For a show like USA’s “Burn Notice,” attempting to marry comedy and the spy genre, tone is everything. Unfortunately, this show has none of the required levity, attitude or pacing to pull it off.

It’s never funny enough to be parody, while the spy plots are unconvincing and old hat. The characters are flat, the voice-over lifeless. The entire execution is half-sure and underdeveloped.

A spy (Jeffrey Donovan) finds himself “burned” (the CIA equivalent of fired). His bank account is frozen, he’s out of a job and the FBI is following him.

Now he’s stuck in Miami with an overbearing mother, an ex-IRA ex-girlfriend and a washed up former agent (Bruce Campbell). In between taking cases as a P.I., he attempts to discover who burned him.

The creators just seem unsure of what they were going for here.

Burn Notice - Season One is currently available.