“Burn Notice”
Thursday 10pm, USA
Joining established USA hits “The 4400,” “The Dead Zone,” “Monk” and “Psych” is this promising show about American spy Michael Westen who, on a deadly mission, learns that he’s received a “burn notice”—in real world parlance, he’s been fired. He gets dumped in his hometown of Miami, assets frozen and put on watch by every government agency in the world. Now Westen has to use his spy training to do private eye work to pay the bills while trying to figure out why he got burned. The supporting cast rocks, with Gabrielle Anwar (continuing her comeback after “The Tudors”) as the angry ex-girlfriend; Bruce Campbell (looking a little bloaty; was Evil Dead that long ago?) as a fellow former spook; and the magnificent Sharon Gless (“Cagney & Lacey,” “Queer as Folk”) as Westen’s mom.
“Hey Paula”
Thursday 10pm, Bravo
A wise woman once asked “Do do you love me? (Do do you love me? Baby?)” And the answer is: Of course we do. She’s forever our girl. Perpetually embattled former pop star/current talent show judge Paula Abdul is getting the reality docu-series treatment, in part to promote her upcoming projects (including—shudder—a Bratz movie) and dispel the myths that she’s a dim-witted wino. It’s tough to tell how this’ll go: Bobby Brown’s show did wonders for his image, recasting the bad boy as a sweet, loving husband and clueless father; Anna Nicole and Britney’s shows just confirmed them to be the trainwrecks we imagined. But thanks to the advance clips I kind of have a new respect for Abdul and her endearing nuttiness.
“Kyle XY”
Monday 8pm, ABC Family
The whole mysterious-stranger shtick has been used a million times over. However, ABC Family has scored a minor hit by taking the trope and turning it into a family-friendly drama. A big draw is undoubtedly the tween-friendly cutie Matt Dallas, who plays the title character, a young man taken in by a kindly family after he wandered into their lives missing his clothes, his memory, and a belly button. In the first season, Kyle found out that he was basically a science experiment. Now, after reuniting with his creator—and watching him die—he’s on the run back to his adoptive family, but is being chased by corporate goons who want their “experiment” back, as well as his “sister,” Jessi XX, his distaff, similarly non-bellybuttoned counterpart.—Eric Rezsnyak