I asked Tim this in my email interview a few months ago:

TM: It's nothing like 24. And again, because of the wide canvass of the premise, it can literally go anywhere narratively.

I find 24's "real time" gimmick extremely annoying. I think it makes the storytelling awkward, what with the split screens and all.

Real time is only gimmicky when they do things like spilt screen, if you ask me. I don't mind the concept of each show representing an hour in the life of people in the race, although if it's being done like that it would make race-based 'flash back in timeline' sequences confusing.

One thing I've picked up from comments online so far about Drive is how much resistance to the premise there is. I wasn't expecting that. From the lines put out in the Variety and Hollywood Reporter articles, people are picking up it's a Cannonballesque program. In a bad way. Hopefully the trailers don't make it look like Firefly did on FOX (ie FOX's trailers for Firefly resembled Spaceballs, if you ask me).

I still remember my reaction to the Firefly trailers. Oh joy, another crappy Sci-Fi TV show. Is that Alan Tudyk? Oh well I suppose I'll give it a try. But then I got all confused missing the first five minutes of Train Job and thinking I'd missed an hour. I kept thinking I wanted to catch another episode but the next thing I knew it had been cancelled.

FOX Firefly promo: [link] (you have to watch it imagining you don't know the characters).

Yeah that is. It's horrifying. If it wasn't for recognizing Alan Tudyk I never would have watched the show at all.

I also avoided watching Fight Club because of the trailers. I wonder what other great things with sucky trailers I have missed.

I wonder what other great things with sucky trailers I have missed.

I know there's loads in my case. I do think there's a disconnect between advertising to modern consumers and being successful. For example, I've never seen a Firefly advert which makes me think "Oh, I'd have watched that". Sure, they're character ensemble shows so you want to get that across, but I think -- in my case -- the standard advertising tried doesn't work. Unless they use the 1 minute (or whatever) spot to show me a _reason_ why I should make an hour free in my schedule to watch something live, it ain't going to happen. Same with spending £5 and 2 hours going to the theatre.

I mean, I'm going to watch Drive because Tim's running it, and I've noticed he knows his shit and can actually write really well, too. But the people with the Nielsen boxes don't usually know their Spellings from their Whedons, so I hope the Drive promos don't suck.

I think the Heroes trailer ploy of playing the aspect that the plot is driving somewhere really helps sell the show. It creates a hook, making you want to watch it to find out where it's going to go. Here: [link] (contains some Heroes spoilers if you're not up to date).

I also avoided watching Fight Club because of the trailers.

::didn't like Fight Club all that much when I finally saw it::

t /pariah

Ailleann, I used to like you.

Kevin, I love the Heroes promos. I don't know how they make mundane phrases like "Save the cheerleader, save the world" and "Are you on the list?" (yes, they've already made a shirt!) sound so damn cool!

Save the cheerleader, save the world is probably one of the worst phrases I could imagine, on paper. But, uhm, it works. Somehow.