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The Official "Drive" Thread

Recoil

Recoil

Regular
So is anyone going to watch this show tonight? I admit its a bit of a stretch posting about a show like this on a Sci-Fi board, but there is one reason I am watching this show. Ok two reasons:

1) Nathan Fillion! Gotta love any show that has Captain Tightpants in it. I watched Slither just because he was in it, and really enjoyed the movie (which can't be taken seriously, which was its point).

2) Tim Minear is producing. He did Firefly along with Fillion, as well as Buffy and Angel. Even though this seems to be a Fox all-action type show, I have this feeling with him running things, there will be more to this than meets the eye, and that he may slip something good past those Fox executives.

Of course it could suck too, who knows, but I'm thinking it won't. So the 2 hour premier is on in about 15min and I'm going to check it out. I'll let you know what I think...
 
I caught the, erm, "first part" of the premiere (the second part is tomorrow??), so I could post a well-thought-out reply/analysis about the show...

...but where's the fun in that??

So some short thoughts:

- Not nearly enough Nathan Fillon. Yes, I know, it's an ensemble show, but seriously, he rocks. Needs more of him. Putting him into a spaceship is optional, but would also be beneficial.

- At the same time, is it just me or does Fillon seem to be both the best and worst fit for the part? I mean, he's perfect as the way-too-serious-mad-at-the-world, cynical-as-hell guy, but before the show, he was supposed to be all happy in a happy marriage with a wife and stuff, and seriously, can *anybody* see Fillon in a situation like that?? What would he scowl at?? :)

- The FX guys need to get their act together. Not only were several shots very obviously and badly composited (even my wife, who almost never notices these things even when I point them straight out, thought they were distracting), I noticed a few times where they would push in from a wide shot outside the lead car, clearly showing a car behind them following, only to have the car *not* visible in the rear window when they flipped to the interior (and no, the shot was too fast for the other car to suddenly have swerved out of the way; it was a plain and simple oversight, and it happened more than once).

Otherwise, it was...interesting, I'll give it that. Will be watching it again tomorrow, at least. Anybody know how long this show is supposed to run for? It seems unlikely the show could go on once everyone reaches the "finish" line.

Spoiler for Pilot episode:
Including the drive to Rome, FL--which granted isn't shown but is supposed to be reached by sunset--that's about 700 miles distance traveled in an hour long show. Given that it's about 3,400 miles from corner to corner of the U.S. (cross-country race), and assuming the race owners don't send them on a worst-case zigzag path across the continent, that's only 5 episodes worth of travelling! If we only take what they *showed* in the episodes, then that's about 13 episodes, or one short season, worth. Figure some zig-zagging or stretching could *maybe* stretch it to 20 episodes or so? Or is this meant to be a limited-run series, which certainly would seem a better fit?

OK, that's kinda sad that I just worked all that math out. Oh well, better than working on taxes... :)


--mcn
 
OK,

Watched the 2 hour premier Sunday and the 1 hour premier follow-on last night, and I like the show so far from what I have seen.

It is pretty clear that there is a lot more going on with these characters than a simple road race. To quote Malcom Reynolds from Firefly "It seems everyone has a tale to tell." I think the casting for everyone in the show was done well. The race concept itself (being something that has gone on in secret for decades) is very interesting, and there has to be more there, as well as who is behind it, and why. There HAS to be more to why, because it shouldn't be hard to get people to want to race for $32M....many people would be willing. So why do they have to force people to race? Why these people? Why the people they have chosen every year? There is clearly something there.

We are really getting to see the bad-ass Nathan Fillion role come out early in this one, which I like. I think he is going to be fantastic. This could be his breakout TV role --- if the show survives.

And, speaking of which, I'm not 100% convinced that this is the sort of show that will draw big numbers on Fox to be honest. I like it, theres a lot to it, and there is also some simple action and fun, but I'm doubtful that this show will be a breakout hit like Fox expects of all of their shows. I'm afraid it might be a "one season and out" but who knows, I've been surprised before. I think this should do better than Prisonbreak, so it might have a chance if enough people tune in and like what they see...
 
I just watched the first two online (Fox has a MySpace page with all the eps. posted) and I like it so far. I'll keep following it for now.
 
