Sunday, April 15, 2007

Drive

Premieres Sunday at 8 p.m. on Fox; regular time slot Mondays at 8 p.m.

The tagline you'll never see: Stuck in idle.

The basics: "Start your engines!" With that well-worn cliche uttered in the show's opening moments, a cross-country car race begins for a bunch of folks competing for a $32 million prize. Not everyone's in it for the money, though. The show centers on a Nebraska man (Alex Tully) who joins the race in hopes of saving his wife, who's been kidnapped (we think) by the mysterious organization behind the race. Other racers are an abused wife running from her husband, a tough ex-con and his preppy brother, and a money-hungry father-daughter team.

The lowdown: "Drive" takes the place of "Prison Break," another male-oriented series involving racing -- from the law, that is. "Prison," which just wrapped up its second season, has fared relatively well ratings-wise against Monday night comedies on CBS

and against reality fare on the other networks, so "Drive" could cruise in the same time slot.

Reality Check: For a show about speed, "Drive" moves awfully slow. Part of the problem may be the sheer number of characters involved. Besides three major story lines, "Drive" presents a bevy of not-necessarily-interesting subplots. Fox may attract some of its NASCAR audience to the pilot episode. But race fans, beware: The chase scenes, at least in the opening hour made available for preview, are just so-so.

-- John Maynard