A Man. And His Blog.

So, this was the last episode, huh? Pretty weak for a spring finale, even for such a short replacement season like this. Even though it was interesting to see how the sponsors behind the race were somewhat revealed, the episode itself was lame, weak, free of any thrill, and the cliffhanger was not surprising, because I was expecting it. And because we already know that Kathryn (Amy Acker) was still alive.

I was actually thinking that both Rob (Riley Smith) and Ellie (Mircea Monroe) were out of the race, after missing up on appearances in the last episode. But no, Ellie was – as I thought – the one who got Rob into the race for unknown reasons, and she is actually Allan’s (Brian Bloom) partner (which was a nice WTF?!?). At least the story looks like as if the writers have prepared something with it. Especially since it looks like as if Ellie is somehow involved with the sponsors, and Rob could have soon had access to them as well, which would have been good news for Alex. But nevertheless, that doesn’t excuse the shitty attention for those two characters during the six episodes. Even Vi (Emma Stone) and John (Dylan Baker, finally in the main credits – for the last episode) had more screentime, and they just had an ugly father/daughter storyline, which doesn’t even fit into the series thriller genre. But who knows, maybe John really wants to have the last fun of his life, and took his daughter with him because of it. This way, DRIVE has a rather lighter storyline to offer, which could serve for the humor as well, after John is more a nerdy father than a normal father. Unfortunately, the connection/partnership with Ivy (Taryn Manning) would have been over after this episode, after she stole Vi’s car. How many partners did Ivy had during those six episodes? That’s kinda funny…

And here we go: Alex (Nathan Fillion), Corinna (Kristin Lehman), as well as Winston (Kevin Alejandro) and Sean (JD Pardo). First off: Of course Sean is a computer nerd and can crack the files on the flash drive (does nobody call it a USB drive anymore?), and of course they were soon after some names. Okay, that would have developed the story, but it was somehow ridiculous that Winston was totally into Alex’s plan, and didn’t even question it, just because he has $$$ in his eyeballs. No, Sean was the one who wondered why their father was one of the sponsors, and he wanted to quit the race…

The plan was actually interesting though. Finally somebody is thinking along, trying to expose the sponsors, and finally the story would have gone a bit faster, thanks to Alex’s neaty plan, Corinna behind the curtains, and the visible proof of Kathryn still being alive, waiting for Alex to come. Plus, the people behind the curtain don’t know anything about Corinna’s past. I would have expected they did know, which is why they decided to kill her off (not just because of the flash drive), but it’s a nice twist anyway.

At the end, I won’t miss DRIVE. There were some good ideas, but if you have as a series plot a cross-country road race, you better have cross-country road race scenes in it. After a while (meaning after two episodes) I had the feeling to always see the same highway and the same infamous Los Angeles TV bridge, so that didn’t really work out. Maybe realizing the idea wasn’t such a good idea after all. or Tim Minear and his team of writers could have worked on the plot, before writing the series around it. 5.5/10

Congratulations to Dylan being in the main credits

From the supernatural world into a truck

A good episode, though it’s getting ridiculous with what is all happening during the legs. The jump-start proves to be absolutely troubling, some racers are gone from the screen, while others shouldn’t have a chance left to get back in the race, and the rest is somewhat so illogical, I wonder how it could have been played out for a whole season.

The series is five episodes in, and we basically have five of our main characters out of the race – literally, with no chance of logically getting back to it. Well, maybe four, since I don’t know what’s up with Vi (Emma Stone) and where she is going. But it’s still impressive how half of the major characters were yielded and/or are kicked (killed) out of the race. And I’m impressed how the race part of the series arc is only living up in Alex’s (Nathan Fillion) story. He is the only one fully obliged to win the race, because he hopes to get Kathryn back. Not talking about Leigh (Rochelle Aytes) here, because she was a kind of awkward character this episode, and I absolutely don’t know where she would/is go/ing. Unfortunately it’s Alex’s story, which isn’t really “buyable” here. The whole situation with Gil (Mark Totty) and Det. Ehrle (Richard Brooks) was mostly over the top, and faked the thrill, because the writers weren’t able to find the thrill on the road. Instead all shit is about to wreak over Alex, just because he has a shitty past, a kidnapped wife, and some shady characters after him. Of course that makes him a major character, because the writers have chosen him to be the troublemaker of the race, but that steals the thrilling stories from the rest of the character pool.

