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'The Nine': Something's brewing...
Previously on The Nine: Um, uh, er, I don't really remember.
It's been a while, people. At first, when I heard ABC would be burning
off unaired episodes of this canceled show, I thought this was the one
about the master criminal; but nope, that was Smith. Then I thought, "Oh, this is the one about the kidnapped kid!" But nope, that's Kidnapped.
Then I thought this was the one with Taye Diggs and the déjà vu
and ... well, you get the picture. The Nine was one of many heavily-hyped
shows that fell off the radar during the course of the 2006-2007
television season. After a fantastic pilot, the show stumbled for a few
episodes, bled viewers, and by the time it finally found its narrative
footage, was pulled like Lindsey Lohan from an upcoming M.A.D.D.
fundraising event.
Thing is, we should have seen this coming: this show was a Tim Daly drama on ABC. And that combination never, ever works out well. His private-eye show Eyes died a quick death in the 2005 season, and The Nine suffered a similar fate. Tim Daly and ABC go together like Nathan Fillion and Fox: poorly. (In short: don't hold your breath for a full season of the upcoming Private Practice.) For the few of us still there when The Nine was pulled off the air, however, hopefully the burning off of the unaired episodes will give us some closure as to what exactly happened during the failed bank heist.
Tonight's episode, the 8th in the series overall for the four of you at home keeping score, was entitled "Turning Point," quite possibly made the best case yet that this show would have been a fantastic one-season, thirteen-episode series. A show like The Nine, while high concept, simply doesn't have enough story within said concept to stretch across multiple years. Given how many shows get canceled on a yearly basis (see the above, abbreviated list), why more networks don't pull the FX model out of the bag and give it a whirl is beyond me.
In the pilot episode, we saw the very beginning and very end of a failed heist. In between lies quite a bit of drama, but not four to five seasons worth. The show seemed to know this, as the following weeks showed a minute, maybe three of those in-between events, frustrating viewers as we watched the survivors mope through their lives with survivors' guilt. The show's strongest in those in-between hours, and mercifully, "Turning Point" (referring to security guard Tom's death, the "turning point" of the hostage crisis in the eyes of DA) was chock full of bank-y goodness.
The primary narrative thrust of the episode concerned the survivors
gathering in the DA's office to answer to the lawsuit presented by
Judith, widow of Security Guard Tom. Poor Tom. A Vietnam vet, origami
expert, and receiver of blunt trauma to the head so forceful that it
eventually caused spinal fluid to leak out of his nose, Tom's death
dovetailed with the ladies' efforts to drug Randall's coffee with
Franny's ecstasy. Apparently, the women of The Nine were banking on the
fact that Randall had never been to Burning Man.
What followed was what I assumed would be a twist on Kurasowa's famous film "Rashomon," with the overlapping retelling of Tom's death forming an impossible-to-penetrate mosaic that would confound and frustrate. But this was not to be. While Felicia can't remember a darn thing about the day, everyone else has perfect, consistent clarity about the events surrounding Origami Tom's death. Simply unbelievable. I don't think my fiancée and I could recreate our last trip to Dunkin Donuts as seamlessly as these people recreated these all-important moments from months ago. I mean, deciding between the glazed donut and the éclair is stressful, to be sure, but not as stressful as being held at gunpoint with S.W.A.T. about to come in guns a blazin'.
Randall shoots Tom in the bathroom, in order to stop him from convulsing. As problem-solving goes, Randall kind of opts for the most extreme option. I'm sure when Randall was in pre-school, when confronted with a coloring book and a box of crayons, rather than choose Burnt Sienna or Maize, he simply set the school on fire. That's the Randall Way. Officer Nick, Hero for Us All, Defender of Truth, Justice, and Really Tight T-Shirts, correctly infers that the FBI will be ready to storm the gates now that Randall's gone all trigger happy. This would be Very Bad For the Hostages, in that Randall could hide behind the counters with the hostages shot in the cross-fire between the FBI and Burnt Sienna Man.
