Television has long been waiting for the appropriate vehicle (ha!) for a weekly dose of Nathan Fillion. And while Drive may not be of the caliber we’d hoped for, and the outlook for shirtless frolicking ain’t so hot, it does show potential for being a worthy distraction.
The show chronicles umpteen competitors in an illegal, cross-country race. They are few of a great many, and the show’s biggest weakness is the half-assed writing that most of them receive. While all the people pictured above (and several others) are part of the storytelling, most of them are annoying and even more seem completely irrelevant.
Among the most unnecessary characters is an Iraq War veteran, who, despite knowingly bailing on his tour of duty, gets awfully emotional for his army bros. He and his girlfriend are presently the most useless. Current events find their way into Drive elsewhere in the form of three sassy Katrina survivors. Though the other two apparently find a bigger role in future episodes, the only one we really know right now is played by poor Taryn Manning who’s eternally cast as white trash.
Thus far, the good writing seems to be reserved exclusively to Alex (Nathan Fillion) and Penny (Melanie Lynskey); Alex on his mission to find his missing wife (Amy Acker) and Penny trying to liberate herself from an abusive husband by winning the race. The origins of the characters are still very vague, but these are the only two who’ve been able to garner any of my interest after the first three hours.
Drive may not be as great as its concept could allow, but it does demand your constant attention. Such can rarely be said for midseason replacements or much of anything on Fox. Low ratings and mediocre reviews mean that Drive will likely go the way of most serial mysteries and disappear long before we have the slightest clue of what’s going on, but on the whim that it might make a go of it, it’s definitely worth checking out.