Like Leigh. Instead of giving her a background, she suddenly is interested in the race, because Susan was killed. That’s no thrill, especially when she was “manipulated” by the actions of the people behind the race. Like Winston (Kevin Alejandro) and Sean (JD Pardo). Instead of giving them an own thrilling story, they are thrown together with Corinna (Kristin Lehman) and Alex, so that it looks “natural”, when not just Alex has to live through this crap. Like John (Dylan Baker) and Vi, who are only in this show to have a different kind of father/daughter relationship. Here I ask myself though, if John actually knows what the race is all about. Now that he saw one of the competitors is “out of the race” now, he should start suspecting that the race is deadly. But there wasn’t any kind of suspicion at the end, when he said goodbye to Leigh. The only other thrilling storyline should belong to Wendy (Melanie Lynskey), but I really don’t know how she is getting back to the race after dealing with Richard. It seems like the writers are interested in telling complete different stories than telling the story of a race (Alex’s past, Wendy’s husband), and forget that they are writing a show called DRIVE.

But some things were interesting. Mostly the connection of all the characters: Ivy (Taryn Manning) talks to Richard on the phone, Ehrle kinda figures that something big up with Alex, Winston learning more about his competition, John getting to know the race and some of the competition… 6.5/10

The quiet moment

The kill moment

The episode was alright, but it clearly showed filler. The last episode was already all about driving, talking, and getting to the finish line, with getting through all the troubles. And this time wasn’t much different from that. Instead, DRIVE was about to become a filler show, which waits with answers, until the drivers get through the finish line.

The stories weren’t really exciting. Of course the jump-start was the interesting once, since it proved that the people behind the curtains are so not on the good side (yeah, the three episodes before proved the same, but it’s getting obvious that it’s like PERSONS UNKNOWN or the people behind CUBE [if they actually were people]). The idea with letting Alex (Nathan Fillion) live out his past was neat though, and I hope there’s something to see of that in the next two episodes. After all, I like the bad Alex more than the other Alex from two episodes ago, who was just looking for his wife. Even more, I kinda liked that he involved Winston (Kevin Alejandro) and Sean (JD Pardo) with it, though it was predictable that the bank heist would go wrong and that there would be something of a literal road bump for them. The cliffhanger of Sean about to die was okay, and everything coming before the bank heist was boring. Beginning with the discussion between Corinna (Kristin Lehman) and Alex about the catch of the jump-start, ending with the somewhat ridiculous moment of Winston and Sean losing Alex, just because he used the Marty McFly trick.

Ellie (Mircea Monroe) and Rob (Riley Smith) were alright too, and I was surprised again that they have gotten a story. But now that Rob has thrown out the phone and involuntarily given it to Susan (Michael Hyatt), I wonder what’s happen with those two in the next two episodes. The fact that they’ve had a story, but still didn’t get enough screentime was disappointing though, likewise with John (Dylan Baker) and Vi (Emma Stone), who were basically absent for the whole episode.

Wendy (Melanie Lynskey) and Ivy (Taryn Manning) were annoying too. So, Ivy pulled the gun on Wendy for the whole time, they were discussing for the whole time, but nobody was doing anything? Yeah, they are two chicks, probably scared as hell, but I don’t buy into the situation, when the writers let me believe that “nothing” happened between those two, even though Ivy seemed to have the gun for gazillions of hours.

And then there is Susan and Leigh (Rochelle Aytes), with former hearing God saying “You are going to win this race”. It was a bit idiotic that they continued this race, even though they were eliminated (and I was waiting for bald guy [Charles Martin Smith] to shoot the two women); it was a cop-out, when Susan told Leigh that “You were going to win this race” and not her – was she talking about Leigh for the whole time, or was she actually believing to win this race herself? If the former was the case, then the whole God talk was for nothing. The car accident was nice though, and how “unexpected” it came.

