OK, so I’ve been meaning to write about Pushing Daisies since the debut, what, three weeks ago? Or is it four? I can’t do the math.
Anyway, I’ve been remiss. The fourth episode is tonight, 7 p.m. on ABC. Channel 9 in our bioquadrant.
The premise? Hard to do justice. There’s a piemaker who can bring people back to life with his touch. But there are consequences. And he solves crimes with his childhood sweetheart, but he can’t touch her, or she’ll die. Forever, this time.
I’m still not sure how they’re going to keep it up, but the first three shows have been a spectacular mix of fantasy, comedy and drama. A fantadramedy! Added bonus: Enough sweetness to break your heart, or at least your pancreas. You might be able to find an episode somewhere around here, if you’ve got 42 minutes to spare.
The show is from Bryan Fuller, who has had a hand in everything from Dead Like Me to Heroes to the all-too-short-lived Wonderfalls (A thorn to the Fox execs who canceled the brilliant Wonderfalls after just a handful of episodes!)
Pushing Daisies has just been greenlit for a full season, so get in on it now. They just love it over at Television Without Pity.
This article appears in Oct 18-24, 2007.
don’t you find the narration irritating?
Not a bit. I think the narration is stylish and helps the show set a different tone from the other stuff that’s out there. YMMV.
You know what I really liked last week? That whole Winnie the Pooh reference. “Kick, Pooh, kick!”
I find the narration irritating, especially the “Joe Bob SMith has been alive for twenty two years, four months, eleven days, eight hours and forty six minutes…” nonsense. It’s just annoying. I found the excess exposition annoying on Dead Like Me as well. They’re doing a Dead Like Me movie.
I do like that they still can’t do a TV show about a gay man, so instead of putting a gay man in a young woman costume a la Wonderfalls and Dead Like Me, they put the gay man in a straight man who can’t touch anyone plot point. It’s kinda like Three’s Company in how convoluted it is. And the Olive character must die. Is there a word for a woman who pointlessly pursues a relationship with a gay man because she prefers the fantasy of an unattainable relationship with a man she imagines to be perfect to the reality of a dismal relationship with a man she imagines to be real?
If it’s like other Brian Fuller shows, they will iron out the wrinkles and have it clipping along beautifully right around the time the idiots cancel it. Except for Wonderfalls which was perfect right out of the box.
This premise reminds me of the Chinese (or is it Japanese?) graphic novel “Death Book” (or something…I’m too lazy for a trip to IMDB). Apparently they’re making it into a movie or series of movies, or possibly already have. It’s extremely popular. Eventually it will trickle down to a watered-down U.S. version I’m sure. The story is about a guy who can kill anybody by writing his/her name in a special book. He’s being tracked by a bad guy though, and there’s nothing he can do about it because the bad guy’s name is unknown. I believe it gets very convoluted from there.
My favorite TV shows are “Frontline” and “The Daily Show,” but lately I’ve been watching the 2nd season of “How I Met Your Mother” on DVD. That is the only show that makes me laugh out loud on a regular basis. If you thought Neil Patrick “Doogie Howser” Harris was funny as a womanizing prick in “Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle,” you’ll love him in this show. The rest of the cast is great too….oddly enough the main character (the guy who “met your mother”) is the weakest link, but he’s OK.
Stephen Colbert for president!
One thing that really infuriates me is that the show is apparently going to continue the homeopathy plot-thread. It is especially infuriating that they DON’T UNDERSTAND what homeopathy is (the worst quackery ever perpetrated), and continually conflate homeopathy with “herbal” remedies which, while virtually untested in any reliable way, at least have the benefit of (sometimes) actually containing the so-called “cures” printed on the label.