Yesterday's episode was great as well. We find out more about the race background and and find new interesting twists they throw at the drivers --- and see that they are willing to go to SERIOUS lengths to ensure that people do what they are supposed to (or stay out if they are not invited)

Yet at the same time there is some good side-jokes and humor, and well written timing. I laughed out loud when they were talking about the Bank Robbery, and Winston Salazar was talking like this big bad ass about how he was going to march in there, take over, and if anyone got out of line he would smack them around, then you hear in the background "Double layer latte with extra foam" and he goes "oh that's mine" and runs to pick up his coffee from the Starbucks like place.

Show definitely has promise. Hopefully it gets its due. I don't think I would be watching it now without Fillion and especially Minear at the helm. I figure those two together would put something decent on TV.
 
(Caught up now...)

Yeah, I'm only watching for Minear and Fillion... but Minear's already brought on board one former Firefly alum (Richard Brooks, Jubal Early in Firefly and the Hastings cop in Drive), and Amy Acker was on Angel, so I'm expecting a lot of other old friends from Whedon shows to put in an appearance. If it goes long enough, it's possible Whedon himself might stop by to play, although he's not as comfortable working in other people's universes.

So the checkpoints are running up the east coast. Wouldn't be surprised if it zigzags northa and south a bit.
 
Yea I caught the Jubal Early guy in the premier right off, by his voice. It was funny because my brother, his wife, and I were out having dinner and drinks the night before, and we got into a conversation about Jubal Early in that episode of Firefly. Then the next night, there he was in Drive!
 
I recognized the voice, too. He's great, and seems like he'll be a recurring character, which should be fantastic.
 
Wow.

4 Episodes.

I feel like I am going to start boycotting Fox. I've got news for them, Drive didn't cause 24 to slip in the ratings...24 caused 24 to slip in the ratings, and it just didn't help Monday night's at all. They are so fucking cancel happy. There is really no point in investing time on any show that is on their network anymore, because it won't last.
 
Things like this really do make me wonder why people shop shows to networks like Fox. CW could have maybe picked it up, or many other networks including Cable networks like USA that are always looking for good character-driven shows.

So if you are Tim Minear, why do you go back to Fox? I just don't get it. I'm sure there have to be some financial benefits, but it seems to me the odds of success are so small, you are better to get a show picked up for a few seasons on another network.

Hell if shows like Andromeda can run for years at a time on Saturday afternoons on UPN....anything is possible.

I just don't understand why the same people seem to go back to the same network, and end up with the same result. Try USA, WB/CW, etc.....
 
This is yet another example why the only shows I watch on broadcast TV anymore are Jericho and LOST.

I was really getting into Invasion and The Nine, but those were cancelled.

Most people are entertained by shit like Grey's Anatomy, Desperate Housewives and American Idol. Says a lot about most people these days.
 
I'll admit, I thought, and perhaps said, that while I think this show had good potential, I was always skeptical as to if it would be the type of show to attract viewers. I doubted it would get much farther than Firefly did on Fox. I didn't think it would only last "4" episodes though.

There is another thing that just boggles my mind about this. Think about that for just one second. 4 episodes. And they considered the 2 hour premier 2 episodes. So what we got was 2 episodes on a Sunday, 1 episode the very next day on Monday, then 1 episode a week later on a Monday.

That was it.

Fox made its decision about a show and its ratings in 8 days. 8 freaking days! Hell there are a lot of reasons ratings could have been low. NBA playoffs are on right now. There could be a million reasons. Just how much accurate viewer data and trending do you think you can get from 8 days?

That completely blows my mind. All that time and effort in putting together a show, and spending airtime and money to promote it, and you pull the plug in 8 days. That might be the saddest example of Fox mentality that I have ever seen....

(PS I think its funny there are probably more posts in this thread about its cancellation than dicussing the show when its on the air...probably a reason it didn't surivive. But still...only 8 days?!?!)
 
Recoil said:
(PS I think its funny there are probably more posts in this thread about its cancellation than dicussing the show when its on the air...probably a reason it didn't surivive. But still...only 8 days?!?!)
Click to expand...

There's more now for the same reason that 8 days is too short: it wasn't enough time for lots of people to actually find out about the show and start watching it. I've seen the same comment over and over on various boards about people who *just* found out about the show, right as it was being cancelled. I mean, it's not like Fox promoted it at all after the premiere (or even had much of a chance to), so word of mouth was only *just* starting to take effect.

So I think it's more sad than funny, personally, but yeah I get what you mean :~)

--mcn
 
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