At the end, I can understand, why the audience wasn’t grabbed to this show from the beginning. The premise doesn’t work at all, and the characters are replaceable. But there is something, which keeps me to the show, and I can’t tell what it is. 5.5/10

A little road duel wouldn't be bad

Has Leigh found God?

Well, this episode was better than the last one, and this time the series premise was holding together. It’s nice that DRIVE is all about the characters, but doesn’t forget that there’s a race going on, which is both fast and dangerous.

But I didn’t like Alex’s (Nathan Fillion) story this time. So, all of a sudden he’s the guy with a shady and criminal past, and it took them only an hour or so to break Alex and let the “old Alex” resurface for this race. Seriously, I wasn’t buying it. Again, he was talking about his wife and trying to find her, and again the people behind the curtain seem to have a large interest in him. The question is why, and the question is why they wanted to have the old Alex in the race. The other question would be why it was possible to resurface the old Alex within an hour, when he was standing up to his new reputation for a couple of years now. And the final question would be, if the whole story with the bank heist and Alex’s partner killing a few people was true. I believe it was true, otherwise there wouldn’t have been the scene with Alex’s first love and the knife hidden in it – which was a cool scene by the way.

The rest of the episode wasn’t that great though. Thanks to the writers to bring Ellie (Mircea Monroe) and Rob (Riley Smith) into the center of attention and giving them a reason to be in the race. Okay, the writers actually didn’t give a reason, but I’m keen to believe that Ellie forced her husband to be in the race, and that she might be one of… the bad people? It would be interesting, if one of the partners (Corinna excluded for now, because we already had her as a suspect) would be one of the bad guys, forcing their partners to get into the race and winning. I could imagine that this was one of the upcoming side plots, if the series would have survived longer. On a side track, bringing the two characters into focus didn’t make them much likable. Instead I was annoyed of Ellie in the beginning, when she was so hyped about being in the lead.

Vi (Emma Stone) and John (Dylan Baker) were a bit lame as well. I find it boring that he keeps his sickness a secret, and that she believes they have a great time while in the race. Furthermore, I really don’t know why they are in the race. While I can think of a reason with the other characters, they are missing at the moment. Would be nice to have a reason real soon, otherwise their characters are getting ridiculous after a while. It’s like Steve Wassenfelder in DEFYING GRAVITY, who didn’t have hallucinations, because the writers weren’t thinking of anything, when they were writing the series. It”s the same here. Probably. 6.5/10

Bounty hunters can be hot too, you know

Presenting: Alex's new hot car

Like I expected, the premise of the show is not holding much. The series isn’t much of a race, instead it’s a thriller for some of the characters, who are fighting for something. Unfortunately, this episode was weaker in depicting those characters than the pilot.

Well, this episode wasn’t working through the whole not-even-40 minutes (I hate when networks cut something out of the second back-to-back episode – it happens every damn time). Alex’s (Nathan Fillion) search for his wife was annoying me a bit, since he decided to do a back-and-forth with Corinna (Kristin Lehman) and Allan (Brian Bloom), couldn’t decide who to kill (if he wanted to kill somebody), and couldn’t decide, if the disappearance of his wife is good enough to do the whole race. Here I wondered why Alex even entered the race last episode: Just because he thinks the people behind the race have his wife, he jumps in his truck, but a day later (aka this episode), he decides to step out of the race, because he doesn’t think anymore that the guys behind the race have his wife. There are already inconsistencies in-between two episodes, and that’s happened early in the series. Not good.

