The Nine

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.

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.

The Nine is a potentially stellar new show that, while still working out a few kinks, is proving itself to be the best new show of the season! With all the junk that is on the television these days, this show is quite refreshing. The show is a critical hit, though not one with the viewers. This is likely because of the misleading previews which made the show look like a new Big City version of Lost. The Nine is not like Lost, and as a fan of both shows, I believe that The Nine definitely brings new things to the table.

The Nine deals, simply put, with a bank robbery. When 2 brothers decide to rob a bank, they are sure that it "will all be over in 5 minutes." However, when things go wrong, the brothers decide to change the plan. 52 hours later, the 9 survivors finally emerge from the bank, changed from their traumatizing hostage ordeal. The show focuses mostly on The Nine's lives after the robbery.

The Nine is definitely character-driven, unlike its comparison show, Lost, which, although character plays a vital role, is driven primarily by some crazy plot line. The Nine leaves the events of the bank robbery a mystery, making the viewer wonder what happened in there, what caused the characters to change situations the way they have, and who was really innocent or guilty. Bonds have been made and broken, but no matter what, The Nine are all connected after what they went through.

The acting is believable and genuine. The actors bring their emotions out fully, and there is not one stand-out performance in comparison to another. They are all fantastic. They make the viewer really feel attached to the characters.

The script is realistic, if not a little cheesy at times, but is heartfelt nonetheless. With time, I know this show could turn out to be something big, if given the chance.

All in all, The Nine is intriguing, and heartbreaking. Unfortunately, so few people are realizing this, so the show is in danger of cancellation. I'm just going to enjoy this rare gem while I can!

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

We have all seen movies about hostage situations over certain places, but The Nine takes it up where usually others stop. In the very beginning, the plot chooses not to start with the actual bank robbing event (well, it actually does), but after the robbers enter the bank, the next cut is the saving sequence. How come you ask? The next 35 minutes of the pilot travels through the repercussions of the event, seeing every character very deeply changed, and having meetings and grief together (about the only one person loss at the 52 hour event.). The story has considerable amount of questions hanging in the air, which will surely be answered in the episodes. If the audience is intrigued about what may have happened in the bank, they'll watch the season.

I think it'll work and we won't see another cancel...