only a week to go and we can find out if it all works

rivergirl | April 09, 18:28 CET

"We have a lot of faith in 'Drive,' [Fox entertainment president Peter Liguori] said in January. "It's bold."

I'll believe that statement when I see that Fox has ordered and aired a full 22 episodes. But thanks for saying it, all the same. Best wishes to Nathan, Tim, and all concerned.

Maeve | April 09, 18:28 CET

Man, I remember the old days when I used to maximize effect all the time. Sometimes thrice a day!

zeitgeist | April 09, 18:30 CET

I don't remember yesterday. That, however, was probably due to excessive amounts of chocolate and caffeine.

Traveler's first episode is great, I thought.

Also, for any people in Canada lurking, Drive airs there first -- Friday @ 8pm EST on CTV for 2 hour premiere.

gossi | April 09, 18:40 CET

Before I forget: we'll do a discussion thread for Sunday's episode here but bear in mind future episodes will be discussed over at our .org sister site.

Simon | April 09, 18:44 CET

And as an addendum, "includsing" is their spelling error not mine. Although it looks like it should be a word... maybe it could be the present participle of includse, which of course is to maximize effect. As in "Clint is includsing the hell out of his posting on Whedonesque"

writer | April 09, 18:58 CET

Holy crap, we canucks get it first? What bizarro world did I wake up to this morning?

It sounds like they made an astute call, changing the opening sequence from hell-race to backstory. I think if I had just tuned in and saw car crashes and explosions with no one I cared about involved, it would have gotten boring pretty quickly.

Resolute | April 09, 19:18 CET

*Along the way, "Drive" got a major tune-up. An elaborate five-minute opening racing scene was scrapped in favor of jumping quickly into the characters' backstories.

"We felt the audience needed to be invested in the characters, so when you put them in the middle of the action, viewers would care for them," Minear says.*

Isn't this what Joss tried to tell FOX about Firefly?!

*To maximize the effect, the plot in the pilot was condensed, and several roles, includsing the lead, were tweaked and recast.*

Good call!

madmolly | April 09, 19:30 CET

Quick, check the grocery stores -- do you have any shrimp?

Personally, I'm heartened by how often these days I'm seeing we-don't-want-to-frustrate-the-audience quotes. I never got started on Lost because I could easily foresee that getting dragged out beyond all sense, and that is, from all I've heard, exactly what's happening. So yes -- bring on the character work and manageable story arcs and a certain actor I really don't mind seeing a whole lot of. ...er, ahem.

(Meanwhile, all of the above could be translated as "OMG I CAN POST NOW!" Yay.)

Casira | April 09, 20:57 CET

The thing that strikes me about the article is that most new shows of any stripe fall by the wayside, to equate serial drama with failing shows is just daft (i.e. it seems probable that even if most of the shows weren't serial dramas, roughly the same proportion would have failed).

Of those mentioned I only actually saw the 'The Nine' pilot and thought there was some nice character stuff in there - and a pretty decent cast - BUT they took away a lot of the suspense by showing which characters made it out of the bank too soon. What 'Heroes' has done so well is to show character development (how good was episode 17, 'Company Man' ? Best yet IMO) but not skimp on plot twists and turns either since serial drama is also about what happens next and not just who it happens to (being clear from quite early on that the destruction of New York would be resolved in the first season was a smart move too, given the backlash against 'Lost').

Saje | April 09, 21:25 CET

I love it.

barboo | April 10, 01:56 CET

I don't need another show to watch right now, but I'm going to watch Drive anyway. Tim+Nathan=good times.

And as for Lost...be so thankful you didn't get sucked into that one. It makes me want to bang my head against the wall. Answer some effing questions already, J.J. Abrams!

mysoulisbrown | April 10, 03:35 CET

Count me in with the "Lost lost me really early on" crowd. And besides, once Criminal Minds started in the same time slot, it would have been no contest.
Drive, next Sunday, two hours, Nathan ... Yay!!! Sorry, it's 3:30 AM here, massive insomnia attack :)

Shey | April 10, 17:30 CET

If we are serious about keeping Fox aware of our interest in Drive during the hiatus then that probably means posting messages on the official Fox forum for the show *shudder*

malcolm | April 10, 20:12 CET

malcolm, it is mostly populated by Prison Break fans that some of us are trying to convince to watch TV's hit Drive.

TamaraC | April 10, 20:44 CET

malcolm said:



Oh joy. Well, I'll make the sacrifice :)

Tried the quotey thing again & still can't figure it out. Probably because I have no idea what is meant by "style that text by adding the style=quote setting". Don't even know what it means to "style a text", much less what is a "style=quote" setting, or how I "add it".
Yes, it's a blatant plea for help :( What, no "how to for dummies" page?" :)

Shey | April 11, 05:35 CET