Furthermore, the other characters weren’t interesting much. Except Wendy (Melanie Lynskey), whose fearless fearness is kinda awesome. She wants to kill Ivy (Taryn Manning) for her son, she wants to be first in the race, but then she decides against killing Ivy and takes her on as partner. Luckily she did, because the two bitches she was riding with earlier were annoying me. And there could be a conflict between Ivy and Wendy figuring that latter should have killed the former. But then again, what was bald guy (Charles Martin Smith) meaning with eliminating Ivy? He said, she should not be in her car, when they cross the checkpoint. First off: Ivy wasn’t in the car at the checkpoint, because the racers had to get their tickets by foot (silly, right?). Second: She was in fact not in her car, because she was in Wendy’s car. Is it that easy to trick the people behind the race? Is that so easy to kill a the opportunity of killing one of the major characters so early in the series?

Vi (Emma Stone) wasn’t interesting in this episode, as were Winston (Kevin Alejandro) and Sean (JD Pardo). Not good that the writers already think about giving Sean somebody to have a crush on, and not good that there isn’t a conflict between the brothers anymore. Where were their daddy issues? After all, Sean was lied to for years, and he just learned he has a brother. And he didn’t even get any kind of character development so far… 5.5/10

Well, only Ivy has an issue here

There is a clear issue here

Even though the premise of the show couldn’t be more idiotic, yet thrilling, the pilot was good. But I wonder if the pilot was written on the fast lane, and if that was everything Tim Minear was coming up with. Yeah, he put a lot of troubled characters and mystery in it, but it looks like, as if he was coerced to put a country-wide cross-country race in it, because otherwise the series wouldn’t have a hook.

Yet again, the pilot was good, but only because of the mystery surrounding the characters. A lot of questions were asked during the first 43 minutes, and those questions kept the thrill of the series alive. But it is questionable, if those same questions can keep the rest of the short series alive, or if they would have ever kept a year-long series alive. Obviously the major characters are Alex (Nathan Fillion), Wendy (Melanie Lynskey) and Winston (Kevin Alejandro), but I wonder if the future episodes will focus on the other characters in the race, which makes DRIVE an actual ensemble show, instead of an action show about a cross-country race. With Alex’s history, it should be clear that the people behind the race will do anything to get the people in the race (and everything to keep them in there, even though the bald man [Charles Martin Smith] said at the end there are elimination rounds too), but unfortunately Alex’s “pain” and fear about losing his wife was completely gone, when he entered the race. The first couple of minutes were all about his missing wife, and how the police was thinking that Alex overthinks it as a kidnapping, but as soon as he learned what the race is all about, Kathryn was basically forgotten. Yeah, he races to get to her, but did he ever ask himself, if everything he heard is true. I mean, he has the strange Corinna (Kristin Lehman) as a partner, he has one of the guys working behind the curtains coming after him, but even I wouldn’t believe that there is just the race, or that there might be Alex’s wife at the finish line. But then again, maybe it would have been more believable, if the pilot completely focused on Alex and his questions, his search for answers, probably finding out something about the people behind the race.

The rest of the characters, as shown, were somewhat interesting too. The brother dynamic between Wilson and Sean (JD Pardo) could be interesting, as long as the series continues to play on their difficult relationship with their father; and Wendy’s character could play on the mystery surrounding her husband and the creepy lawyer of his (Patrick Fischler), and the fact that he probably sent her into the race. Even more, the “elimination” cliffhanger was nice, though it’s obvious that Wendy wouldn’t kill Ivy (Taryn Manning), since her character started off as not being a killer, instead just a housewife and mother, who’s escaping from her husband. Other than that, there needs to be a lot of work done for the other characters. But I was surprised to find out that the couple on the bike was an elderly couple, followed by the question of how they came into the race, and what’s their mystery.

The racing sequences were alright. You can’t do much with a tiny TV budget, and it’s a TV show after all, so I shouldn’t expect those kinds of scenes in every episode. The series should rather have action scenes like Bill/Allan (Brian Bloom) trying to kill the racers, some fistfights, and some arguments between the characters, because of the race. The last piece between Corinna and Winston was interesting, because it was in fact a discussion.

All in all, shitty premise, which could fall together like a house of cards, but interesting characters, and cheap looking car chase sequences. It’s like made for TV by Tim Minear, and for FOX to cancel after four episodes. At least it’s something… 7/10

Look, a nice ass

Look, a flash drive