"The Nine" is a lot like "Lost" — a group of people who have, at most, passing prior acquaintance are thrown together by a catastrophic event.

Only these people aren't separated from the rest of humanity by an ocean, they're separated by the trauma of their shared experience. They were held hostage during a 52-hour bank robbery/standoff that ended with two deaths.

The result is a promising series premiere (tonight, 9 p.m., Ch. 4) that's at least a 9 out of 10 on a quality scale. We're introduced to nine interesting characters, and there's a healthy dash of mystery thrown in — we aren't privy to what actually happened during the standoff.

But we will see a bunch of "Lost"-like flashbacks.

There's Nick (Tim Daly), a police detective; Malcolm (Chi McBride), the bank manager; Felicia (Dana Davis), his daughter; Kathryn (Kim Raver), an assistant district attorney; Jeremy (Scott Wolf), a surgeon; Lizzie (Jessica Collins), his girlfriend; Egan (John Billingsley), a suicidal nebbish; Eva (Lourdes Benedicto), a bank teller; Franny (Camille Guaty), her sister; and Lucas (Owain Yeoman), one of the bank robbers.

We'll see immediate effects of the ordeal and not always what we expect. It's a turning point in an upward direction for one character; another falls apart.

"It's not just a drama about people reacting to a bank robbery," said creator/executive producer Hank Steinberg. In addition to continuing storylines, others will wrap up in the course of a single episode and "plenty of incidents between the characters (and) action in their lives as they go forward."

We'll learn a little bit every week about what happened during the standoff.

"We're going to unravel it over the course of the first season," promised Steinberg. "It's a character drama with a backdrop of what happened in the bank ... which will be revealed through flashbacks. And stay tuned for the season finale, and you'll have a lot of your questions answered."

By that point, I'm thinking we'll be so invested in the characters we'll want to keep watching. I mean, it's not like they're stranded on a desert island with a smoke monster or something.

TURNS OUT THE IDEA for "The Nine" came from a real-life event that happened to a friend of series creator/co-executive producer K.J. Steinberg (the sister of creator/executive producer Hank Steinberg).

"He was on a horrible date with a girl," K.J. Steinberg said. "They were walking home from that date, and a car pulled up. And a guy got out, and he put a gun in their faces. And he said, 'Give me all your money.'

"They did so. The guy pulled the gun out of their faces, got in the car and drove away, just leaving them there, standing, hearts beating furiously. And the first question I thought to ask was, 'Are you still seeing her?"'