Another One Bites the Dust

I found out yesterday that Drive has already been canceled. While I’m disappointed, I can’t say I’m all that surprised as high-concept shows (like Day Break) always seem to make it (Prison Break, 24, Lost, Heroes) or just fail miserably despite strong cult followings (Firefly).

Now, we can’t blame the network this time around. Firefly may have been mishandled by Fox, but Drive saw all kinds of promotion on other channels. I saw a special about their effects shooting on Fox Movie Channel between flicks, and they ran ads on FX as well as during standard Fox programming. I also think the cost of effects played into the cancellation; they had several effects shots in each episode, requiring chase footage, effects footage, the effects themselves, and an array of special cameras. Yeah, the transitions between cars was cool, but it had to be expensive, making it tougher to justify low ratings balanced against the cost of production. Maybe they should have saved some money and gone old school with Dukes of Hazzard- or The A-Team-style chases.

I also think the show was a little too family-friendly. Given the situations they put some of the characters in, if they played down the humor and amped up the grit and danger, I think it would have been a much better show. Maybe not The Shield-level grit, but at least Prison Break. It had some of the same artificial tension of Prison Break and 24 (I admit, I rolled my eyes frequently during the bank robbery scene of the last episode they aired), so I would have thought it would have drawn in the same audiences and the Prison Break crowd would have hung around, but maybe they waited too long. The article even says the network is speculating whether Drive harmed 24, but I think 24 did that on its own: bringing Audrey back was predictable, but the way they’re doing it is very forced even for their show, and instead of being awesomely bad it’s just plain bad.

But I digress. Television really is a mysterious animal. As my friend John Roling says in this post, more people vote on American Idol than in presidential elections. That says a lot about people in general, not just television.