'Tis Lousy to Have Loved and Lost... : 2006-2007's TV Casualties Part 4

THE NINE

Synopsis: A bank robbery goes haywire over two terrifying days, affecting the lives of nine of those involved.

What Worked: Very, very little. This is the first show on this list to get the Media Whore Stamp of Astronomical Disapproval (the SAD to you), and one of the few shows from the 2006-2007 I outright despised. It had a good premise, I'll give you that. Looking back on a botched robbery to see what went wrong, who double-crossed whom and the buried secrets exposed sounded like a sweet idea. There was quite a cast involved, including Chi McBride ("Boston Public"), Tim Daly ("Wings") and Kim Raver (Audrey Raines on "24"). Serialized dramas were making a comeback, at least in the pilot stage, and this went along with the networks' bold new strategy that treated the audience with some respect.

What Didn't Work: Oh man. The show decided to go a different route than the natural idea (at least, naturally to me. Instead of pulling a "24" and dealing with the crime in a near-real time basis (22 episodes, each representing about two hours, would have made for a nail-biting show), the program decided to focus on what happened AFTER the robbery, and how people were coping with the shock, the publicity and the already-mentioned revelations. Boo-fucking-hoo. We were treated each episode to victims asking what it all meant, why they had to be there, and what they learned from being held at gunpoint. It's TV. Show it, don't say it.

As far as the well-chosen ensemble went, the only character I had any sympathy for was the schlubby office clerk Egan (character actor John Billingsley) who took the hero status from the robbery and decided to change his life for the better. Instead of wining, he tried to take the show in a new direction, one where nobody else seemed interested in venturing.

I did appreciate doctor Scott Wolf's ("Everwood") final decision to kill off one of the criminals in his own hospital by poisoning him, but it was too little, too late.

Why Not Enough People Watched: People give shows like "Lost" and "Jericho" shit for not giving us enough answers in each episode, but "The Nine" was one that had no answers for us. Absolutely zero. If I get bored with a TV show, and I mean truly struggle hitting the Play button on my TiVo remote, you KNOW America has already done the same. It didn't even last 10 episodes.

Overall Series: 2 (out of 10)

Final 2006-2007 Neilsen Rating: #72 (8.1 million viewers)

Fun Fact: Camille Guaty, who played Franny Rios on the show, joined so after quitting her supporting character on "Prison Break" as Maricruz, Sucre's beloved finacee, being the second person to leave said "PB" character behind. They were to replace her with a third actress, but the cancellation of "The Nine" allowed her to return in 2007.