We watch... so you don't have to.
Exciting News About Inevitably Cancelled Shows!
I was already interested in Drive, Fox's upcoming Lost-meets-Cannonball Run series, on the strength of creator Tim Minear. He's the sharp, imaginative writer who's had a hand in Angel, Firefly, Wonderfalls, and The Inside, fine shows all. And the premise -- a gaggle of strangers in a mysterious cross-country road race, each with their own motives -- sounds clever enough.
I got more interested when I heard that Minear would be reteaming for the series with Nathan Fillion, the lanky, charisma-intensive star of Firefly. The erstwhile Captain Mal Reynolds has proven himself adept at comedy and drama alike; it's hard enough for an actor to be either hilarious or terrifying, much less both within the confines of the same role, but Fillion did it time and again on Firefly, and he deserves better than the box-office ignominy in which he's been toiling since Serenity, the big-screen version of Firefly went lamentably belly-up. Any chance to see him back on TV on a weekly basis is definitely a good thing.
And I was probably far happier than I ought to be to learn today that Amy Acker, who did amazing work in a dual role on Angel, and was pretty much the single best thing about Alias's fifth season not named "Jack Bristow," will be recurring on Drive as well, as the missing wife of Fillion's character. To put it simply, "too much Amy Acker" is not a phrase I recognize as part of the English language.
And then, of course, I remembered that Drive is a show from Tim Minear, on Fox. Which, given Fox's habit of ruthlessly disposing of all three of Minear's previous shows before they had any chance to gain anything even remotely resembling an audience, means that the network has pretty much already decided to cancel it.
Ah, well -- take heart, Tim. I'll be watching. For all four episodes before Fox yanks Drive for, oh, Family Guy reruns, or Yet Another Inexpensive Hour Of: Let's Make Fun of People Who Can't Sing, And Also, Paula Abdul Is Totally Drunk.
Heck, go ahead and put me down for a DVD box set, would you? Just make sure it contains numerous, Acker-centric deleted scenes.
