Thursday, April 26, 2007

Drive (He Said) Running On Fumes

I'd started working up a post last week about Tim Minears new series, 'Drive', and the post title above was the one I was working from since the show wasn't really doing it for me. Fortunately, I didn't get too far into it because the series was yanked by Fox this week.



So instead of analyzing why it worked (or didn't work), let's play a game of 'spot the punny' in this following announcement of the shows demise...a marvelously over-the-top rendition of 'Variety speak'.

'Drive' runs out of gas
Fox parks drama after four episodes

Fox is pulling 'Drive' from its lineup after the drama got disappointing ratings in first four outings. Fox has impounded "Drive," steering the show off the network highway after four episodes.

Despite decent reviews, "Drive" quickly stalled, averaging just a 2.3 rating and 6 share among adults 18-49, and 5.6 million viewers overall. Monday night's "Drive" didn't help matters, coming in fifth place for the hour (1.5/5) and driving "24" to record lows, dropping Fox to fourth for the night.

Having shoved a Denver boot on "Drive," Fox has now gassed up "House" repeats in the Monday 8 p.m. slot. Net is still mulling whether to burn off the last two remaining segs of "Drive" on air, or stream the final segs online.

Fox revved up six segs of "Drive," which revolved around a group of people forced to take part in an illegal cross-country race. Nathan Fillion stars.


That deserves some kind of prize...seriously.

Variety speak makes me smile.

p.s. Hockey pool update over at Jim's place.




p.p.s. Happy birthday twins...from daddy.



6 comments:

Kelly J. Crawford said...

I sent series co-star Nathan Fillion my condolences this morning. I actually liked the show and was hoping it would at least get a 13 ep order.

Diane Kristine Wild said...

Variety speak makes me SCREAM.

Good Dog said...

Saw the first three hours of Drive and it seriously didn't do it for me either. Which was a shame because I love Minear's previous work - especially The Inside.

Just didn't connect with any characters and didn't care about them.

The whole 'clever' repeated camera move from the exteriors to interiors of the cars turned into the equivalent of dead air.

The Courtney Love clone that gets into Fillion's car was too irritating.

I spent most of the race scenes looking at the other cars to see how many were reuses. And, okay so most of the road stuff had to be shot outside LA, but if you're supposed to be in the Florida Panhandle, don't have mountains in the background.

Of course, if I had got involved in the story none of that would have mattered a damn. Which was a shame.

Ace puns. Er... not really. But that's the Fourth Estate for you.

Emily Blake said...

Wow. Someone should take that guy out behind the dumpster and beat him with reeds.

I thought Drive was great. But oh well. That's how it goes.

I'm going to miss that hot Latino criminal who, for some reason, was named Winston.

ME said...

I thought it was solidly OK, but frankly, I wasn't looking for high art in this one. The Amazing Race meets Cannonball Run would have suited me fine.

Happy birthday, twins! Is there a par-tay involved?

wcdixon said...

Yep...one par-tay down, one more to go - wheeee!