Wednesday, October 04, 2006

Fall TV Top 5: The Nine

The fourth new show of the season that hooked me with just one episode is The Nine. (And based on recent news, we won't be seeing #5 until midseason now. Which is hopefully good for the show, but means I'm really doing a Fall TV Top 4.)

The Nine is one of the season's heavily hyped elaborate "high concept" shows. Nine people are taken hostage in a bank for 52 hours. We'll see what happened during those 52 hours over the course of the season while also seeing how the event changed their lives and created a unique bond among them.

So yes there are flashbacks that will tell us more about the characters, yes there's a large ensemble cast and yes this directly follows Lost on ABC's schedule. Unlike last season's Invasion, which never really caught on, I think The Nine has a good shot at turning into a hit. And if Lost continues to be as frustrating as it was in its second season, and The Nine keeps up the high quality of its pilot...well we might even see a dramatic change in what ABC's most popular Wednesday series is.

The cast of The Nine is populated with familiar TV faces: Chi McBride (Boston Public), Kim Raver (24, Third Watch), Tim Daly (Wings, Eyes), Scott Wolf (Party of Five, Everwood), Lourdes Benedicto (24, ER, NYPD Blue), John Billingsley (Star Trek: Voyager), Owain Yeoman (Kitchen Confidential) and Camille Guaty (Prison Break). And the pilot does a good job of balancing them all. How these characters develop will be critical, since the hostage situation can only be expected to provide material for a full season (let's hope).

But no matter where it leads The Nine is well worth checking out in the early goings.

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