From the moment when, in the first episode of Burn Notice, Michael Westen solved a problem with duct tape, I was hooked. The show is a sexier version of MacGyver, with many of the same plot formulas (“Hi, I’m your old friend who you haven’t seen in ten years and I need your help, and we can’t go to the police! Please go con some Miami drug dealers for me!”). There are fewer ingenious mechanisms, and more conning and spying, but the spirit of the macgyverism is preserved, down to the educational voiceovers. It’s all very stupid, and fun. And it has Bruce Campbell in a supporting role.

So I watched the first season two years ago, and then I tried watching the second season last year. It just didn’t work. I hated it. I gave up.

Now I learn that the third season has started, and I think: Why did I stop enjoying that stupid macgyverish show? And I realize what happened. I watched most of the first season in the summer, and the second season in the fall. There’s something about summer and stupid fun shows. I think it’s the heat. It makes you dumber, so you don’t mind that all the episodes are the same.

Right now we’re at the end of a week-long heat wave here in Oslo. My apartment is a greenhouse. So I started up an episode from season 2, and .. hey, this is fun! I like this! Does that prove my theory? We’ll see when the heat ends.