Every season there are some good show that, for whatever reason, just never find an audience and are canceled fairly early on. I’ve had that happen to a number of shows, but one of the prematurely canceled shows that caught my attention before it’s early demise was the Tim Minear show Drive. Many of you know who Tim Minear is, he was the Executive Producer for Angel, Firefly, Wonderfalls, Terriers, Dollhouse and The Chicago Code, among others. So you can see that he has a reputation for working on quirky, high quality TV. But, except for Angel, all of his shows are short-lived.So, what exactly was Drive?

Several people had been contacted about performing an illegal, cross country race (sort of like Amazing Race, but everyone has to drive and it’s only in the US) for a $32 million prize. Apparently this race had been going on for years, but there was one catch: if you lose, you die. There are several teams, each of which has different reasons for competing in the race.

Nathan Fillion played one of the main characters (Alex) who used to be a getaway driver before going straight and getting married. His wife has been kidnapped to force him into the race. Alex is teamed (for awhile) with Corrina, who is pure trouble. She knows about the race since her parents were in it when she was young. In fact, they died in a crash near the finish line while she watched. Corrina has stolen a flash drive that has information about the race, that the organizers want secret.

Melanie Lynskey plays Wendy, a new mom with an abusive husband who needs the prize money to start over.Winston and his half brother Sean (Kevin Alejandro and J.D. Pardo) are upset that their wealthy father has lied and withheld money from them, so they join forces. John and Violet (Dylan Baker and Emma Stone) are a father and daughter who team together until she finds out that he has been lying and is terminally ill. There are also a couple additional teams.

Each episode consists of a race from one city to another, with points awarded for getting there first. There are also subplots and cheats (Alex and Corrina get a chance to skip a whole section ahead if they rob a bank) and they alliances are constantly shifting. We slowly learn why each person is in the race and more about the race itself (and the organizers). The original plan was for a whole new set of racers for season 2 (with some returning faces either competing again or in with the organizers).

Overall, it was a fun, fast and furious show that had some decent character development and interesting ideas. Needless to say, it got really bad ratings and only aired 4 episodes (2 more were filmed and show on the web). But it was an interesting idea that never got to fully show it’s potential. When I look back at shows that never got a chance, Drive is one that I look back fondly at.