AllMovie

Arguably the most talked-about serialized drama of the 2006-2007 TV season, The Nine made its ABC debut on October 4, 2006 with a bank robbery perpetrated by a pair of low-life siblings on LA's Fidelity Republic Bank. The robbery and the ensuing hostage standoff would last 52 minutes, and two people would die; the series focused on the aftermath, and the profound and disturbing changes in the lives of nine of the people in the bank. The huge ensemble cast included Timothy Daly as Nick Cavanaugh, a cop with a gambling problem; Chi McBride as Malcolm Jones, the seemingly kindly, level-headed bank manager; Kim Raver as ambitious Assistant DA Kathryn Hale; Scott Wolf as Jeremy Kates, arrogant young surgeon; Jessica Collins as Jeremy's girlfriend Lizzie Miller, a hospital social worker; John Billingsley as Egan Foote, a suicidal office drone who unexpectedly turns hero during the standoff; Lourdes Benedicto as Eva Rios, a single-mom bank teller who is linked to Nick Cavanaugh; Camille Guaty as Eva's party-girl sister Franny, who got Eva her job at the bank; Dane Davis as Felicity Jones, daughter of the bank manager, whose sheltered existence was irrevocably shattered by the robbery; and Owain Davis as Lucas Dalton, one of the two thieves. Each episode began with a 10-minute flashback to the robbery, exposing hitherto unrevealed facts about what actually went down during those 52 minutes, and dropping hints as to the interrelationships between the characters before the incident. These flashbacks sometimes answered such nagging questions as "Why does Nick Cavanaugh punch out one of the hostage negotiators?", "Why has Kathryn Hale's hair been cut so short?", and "Why are several of the former hostages making regular prison visits to Lucas Dalton?"; generally, however, more questions were raised than answered. The Nine was cocreated by executive producer Hank Steinberg (Without a Trace and his sister K.J. Steinberg.