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It’s an ensemble hourlong – from Hank Steinberg ("Without a Trace") and K.J. Steinberg ("Judging Amy") - about nine survivors of a botched bank robbery turned traumatic, bloody 52-hour siege. Most of the incident transpires off-screen in the pilot. We get hints of what happened, and presumably everything will be revealed – slowly – as the season wears on.
Thing is, the clues are maybe kinda big, and it doesn’t seem too tricky to piece together what transpired. And if I’m right, what went on isn’t really much we haven’t seen in the movies and in other network dramas. (I could be wrong.)
I don’t usually talk a lot about TV directors, but Alex Graves – a veteran of “The Practice,” “Ally McBeal,” “Sports Night” and “The West Wing” – does a spectacular, eye-opening job with the fast-moving first few acts, which depict the moments leading up to the robbery and that robbery’s dramatic immediate aftermath.
But when the dust settles, and the nine shell-shocked dramatis personae get back to their regular lives, I came to realize that the characters themselves are not terribly interesting or original once they’re past the crisis.
The pilot leaves viewers with questions, but I can’t say I found these questions – or the nine characters - compelling enough to seek out the answers in subsequent installments. They certainly don’t compel me to ditch NBC’s superior new “24”-like drama, “Kidnapped,” which airs opposite.
But what matters Herc’s opinion?
The Washington Post says:
… the story of a two-bit bank robbery and its effect on half-witted people. Okay, they're not all half-witted, but a nerdy fussbudget named Egan Foote, played by John Billingsley, is so aggressively abrasive and gabby that he becomes more prominent in the story than he ought to be -- annoying to such a degree that I wrote "Foote, Foote, Foote, Foote!" in my notes, and I don't think I was quoting dialogue.
I also see, underlined and in red, one large word: "Agonizing." It looks as though I was only halfway through the pilot at that point.…
USA Today gives it four (out of four) stars and says:
… a satisfying, intriguingly complex ABC drama that emerges from the season's serialized pack as the best new show of the year.… Through excellently written and performed small exchanges, the show instantly hooks us into these characters. And in clever ways, the show plays off our hopes that we would behave well in a similar situation — and our fears that we wouldn't. …
Newsday says:
… "The Nine" may well be the best of the crop - smart, clever and especially wise to the ways of this genre - but the challenge remains the same. This is work - admittedly often pleasurable work, but come 10 p.m. next Wednesday, we've got to do it all over again. … What makes "The Nine" so compelling is everything else: The small acts - glances, chats, and (in one instance) a stolen kiss - that occur among the nine long after their ordeal is over. All is informed, shaped, and driven by what happened over those 52 hours, which will be reconstructed in a series of flashbacks. …
The San Jose Mercury News says:
… riveting… The fragility of life -- how a moment of crisis can alter people's perceptions of their own lives, people they know and strangers they meet -- is the core of ``The Nine.'' For 52 hours during a botched bank robbery, a group of strangers is held hostage. When they are finally rescued, they realize their lives have been altered permanently and there is a strong bond among them, both for better and for worse.
Variety says:
… Beyond the central gimmick that will tease out what happened inside the bank, show's real strength lies in its deftly chosen cast … The challenge, structurally, will be finding a way to keep these characters interacting (logic that already seems a bit strained in the pilot) as the incident drifts into the distance. … out of the starting gate, anyway, "The Nine" is almost what this show rates on a scale of one to 10, which is about as close to truth in advertising as a series prototype usually gets.
The Hollywood Reporter says:
… deserves credit for advancing the art of TV storytelling to new heights, both complex and rewarding. In this series about bank hostages, creators Hank and K.J. Steinberg play with time like it was a Wiffle ball, making it lurch in different directions as it travels on a spellbinding path. This serialized drama demands your attention but rewards it, as well, with richly textured characters and multiple mysteries. …
10 p.m. Wednesday. ABC.
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