The Nine, 52 heures en enfer

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.

Phillip Dewaar learn to spell "creative" if you want to be taken seriously.

This was actually a innovative show. It also introduced a limited time frame though, 24 episode max. 9 people, bank heist, once the connections were made. . . done. The fact that it only reached 13 episodes was a realization on 2 fronts, 1-the why's and how's can only be stretched so far and 2 - nobody actually cares that much bank robberies on a TV medium.

Bank heists should be left to 3 episode fillers or 1 episode plot devices. Movies though, I don't mind if the main focus is only a bank, only because it is only a time sacrifice of a couple hours or less and not a week by week commitment between 1 to 6 months long.

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

Well I have watch all seven episodes of this show and I just found out today that abc cancel the nine. This show is amazing about nine people who survive a bank robbery. It tells the story of their lives after this dramatic event. I don't know why they would cancel a great show just because the ratings our falling. If abc was smart they would return the nine the same time they return Lost because it did very well when it was on after Lost. I always watched Lost first and wanted some more drama and The nine was right after. I didn't think ABC was like FOX cancelled every show. Big mistake ABC why don't you cancel an awful show like Desperate Housewifes.

This show is the most impressive drama series I've seen since the glory days of "NYPD Blue." I was aghast when ABC pulled it from the schedule.

Yes, it follows the "Lost" method of parsing out plot details, but I felt that every episode revealed a satisfying amount of the mystery. I'm glad to see it back on the summer schedule so I can at least see a few more episodes.

It's a show to which you must pay attention to understand, so that probably has something to do with its low ratings (remember "Arrested Development?").

The casting is phenomenal. It's nice to see Tim Daly in a very convincing dramatic turn, and Chi McBride is one of the most underrated actors ever. He is a completely different, absolutely believable person, in every role. John Billingsley also did a great job free of prosthetics. The entire cast does a fantastic job as well.

This show was based on character, which is almost invariably the root of good drama. It wasn't based on titillation or slick editing or trendy ratings phenomena (OK, I'm sure "'Lost' in L.A.!" was part of the pitch, but at least it wasn't a reality or game show). It featured an ensemble of human characters with human nobility and human flaws.

It's extremely depressing that a quality show like this has been dumped in favor of ... well, I don't know what will replace it because I doubt I will watch it.

I look forward to a DVD release of all filmed episodes at least. It will go nicely with my "Boomtown" set.