Suddenly, even more interested. I really liked that movie.

I haven't seen that movie yet

Do so. Even if Cronenberg's not your usual cup o'poison, it's a fascinating piece of work, and far less "squishy" than his more extreme stuff.

We just watched the first ep. It was fun! And not just because of the times I could exclaim, "Ooo, I was there when they filmed this bit!"

And Tim, if you're out there: the guy who plays Richard Patrakas is brilliant.

Tim is always out there. He's like the truth that way.

Strega, thank you for just posting that. You just reminded me to set my Tivo season pass.

Wait, what? That wasn't Richard Patrakas was it? I thought that was a race apparatchik who was bailing out Wendy so she could get back on the road, right?

And the good news is that Tim's legendary work on Buffy is given it's due in the USA Today review! (Hee)

And if I can find the letter, I'll totally transcribe it here. But at the moment I have no idea where it is. Kristin's office maybe, or my house maybe, or possibly the circular file. But it is really adorable. Vintage Tim.

Drivee! Tonight! ish!

Alan Sepinwall weighs in on Drive:

[link]

It's a mixed review, mostly because he wonders how the show can sustain an extended arc. He also spends quite a bit of time on Tim's bad track record with shows on Fox.

Fox's new drama "Drive," about the contestants in an illegal, high-stakes road race across America, seems to have less long-term potential than all the other serialized rookies, but that doesn't matter, because it's a Tim Minear show and will probably be canceled in four to five weeks.

Minear's a talented writer and producer, don't get me wrong, and he's been a key backstage figure for some good-to-great TV shows over the last few years: the better seasons of the "Buffy" spin-off "Angel"; the cult classic outer space western "Firefly"; the eccentric do-gooder dramedy "Wonderfalls," and the FBI criminal profiling drama "The Inside."

It's just that he kills shows dead -- or, rather, that Fox does.

For the last few years, Minear has been involved in a financially lucrative but sado-masochistic relationship with Fox, producing these shows, then handing them off to the network, where they'll suffer a quick, ignoble death in an out-of-the-way timeslot.

Yeah, there's a load of new reviews in the newspapers today. I've seen about 15 this morning. They're pretty mixed. A few hated it. Most of the critics are spending a majority of their reviews talking about Tim and FOX, and how they cancel all his shows, rather than Drive. Which is just going to put people off. Seriously, there's a few who really like it, but spend their time saying it'll get cancelled. And then those newspapers with user comments enabled have loads of people saying it's pointless watching because it'll get cancelled.

Which annoys me greatly. I can absolutely see why everybody is cautious with a new Tim series on FOX which has already been preempted with a reality show, but seriously, reviewers -- review the show, not the network.

In my official capacity as Lurkerer of the Drive Offices, we spent a bit of yesterday hunting down the reviews in newsstands and supermarkets and mostly they're all positive. Variety was problematical, but mostly all the other big publications really like the show.

Also, the opening credits: really good.