The concept for the new serialized Fox drama "Reunion" (9 p.m. Thursday) is much better than the execution. The show begins in the present day at the funeral for one person from a group of six friends who was "brutally murdered in their prime." Then the show quickly flashes back to 1986 as the sextet graduates from high school. An '80s soundtrack announces the time period along with one character who sports upturned collars on his Polo shirts.

		'Reunion' When: 9 p.m. Thursday on Fox. Starring: Will Estes.

Each episode in the series will chronicle roughly one year in the characters' lives (episode two is set in 1987, episode three in 1988, etc.) with flash forwards to 2005 as a police detective (Mathew St. Patrick) interviews the friends, one of whom will presumably be revealed as the killer. The deceased hasn't been identified yet either, and to accommodate that secret, the pilot's script contorts itself in ridiculous ways (the name of the dead friend is never mentioned in the eulogy at his or her funeral).

"Reunion" is an intriguing series concept, somewhat similar to the short-lived Showtime series "Leap Years" or the movie "St. Elmo's Fire," which gets a shout-out in Thursday's pilot. The problem with "Reunion" is that beyond the show's gimmick, there's not much to draw viewers in. The characters lack depth and personality and the situations are -- yawn -- overly familiar.

Poor boy Will (Will Estes, "American Dreams") and best rich buddy Craig (Sean Faris, "life as we know it") are celebrating their high school graduation when they get in an auto accident (imagine the last scene in the "Alias" season finale in May; this is almost the identical shot). Craig, who had been driving drunk, convinces Will to claim he was the driver, which appears to be working out just fine as long as the driver of the other vehicle stays alive. Things do not work out just fine for long.

Unbeknownst to Craig, Will's conscience needs a good cleansing anyway, because Will slept with Sam (Alexa Davalos) while she and Craig had broken up and now she's pregnant. Carla (Chyler Leigh) is in love with good guy Aaron (Dave Annable), but he only has eyes for aspiring actress Jenna (Amanda Righetti, "The O.C.").

See? It's a total soap opera, but a strangely uninvolving one, in part because writer Jon Harmon Feldman plays coy with details (Whodunnit? Who was it done to?) but also because the characters he creates are just not that interesting.

"Reunion" does have the advantage of being the second (after Fox's "Prison Break") serialized drama out of the gate this fall, but there are so many more to come, viewers are probably going to choose pretty quickly which of these ongoing stories they're willing to commit to watching every week.

"Reunion" also presents an unusual question: If the show makes it to a second season, and my gut says it won't, what happens to all these characters then?

"Then the goal would be to use one of our characters to transition to a new group of firneds and tell their story over 20 years," Feldman said at a Fox press conference in Beverly Hills, Calif., last month.

Faris described the lack of job security as an "actor's dream."

"It's awesome to be able to come and play a role in which the character changes every episode," he said, "and yet at the same time you don't feel like you're locked away for five years playing the same thing over and over again."

Luckily for Faris, the odds are he won't play Craig for a full season, let alone more than a single season. There won't be time for him to grow bored -- certainly not as bored as I was watching "Reunion."