TVSquad

The last two episodes of FOX's Drive - remember that show? - were scheduled to air this Wednesday, July 4, but the network has changed its mind and has shifted them to Friday, July 13 instead. Ooooooo, Friday the 13th.

The first episode, "The Extra Mile," will air at 8pm, and then the series finale, appropriately titled "Rear View," will air immediately after at 9pm. The press release is actually calling this episode a "season finale," so there's no word on whether we'll get a real closure to the series or whether they'll be a lingering questions answered (on the DVD, no doubt). Bones will be pre-empted that night but will return the following week.

[via Pop Candy]

(S01E04) Brett and I are sharing reviewing duties of Drive and I have to tell you right away that I am not as in love with this show as Brett is. I adore Tim Minear and almost everything he does, but I'm not completely sold on this series. Too many of the characters bother me. I find blondie Ivy extremely annoying, and I find Ellie (the soldier's wife) and Violet (the so-called high school Junior) to be over-actors. The reason I'm holding on is simple: Alex Tully. I was intrigued following the last five minutes of last week's episode when we found out that Tully used to be a bad ass bank robber.

(S01E01/S01E02) To be honest, I was sold on this one long before we finally got a look at what the Drive team has been working on all this time. I count myself as a Tim Minear fan, so his involvement was enough to get me interested. Add in a cast including Nathan Fillion (Firefly), Melanie Lynskey (Two And A Half Men), Kevin Alejandro (Sleeper Cell), Kristin Lehman (Tilt), Dylan Baker (The Book Of Daniel), and Taryn Manning (Hustle & Flow), and you really have something.

When I first heard the general premise for Drive, I instantly thought of Cannonball Run. The Cannonball Run is a movie a fondly remember watching time and again as a kid. Tons of money on the line, fast cars, hot women ... I mean hell, I was a hormone-filled kid somewhere between 10 and 13 years old when I first saw this flick, so cut me some slack.

While there is the obvious similarity with the whole race-around-the-country thing with Cannonball Run, after watching the rough-cut first episode of Drive I can start by telling you one way where the two differ: The Cannonball Run was for pussies.

Take a bunch of good-looking people, put them in cars and have them race across the country, and what do you get? Drive, the latest series from Tim Minear, who's probably best known for his efforts on Buffy and the cult favorite Firefly. Right after Peter Ligouri gave his executive session, FOX decided to have the Drive cast out on stage for a Q&A. And when I mean the cast, I mean the entire cast; twelve actors, including Nathan Fillion, Dylan Baker and Melanie Lynskey. They were joined by Minear and his fellow executive producers, Ben Queen and Greg Yaitanes.

The most intersting thing about this series is that, while it shows ordinary citizens who are persuaded to participate in an illegal cross-country race for a $32 million prize, all the actors' in-car scenes will be shot in front of green screens. The challenge, according to Minear: "Could you make a show that takes place partially in moving vehicles that go across the country and not make it look bad?" He took a cue from War of the Worlds, which had in-car scenes where the audience saw the environment from all angles, inside and out. The effects experts who did that effect also worked on Drive.

Here's a bit of good news. Fox has ordered 12 episodes of Tim Minear's new show, Drive. That's a little surprising because it looked like the show was dead up until the announcement. In September, the network made Minear a Consulting Producer on Standoff, which implied that there wouldn't be any need for him to be off making his new show. Now they are saying that Minear will remain with Standoff until they finish their 13 episode production order, which doesn't really bode well for that show.

Drive tells the story of an underground race across America and stars Alan Ruck (Spin City), Kristin Lehman (Tilt), and Melanie Lynskey (Two and a Half Men). That's a pretty good start to a cast, but really, if it is made by Minear, it could star the finger puppet troupe from Mrs. Jablonski's first grade class and I would still watch it. The show is set to launch in the spring, hopefully not on Friday night at 9.