Just as there are crappy pilots that lead to awesome series, so too can there be terrific pilots that subsequent episodes just can’t top. I’m very nervous that ABC’s uber-buzzed about new show, Pushing Daisies, falls into this latter category. Furthermore, the more I think about the pilot, the less I like it, which is never a good sign. Read on, if you dare!
What I Liked:
1. Lee Pace is very likable a Ned, Anna Frial is beautiful and captivating as Chuck, and Kristin Chenoweth is the hottest 40-year-old-pretending-to-be-in-her-early-30’s on television.
2. The premise is very unique, which is always a huge plus in my book. With billions of cable channels, YouTube craptaculars and movies to contend with, it’s easy to forget how difficult it is to do something truly original on television. If there’s one point you can’t argue against, it’s that Pushing Daisies is highly, highly original, in both its tone and subject matter.
3. Director Barry Sonnenfeld and writer/creator Bryan Fuller have created a very cool fairy-tale world here, where everything is highly stylized, brightly colored, and love conquers even death. It’s a very unique style and tone, and again, you’ve got to hand it to em for that.
BUT, if the product isn’t compelling, innovation will only get you so far. Here’s what I didn’t like:
1. Chi McBride– what’s this guy’s appeal? He’s a one trick pony. He plays “sort-of-angry-but-actually-lovable” in EVERYTHING he’s in. Ok, Chi, we get it. Don’t judge a book by its cover. Do something else now.
2. As unique as the tone is, how much brightly colored cutesy crap can we take before we’re watching a children’s cartoon? It was cute when Ned and Chuck slept in adjacent rooms facing each other, cute when they kissed monkey statues, cute when they held their own hands behind their backs, cute when… get my point? Their relationship is very heart-warming, but too much cute can be a bad, bad thing. It’s like eating candy. It’s sweet and delightful at first, but when you get to the bottom of that bag, even one more piece makes you want to hurl. Daisies is treading a very, very thin and dangerous line here.
3. My biggest issue– where is the serialized story arc? Granted, this was one episode, but as I said with Reaper, you can usually tell right away if a show is going to be strictly episodic, which is what Daisies appears to be. Also, if Fuller’s Wonderfalls is any indication, we’re going to get 5 or so episodes that are purely self-contained before anything of longterm importance occurs, and who knows if this show will even have the ratings to last that long? How many episodes of whimsical detective stories before we get bored? Two, three?
Bottom line: The show has a TON of potential, but it’s going to really need to show us something strong in the next few episodes. Is it going to sprint right of the gate and blow us all away? Or am I going to have to coin the term “Pushing Daisies Effect” when the next few episodes suck? Or maybe it will be like Reaper, and be repetitive and episodic, but we’ll like it so much anyways we won’t care? Is this saccharine cutesy crap going to make us wish we too were dead? Only the coming weeks can answer these questions, but the fact that no one in the industry has seen a single episode other than the pilot worries me a great deal.
Personally, I’d love for this show to be great. I don’t watch anything Wednesday’s at 8, I like Bryan Fuller, and I always support creative, original programming, which this pilot most certainly was. Let’s hope this show reaches its full potential and doesn’t fizzle out like Fuller’s previous offerings.
Grade: B
12 Comments
October 4, 2007 at 3:39 pm
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October 4, 2007 at 3:59 pm
I agree in most of the points you’ve made for this episode, but I would even go further and say that stretching it for about 30 more minutes would have resulted in a very interesting movie (summer blockbuster maybe) for all kind of audiences.
I mean… while watching it I couldn’t stop thinking of Tim Burton’s “Pee Wee’s Big Adventure” and “Big Fish”, Jean-Pierre Jeunet’s “Amelie” and Michel Gondry’s whole filmography… and by the end of the episode I had the feeling that I had enough, but that doesn’t mean I didn’t like it… in fact I loved it but as you say, being so self-contained and so excessively cute, makes it a candy I don’t want to have every week, but I’ll be surely checking it back sometime…
October 4, 2007 at 4:05 pm
An excellent point, David, but the fact that you immediately think of all those movies is probably a strong argument against turning Pushing Daisies into a film. You’ve seen this type of thing before on the big screen, but never on television.
And who knows? Maybe they’ll find a way to make 13 strong episodes out of this premise? We’ll have to wait til next week and see for ourselves.
Thanks for the comment, as always!
October 5, 2007 at 3:11 am
I couldn’t agree with you more. It’s sort of created this trap for itself with unending color, the cutesiness, the main character that can’t or won’t touch people whose story (if the show is meant to succeed) is meant to touch the viewers. I had hope that Chi McBride would have more to give than what he did but his performance largely fell flat. I still think, also, that Kristin Chenoweth was completely underused.
I still plan on watching it next week but right now it’s another new show this season that is not exactly overwhelming.
October 5, 2007 at 11:45 am
Glad we’re in agreement, watchlist. About Kristen, I know for a fact that she’s going to get more involved in the narrative soon, so at least that’s a plus. But that’s about the only guarantee I have, so I guess we’ll just have to wait and see…
October 5, 2007 at 5:11 pm
Having the protagonist in the midst of a cloying relationship, could be a serious problem for a series. And the light-hearted tone would be just a bit affected if he touches her and–boom, stone dead. They better introduce a potential for solving that one soon, or this will be a yawn.
October 5, 2007 at 5:39 pm
Amen, bytch. Amen.
October 5, 2007 at 5:42 pm
It’s cute. But I actually thought Psych was cute to start ( boy did that get old fast!). A nice guy as a protagonist, and not all that layered, except for the guilt-thing from killing Chuck’s father. Hmmm….
October 10, 2007 at 7:26 pm
Great review — I’ve been curious to see what you thought, but resisted till I could watch the pilot myself. I am so not tired of the cute yet — I loved the tone — but Wonderfalls was *so* episodic, and I do hope Pushing Daisies does a little better with big arcs. I guess we’ll know more in a couple hours.
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