Worried that Lost got lost last season? Executive producer J.J. Abrams promised yesterday that "you'll find a lot more happens this year in every episode than happened in all the episodes last year."

The busy producer, who has shows in three times zones (Lost in Hawaii, What About Brian? in L.A. and Six Degrees in New York), spoke to critics yesterday via conference call. Lost returns for a third season tonight at 8 p.m. (ABC, CTV) and Abrams pledges there'll be more attention paid to storytelling. His only specific hint for Season 3: Viewers will discover "a whole group of people who will add to the mix."

With the success of Lost, serialized dramas are all over the schedule this season. But are there too many now? If you're already watching Lost or 24 or Prison Break, do you have time to follow Jericho, Heroes, Kidnapped or Six Degrees?

Abrams had to laugh at my question. For years, he had to fight ABC to sneak serialized storylines into Alias. Now everybody was getting into the act.

"Ultimately, too much of anything is not good," he said, although he feels the good shows will survive. If Lost has had an impact on TV, he hopes it ultimately has more to do with interracial casting as it has to do with serialized storylines.

One of those new shows most influenced by Lost is The Nine, which premieres tonight at 9 p.m. on ABC (and Saturday night at 9 p.m. on CTV). Like Lost, The Nine is basically about a group of people being in the wrong place at the wrong time and how that could change your whole life.

In this instance, nine strangers in a Los Angeles bank are caught in a robbery gone wrong. At least one will die after a brutal, 52-hour hostage standoff. What happened during that time and what happens next to each of the survivors will be revisited all season long.

The serial drama probably has more in common with 24 (another of this season's most copied shows) as it does with Lost with its one crime, one season structure. Vital to these kinds of shows is casting, and this is where The Nine excels. Tim Daly (Wings) is terrific as a cop on the outs who keeps a cool head during the crisis, Chi McBride (Boston Public) and Scott Wolf (Party of Five) are also compelling, as is Jack Bauer's 24 gal pal Kim Raver. Character actor John Billingsley steals the pilot as a depressed dweeb.

Still, similar new one-season, one-crime shows are having trouble arresting viewers. Both Vanished and Kidnapped opened soft and are starting to vanish in the ratings. The excellent drama Smith is not stealing enough viewers from other shows.

People are scrambling back to Prison Break but if copycat shows six, seven and eight are flopping, what chance has The Nine?

Each episode will reveal another 10 minutes or so of what took place during the hostage crisis. Viewers may already have reached their limit of shows they have to pay attention to all season long. That would be a shame -- The Nine could add up to being one of the best new shows this fall.

Courtesy of http://winnipegsun.com