Drive
FOX
Monday 8 p.m./7 CT

The new FOX drama, Drive, revolves around the participants of an illegal cross-country road race with a prize of $32 million dollars for the winner. This is no Amazing Race, however, just as Lost wasn't a dramatic rendition of Survivor. In Drive, the contestants aren't in it for the money; it's more complicated than that. There are, among others, a husband looking for his missing wife, a dying man with a year left to live, two sons of a Miami politician who have never (previously) met and a young mother trying to escape an abusive spouse.

Co-created and executive produced by television veteran Tim Minear, the series is in the same vein as other shows he has worked on, most notably Angel, Firefly and Wonderfalls. Although those series were, respectively, about a vampire with a soul, a group of space-scavengers living 500 years in the future, and a Niagara Falls retail clerk who suddenly hears voices from inanimate objects, at the core of each was a deeper theme: the search for meaning and redemption in a world that at times seems meaningless and cruel. In the case of Drive, the question is "How far are you willing to go to find it."

Take Alex Tully (Nathan Fillion), the husband forced into the race to find his missing wife. A landscaper from Hastings, Nebraska, he receives an anonymous call on a hidden cell phone telling him to drive to Key West, Florida. Believing it has to do with his wife, he leaps into his pick-up and takes off. Instead of finding his wife, however, he receives vague insinuations, verbal and otherwise, hinting that the only way he will ever see his beloved again is to compete in the mysterious race.

Far-fetched? A little. But that's the great thing about being a TV fan these days: series creators are taking simplistic ideas with limited potential that border on the far-fetched (a plane crashes on a deserted island, ordinary people suddenly find themselves with supernatural powers) and finding ways to sustain intelligent, gripping stories. In Lost, it turns out, the island is no ordinary place; in Heroes, the newfound heroes are being manipulated by a mysterious organization with unknown intentions. And in Drive, it turns out the participants, as well as their anonymous sponsors, have secrets and agendas beyond merely winning — or giving away — thirty-two million dollars.

As the early episodes progress, these "secret" pieces of the various characters' lives are slowly revealed. In the case of Tully, in a surprise twist on par with any show on television, it is revealed that he once led the life of a "wheel man" for a murderous cadre of bank robbers. Here is a guy, suddenly confronted by a past he thought he had escaped, truly seeking redemption — not only is his wife's life in jeopardy, but so his own "new" life (as an honest Nebraskan landscaper). In order to win this race, will he need to become the old Alex Tully, a formidable getaway driver capable of breaking the law in order to succeed? Can he — again — leave this past behind? Will he be able to save his wife without losing himself in the process?

In this sense, Drive is Angel without the vampires, Firefly without the spaceships and Wonderfalls without the talking wax lion.

Many of Drive's characters have similarities with Firefly's Captain Malcolm Reynolds, Wonderfalls's Jaye Tyler and Angel's Angel — not that they long for simpler lives away from government control, or that they are forced to confront their introverted natures or that they strive to make up for past sins by performing acts of penance while constantly fearing the reemergence of their "dark sides" (respectively), but that they are clinging to lost familial bonds, are suddenly forced to interact meaningfully with total strangers and are in pursuit of deeper, more meaningful relationships.

Drive is no copycat, however, but simply a television series that offers a little bit of everything: Wendy Patrakas (Melanie Lynskey) wants more for her newly born son than her abusive marriage can provide. Winston Salazar (Kevin Alejandro) wants to escape his criminal past, as well as the stigma of being the unwanted son of a politician. Astrophysicist John Trimble (Dylan Baker) is trying to find meaning in existence beyond clinical research — and after being told he has only a year to live, he takes his teenage daughter (Emma Stone) on the race in an effort to connect with her.

Drive has appealing characters on a symbolic journey, a cross-country road-race capable of inducing high-octane adrenaline rushes (never has watching people driving been so much fun), intrigue and mystery filled with unexpected twists, and truly great writing (it would not be a Tim Minear series without sharp dialogue that vacillates between dark humor and eloquent wit. When Tully confronts the "face" of the race, liaison Mr. Bright (Charles Martin Smith), about his kidnapped wife by threatening to call the authorities, Bright's response is classically chilling: "Oh, I wouldn't recommend it. Involving the police would be grounds for immediate disqualification." And when Tully then threatens physical harm: "Beating me to death would also be grounds for immediate disqualification.")

Firefly, Wonderfalls and even Angel all were canceled sooner than they deserved. Let's hope the same fate is not down the road for Drive; it promises to be one hell of a ride.

— Anthony Letizia (anthonyletizia at hotmail dot com)