TV REVIEW: ‘The Nine’ only worth a five
ABC’s new serial drama, “The Nine” is about nine people who are cursing themselves for not using the ATM, because the bank they are inside is about to be robbed.
I admit when I first started hearing about this show, I dismissed it as another bank robbery/hostage situation plot line that seems to be quite prevalent in movies and television. But “The Nine” does it differently, alas not effectively.
The pilot episode for “The Nine” is one of the most confusing ones I’ve seen this year. There is a botched bank robbery that was supposed to take five minutes, which ended up being a 52-hour standoff. But we as the audience have no idea what happened in those 52 hours.
It all seems very well done and to be very well thought out. But, to what end? I’m guessing we’re going to get snippets of what happened in the bank during those 52 hours over the rest of the season, and learn how each of these nine people deal with what happened to them.
The ensemble cast is stacked with seasoned actors, Chi McBride (“I, Robot”), Scott Wolf (“Party of Five”), Tim Daly (“Basic”), and Kim Raver (“24”).
The problem with the pilot episode was that after all the bank robbery fireworks at the beginning, the rest of the episode seemed to fizzle out, until the inevitable cliff hanger left at the end, which, as I’ve had time to think about it, isn’t much of a cliff hanger really.
ABC is slotting “The Nine” to premiere after the third season of “Lost” premieres, hoping to catch its fan base. If after you watch “Lost” and feel the need to do something – anything else at all – you should probably go and do that.
“The Nine” premieres Wednesday, Oct. 4, at 9 p.m. on ABC.
Aaron Peck is a sophomore in computer science and The Statesman’s TV critic. Send comments to aaronpeck@cc.usu.edu.