A hot new television show for the summer season

Hot fun in the summertime is cool to find.

And "Burn Notice" is one very nicely chilled and jaunty encounter with stylish hot weather escapism, neatly wrapped in the sly, witty action tales of blacklisted spy guy Michael Weston (Jeffrey Donovan, "Touching Evil").

It seems Mike has riled someone really important high up the government espionage food chain.

Shortly after "Burn Notice" announces its hang-loose, prime-time presence at 10 p.m. EDT Thursday on USA, Weston gets the word that he's been fired from his international gig in covert intelligence.

The pink slip in this case is called a "burn notice," therefore the odd series title.

Perplexed and rather cranky about this turn of career events, Weston gets himself back to his home town of Miami and the plush, bikini-cosmic surroundings of South Beach to begin unraveling the puzzle of his sudden dismissal from the global spying life.

Not that covert intelligence is all a slice of glamorous James Bond 007 heaven.

"Know what it's like being a spy?" queries laconic Michael Weston in a self-narrating moment as "Burn Notice" opens. "Sitting in your dentist's reception area 24 hours a day. You read magazines, sip coffee and every so often someone tries to kill people."

Sometimes, that someone people are trying to kill is Michael Weston, played with a bemusing glint of early Val Kilmer by the lean, dapper Donovan.

Created by clever TV newcomer Matt Nix, "Burn Notice" is the latest and most appealing USA series to mine the comic drama territory of shows like "Monk" and "Psych."

And it makes a smart, charmingly irreverent first impression, thanks to its pleasantly warped, deadpan writing and performing.

Donovan is joined in quirky character merriment by Gabrielle Anwar ("Scent of a Woman," Showtime's "The Tudors") as Michael's sexy ex-lover and IRA spy Fiona, Bruce Campbell ("Evil Dead") as Michael's only friend, rumpled ex-spy Sam, and Sharon Gless ("Cagney & Lacey") as Madeline, Michael's hypochondriac, high-maintenance mother.

To keep the income flowing while he digs into his presumably nefarious firing, Michael takes on occasionally risky assignments as a private investigator; but never so risky as to endanger the wisecracks and whoopee.

So welcome "Burn Notice," channel surfing America.