The solution to the problem yielded an absolutely gorgeous visual moment, as the hostages, in another turning point, held hands while standing in front of the glass windows at the front of the bank. Shot from the back, these people were silhouetted in the brightest of white lights. While taking notes on the show, I typed in, "Oooh, very Close Encounters of the 3rd Kind," and as I typed that, I swear, the flood lights blinked on and off, leading me to wonder if Richard Dreyfuss had been cast as the FBI liaison. Their efforts to essentially stonewall the FBI secured their length within the bank, but at least bought the hostages a few hours in which to live. Well played, you Nine. Well played.
In the present time, two more turning points happened. The first
concerned Kathryn Hale, played by Hollywood's favorite hostage victim,
Kim Raver. (Between this and her predicament in Season 6 of 24,
Ms. Raver has this wounded psyche thing down pat at this point.) Her
boyfriend/potential fiancée has been grooming himself for the position
of District Attorney for years, only to be undercut by the Mayor's
desire to place Kathryn in the driver seat instead, due to her positive
public image in the wake of the hostage crisis. Did I say "potential
fiancée?" I meant "ex-boyfriend." That guy's on Match.com as we speak,
I'm telling you. I just saw the headline on his profile: "Single
white prosecutor ISO woman who won't steal dream job from under me
after years of passionless sex. Also? Must love dogs."
Speaking of ex-boyfriends, Lizzie found out her ex-boyfriend Jeremy is now with Franny, aka, "The Future Mrs. Ryan McGee." I wanted to root against Jeremy's relationship with Franny, in that it conflicts with my desire to marry her, move into a small starter home, and make a life together, but once Lizzy pulled the "I know that I dumped you, but I'm still going to bust your balls about seeing someone else," I was firmly on Team Jeranny. Or Team Frannemy. (Man, why can't they be named Ben and Jennifer, or Brad and Angelina? Those combos I can use.) On principle alone, I have to stand with them now, even though I'm singing Rick Springfield-esque tunes every time I watch this show. ("You know I wish that I had Scott Wolf's girl/Why can't I find a woman like that?")
The show itself ended ominously, with a new figure stating, "Kates and Rios coming your way," and a mysterious van with the word "Castleton" on the side trailing a few of the survivors on their way to the diner. There were hints before the show's demise that forces greater than we'd seen were tied into the bank robbery, and now those forces are potentially going to be revealed before the show leaves the airwaves for good.
Are you happy to see this show back on the air? Would this show have worked better as a miniseries/shortened season than as a "normally" scheduled drama? And why did Tom die when there was a perfectly good Egan Foote ready for the offing?
It would have been nice to have ABC do this months ago when someone might have been able to remember what happened previously, but I am looking forward to seeing the remaining EPS. And without a doubt, the networks should look for ways to give shows a a chance, and shortening the the season or like you suggested making mini series out of good concepts would make sense. Yanking a show after only a few episodes makes no sense to me.
wilsonclan | Aug 1, 2007 10:35:24 PM | #I am very happy to see the show back and yes, it would have been perfect as a one season or miniseries thing.
I'm just excited ABC is having the courtesy of running the eps that were produced so we can have some sense of closure.
And don't pick on Egan - he wasn't dying and if he was dead he wouldn't be able to do his attack on Randall a la the pilot.
Crystal | Aug 2, 2007 1:53:30 AM | #"narrative footage"? Interesting malaprop. File under "the perils of blogging without an editor" ;-)
Jon88 | Aug 2, 2007 6:54:20 AM | #PS: Not sure where I read it, but according to (somebody somewhere), don't get your hopes up about achieving any closure by the end of the burn-off.
