The Nine, 52 heures en enfer

I enjoyed this series and am very disappointed it's gone. It's plot line was unique and compelling, and though character developments were ramping up slowly, I found that to be a good thing. Sort of like getting to know a good friend in depth, over time.

That 'friend' wasn't any particular character - there were no "superstar standouts" in the large ensemble cast in my opinion, but each person was interesting enough to hold their own, plus contribute to the overall 'character' of The Nine.

If they're going to pull the rug out it would be great if they'd consider a wrap-up movie, a micro-series or a publication where lingering questions and mysteries of what happened during the hostage holdout and what happens with their lives in the aftermath are put to rest.

I was channel surfing late one night in Costa Rica and washed ashore on The Nine. One of those yummy slow burns. I enjoyed the build-up, the character development, the changes in point of view. I looked for it every night - like trying to find a lost ankle charm on a sandy shore - and kept looking when I arrived back in Canada. I found out that the show can be downloaded. Lucky Day... NOT. Just another case of "US viewers only". Shame, shame. I know the show isn't for everyone (particularly for those who need more instant gratification) but it hooked me and I don't even know what episode it was. I hope it shows up on DVD - or the ban (and why is that?) on Canadian downloading comes to an end.

Network: ABC; Genre: Drama; Content Rating: TV-PG (some violence and language); Perspective: Contemporary (star range: 1 - 4);

Seasons Reviewed: Incomplete Series (1 season)

Nine strangers walk into a bank, followed by a pair of violent deranged robbers. 52 hours later they are released. What happened in that time we don't know, but as each episode unfolds we get an hour-by-hour account of how it all went to hell inside. The survivors now bonded together by trauma, including cop Tim Daley, boyfriend Scott Wolf, politician's wife Kim Raver ("24") and bank manager Chi McBride.

While it sounds like an exciting premise, "The Nine" comes off more like "Lost" in reverse. Creator K.J. Steinberg answers the network mandate coming off the success of ABC's island character drama and Fox's "Prison Break" with her own drama that like it's predecessors uses the medium of TV to flesh out and explore characters in a confined situation.

TV is a copy cat industry, I have accepted that. When trying to replicate a hit often what gets lost in the translation are the very things that made the original show a hit. And it is usually the small things that were overlooked. In a desire to change things just enough, Steinberg gets everything that makes "Lost" work completely backwards. Where "Lost" has a grand-scale adventure A-story that drops us out of it for more character building in the B-story, "The Nine" takes the opposite approach, making the character drama the A-story and the more exciting bank robbery the B-story. As a result it feels bottom-heavy and lacks urgency. And worse, it is an unsolvable problem.

"Nine" calls back to "Prison Break" in that it is a short-sighted series that doesn't seem concerned that its basic premise by its nature is enclosed. In this situation it can either play like a long movie and end earlier than the average syndication-craving series or it stretches itself out over seasons with inevitably leads to cheating on the premise and loosing all credibility. The audience and ABC saw to it that neither of these happened by doing what it does and pulling the plug early.

"The Nine" is painfully anti-climactic, peaking in the first episode with the harrowing immediate aftermath of the bank robbery, and settling into a straight character drama for the remaining episodes. Relationships are formed. Relationships break up. People feel guilty about something they did in the bank. The cop (Daley, who along with McBride deserves much better) is slung in the middle of a department cover-up of the way they handled the hostage situation. The further we get from the bank, the more "The Nine" could have been about anything – and that is being very kind, not knowing what happened in the bank is more riveting than what is actually revealed.

There is one highlight. John Billingsley steals the show as a meek accountant who is inspired by his new post-robbery lease on life (and minor celebrity) to leave his wife, quite his job and live, dammit, live! Everyone else, I really could not care less about. Their stories quickly become routine plug-in drama, completely and totally interchangeable with almost any other character drama. The show tries to hard to split the difference, be everything to everyone and it works as neither a character drama nor a thriller. And I don't have to tell you that is a deadly recipe to put the audience to sleep.

* ½ / 4

Lucas Dalton (Owain Yeoman) and his brother Randall Reese (Jeffrey Pierce) walk in to rob a bank. It's supposed to be a short hold-up but 52 hours later, the police finally ends the long stand-off. The nine surviving hostages are changed by the incident and regularly meet. Franny Rios (Camille Guaty) and single-mom sister Eva Rios (Lourdes Benedicto) are bank tellers. Eva is killed along with the security guard. Suicidal Egan Foote (John Billingsley) becomes a celebrated hero. Surgeon Jeremy Kates (Scott Wolf) and secretly pregnant girlfriend Lizzie Miller (Jessica Collins) break up. Police detective Nick Cavanaugh (Tim Daly) has a gambling problem. Felicia (Dana Davis) is the daughter of bank manager Malcolm Jones (Chi McBride). Nancy Hale (Susan Sullivan) is at the bank with her ADA daughter Kathryn Hale (Kim Raver).

This needs a more compelling hook at the very beginning. The missing money should be the big reveal in the first episode. There should be a cop character investigating it to heighten the tension. I would like more of a Rashomon method of flashback story telling. It takes too long to have the first exciting extended flashback. It's the third episode when the initial takeover is added to and it's probably too late to hook the audience. The problem is that the slow reveals don't add up to excitement. It's a somewhat meandering way of story telling. With no viewers, this is quickly canceled.

If ever there was a fan base who deserved a DVD request, its the fans of "The Nine." Of course all of us know how badly this brilliant show was treated by ABC right from the very beginning (i.e. scheduling it - UNBELIEVABLY - in the same Wednesday 10:00 p.m. time slot) - the slot where many of ABC's previous shows were also prematurely pulled (a lot of us are "EYES" fans too, ABC). Fans of The Nine waited for months and months, believing ABC's promise that they would air the remaining episodes some time in 2007. We were patient - We trusted you guys - We had no reason to believe otherwise. We waited through spring, when it was first going to air;then we waited through summer thinking that it would be aired as an alternative to summer reruns. Several months later ABC finally aired 2 of the remaining episodes. Great! Fans tuned in on the third week back only to find The Nine had been pulled AGAIN!

ABC blindsided this loyal fan base. They did not keep their promise to us. Gee ABC...low ratings? Could it be because some genius at your network decided not only to do "0" promotion, but because the same Wednesday 10:00 p.m. competitive time slot was used? ARE YOU KIDDING US??????? Any initial gratitude we had soon turned to feelings of anger, shock and immense disappointment. ABC's message to fans of The Nine: "WE DON'T VALUE OUR ADULT VIEWERS, EVEN THOUGH THEY ARE THE ONES WHO MAKE AND BREAK A NETWORK." Its as if ABC thought the fans would just give up (after waiting for MONTHS and MONTHS). Even the other networks allowed their shows to go an entire season, canceled or not.

Well ABC, WE'RE NOT GOING ANYWHERE without some type of compensation to make up for a broken promise. At the very least your network owes loyal fans a DVD, AND some form of conclusion to the series. Perhaps a made-for-TV movie, as networks have done in the past? Yes, we know the actors are on other shows now, but we would be willing to wait for a time when they are either on vacation status or hiatus or whatever. WE'VE ALREADY WAITED THIS LONG, SO WHAT'S ANOTHER LONG WAIT? If this is not possible for some reason, how 'bout allowing fans to see the remaining scripts? You could post them on your website and you could also put them on the DVD (the one you owe us). If money is all this network cares about, FANS OF THE NINE WILL WILLINGLY PURCHASE THE DVDS. We LOVE this show and miss it terribly. Now there is virtually nothing on ABC for mature adult viewers to watch and that's the audience your network is driving away. So, at least consider this proposal ABC?!