael’s mom will be the last reason to kick the gang off.)

They’re kind of like the Scooby-Doo gang, but smarter, fewer and better armed.

A quick recap:

Season 1 gave us Michael Westen, a spy served a so-called “burn notice,” which means he’s been written off by his handlers. They deny any agency affiliation, cut off his bank accounts and dump him in a city where he’s expected to stay. In Michael’s case, it’s Miami, where his ex-girlfriend (and IRA gun-runner) Fiona and former spy buddy Sam (played by Bruce Campbell, w00t!) live. Oh, and his mom and brother.

In Season 2, Michael’s quest to find out who burned him brings him close to his goal, with Battlestar Galactica’s Number 6 as his new handler of sorts, who’s trying to make him work for her bosses. Are these the people who burned him? We assume so, until the season finale, when her boss (played by Frasier Crane’s father) claims that his folks were actually protecting Michael by keeping him off the grid. Michael jumps out of a helicopter several miles off the Miami shore. Wearing a suit.

Season 3 opened with Michael swimming to shore and ending up in the hands of the cops, as Frasier’s dad’s folks ratted Michael out and removed their protections and so he’s suddenly popping up on computer databases again and the cops think he’s armed and dangerous. A former spy buddy shows up and bails him out of jail, asking him to help his girlfriend, whose family farm is being threatened by drug dealers or gun runners or some sort of bad guys.

To be honest, I had trouble following the convoluted plot of Thursday’s opener. I guessed relatively early on that his spy buddy wasn’t really his buddy and was trying to do something to him, though I’m still not sure if he was trying to kill him or capture him or frame him or what.

The main issue was that the only scenes that really piqued my interest were the ones with Michael’s mom bitching at Sam about having blown up part of her house. Sharon Gless is quite funny. Word is Tyne Daley may be booked for next season for a guest spot (if I can find a link to the article I read this in, I’ll update it later.), which could be very amusing to those of us who grew up in the ’80s, when Cagney & Lacey was a staple.

For the boys, as if Fiona in skimpy clothing wasn’t good enough, Moon Bloodgood (that search term alone should increase the hits this post gets) is joining the cast as an occasional guest, as Detective Paxon, Michael’s new nemesis of sorts. She basically is trying to find out who Michael really is; I’m assuming she’s wondering why things keep blowing up so much when he’s around, no?

So, was I wrong in being a tad disappointed with the season premiere? Is it going to find the fun again? I hope so. Burn Notice was once such a guilty pleasure, and I’d like it if it returned to that status again.