Jon88 | Aug 2, 2007 6:58:21 AM | #I think Lizzie is the key to the whole fiasco, and she's part of every single detail we don't know. From the moment she spoke Spanish I was like yep she's connected to Eva's ex in jail where she would have met all the robbers. Also the preview shows her from another time speaking with one of them so I'm guessing she's not so innocent and being a counsellor she's probably spoken with troubled connections before
CHAD | Aug 2, 2007 8:38:26 AM | #I'm sad THE NINE got the boot. But I am happy to see the remaining episodes.
Adrian | Aug 2, 2007 9:25:25 AM | #Thank you ABC for showing the unaired episodes. I, too, think the premise of a USA-like series or even a miniseries would have worked. It's so frustrating to watch new programming in the fall, only to have some network Bozo decide after as little as a few weeks that it's a nogo. Leave the show in place for a decent amount of time to establish an audience. P.S. Noone watches the commercials anyway.
Anita | Aug 2, 2007 12:52:14 PM | #I was excited to see The Nine back on TV last night. This show has great acting and writing, but never found a big audience last fall.
However, it's almost been 8 months since the last episode aired (November 8, 2006), so I couldn't even remember any of the characters' names. I kept referring to them as "Charlie Salinger", "Audrey Raines", "Maricruz", etc.
It wasn't long before I was rooting for Nick, hating on Randall, and feeling sorry for Kathryn and Lucas. Just like old times!
Paige | Aug 2, 2007 1:47:57 PM | #Happy to see The Nine back. Thought last night's episode was great. I'm hoping we can see the remaining episodes of 6 Degrees too.
dlgdogwood | Aug 2, 2007 4:48:20 PM | #I was really sorry when The Nine (and Eyes) was cancelled. I'm glad to have it back for a while. I, too, had forgotten where we left off but once the show started I was right back on board. Thanks ABC for bringing it back.
BonnieW | Aug 2, 2007 5:52:55 PM | #they waited tooooo long.. i just
dont give a crap anymore.....
short attention span....like the
rest of america...we're 30 minute people....
I was immediately hooked when "The Nine" premiered. Subsequent episodes were not quite as compelling, but I watched them all. This first return episode was powerful, pulled me right back in. I fear "heartbreak," though, as the series will merely stop, not end or conclude.
All the same, I'll be watching, and I thank ABC for, however belatedly, airing the remaining filmed episodes.
Too right. This would have been a fantastic limited series. We can but sigh "if only."
meggins | Aug 3, 2007 1:50:39 PM | #Count me in that group that loved this show, and thought it was the class of the fall crop. But it was structured like a long-form novel and American televiewers have the collective attention span of rodents.
The above poster is correct in that even after this last burn-off, we won't have any closure. I'll be watching for the stellar acting, plotting and pacing all the way to the end.
What would be nice is if the creators of this show would actually write, or commission, a novel based on their concept. At least we'd then get to see what they had in mind.
Also agree that this should have been a one-season special event, as even as much as I liked it, it clearly couldn't have gone on for multiple seasons. This would have been the perfect fit for a new TV format whose time has come: the midi-series.
righteousdude | Aug 6, 2007 10:16:06 AM | #How many more episodes after this 8th?
jan | Aug 8, 2007 8:51:29 PM | #I too was happily surprised to see this show on again the other night!
beth | Aug 10, 2007 11:32:07 AM | #Um, wasn't Daybreak (the Taye Diggs show) supposed to be limited run? ABC didn't show all the eps of that show.(And those of us with pittifully slow dial-ups with never get to see the rest of that show online either..)
Emily | Aug 10, 2007 6:56:39 PM | #I think it's ridiculous that they cancelled thsi show. but now they've cancelled it twice and i'm pissed. I can't watch any new shows on any of these stupid networks anymore because all they do is cancel the shows!!! always. they might as well stop making new ones, because they're just gonna cut em short and leave people wondering what the hell happened!!!!! i'm furious that they did a "decent" thing by having the episodes air, and then AFTER 2, cancelling it AGAIN! WTF??
Margaret | Aug 16, 2007 9:01:19 PM | #
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