I’ve now restarted this paragraph about 4 times. I just don’t know which angle to take in discussing last night’s season premiere of Pushing Daisies, a.k.a. the only ABC show I watch that isn’t Lost. I wish I was bursting at the seams with wonderful praise and excitement, but as charming as it was, I was disappointed by the episode. For one, its a season premiere– you’ve gotta pull out some stops here. You’re a) trying to snag new viewers for your show b) giving your devoted audience something to get excited about and c) jump starting a new season’s worth of narrative. Secondly, the episode was written by Bryan Fuller, the show’s creator/executive producer/show runner. As I mentioned in my latest posts on Entourage and Mad Men, when a show’s creator writes an episode, I expect it to be a home run. Last night’s premiere was NOT a home run. Here’s why:
1. Weak “A” Plotline — The heroes of this show are, obviously, Ned and Chuck, the sweetest non-touching couple of all time. What happened to them this week, in the frickin season premiere? Nothing! Ok, Chuck moved out. Big deal. Their relationship is the same, their feelings are the same, their stakes and conflicts are the same– why is that the least bit interesting? They were so wrapped up trying to solve some boring, confusing mystery about honey and bees and crap, that they didn’t have any time for a single compelling or emotional scene. Is the center of this show supposed to be silly one-off mysteries, or the relationship between a guy who brings dead people to life and the girl he loves, but can never touch?
2. Weak Guest Stars — French Stewart?! French Stewart?! FRENCH STEWART??!!!!
3. Too strong of a “B” plotline — All the juicy secrets about our main characters were revealed by supporting characters. What do I care if Olive Snook and Aunt Lily know about Chuck’s parentage and Lily’s affair with Vivian’s fiancee? Their both in a convent, far away from the action, and the knowledge doesn’t really care any weight for Olive. Ok, Olive knows the secret. Great. I’ll only care about the secret when Ned or Chuck knows it, not when an uninvolved outsider like Olive does. Its like they say: Secrets, secrets, are no fun. Secrets, secrets, are boring until someone important finds out about them.
4. Visual world/narration — 2 of the series’ core stylistic choices, the fairytale-esque narration and fanciful visual radiance, were in both in full effect last night. I thought the flashback with young Chuck and young Ned had some beautiful imagery, especially that big blue sky with the golden sun in the center during the funeral. The camerawork was all spot on, the narration felt tight and unobstrusive, and I really felt transported to a magical, fantastical world.
5. Olive & the Nuns — If you’re going to do a Sound of Music bit with Kristin Chenoweth, go for it! All we get is the sweeping hills shot and a funny line about being called a “flibbertigibbet?” At least have her start singing the full song and then have her interrupted by poor people or something. This whole bit was pretty funny, but I thought they could’ve taken it a step further.
There’s not much else I can say. 80% of this episode was wasted on that hard-to-follow bee story, which wasn’t particularly cute, clever or interesting. The other 20% was Lily telling secrets to Olive, which, as I mentioned, just isn’t that compelling a thing to watch. Pushing Daisies needs to, well, push a little harder if they’re going to make me want to watch from one episode to the next. Raise those stakes, build more drama and tension, give more significance to the episodic elements of the episode– why should I care about Betty’s Bees, if it doesn’t relate more directly to Chuck and Ned, or even Emerson?
So B. Fuller, with numbers already down dramatically from last year, you’ve got a lot of work to do if you want to keep this series alive and kicking.
Grade: C+
i totally forgot that the premiere of Pushing Daisies was on yesterday which goes to show how much of an imprint last season left me and i don’t plan on catching up with it especially after your review
anyways what i do care about is Dexter! Dexter!
Thanks for the comment, Prime. Ill try to get a Dexter post in as soon as I can!
It might not have been the best Pushing Daisies episode, but it’s still better than most other tv-shows that are on.
I have to say I really enjoyed it, but I agree with some of your comments. Let’s hope the upcoming episodes will be better and better.
I’m right there with ya, Bas. Thanks for the comment!
hey media maven,
its good to see that you’ve been keeping up your posts. i haven’t been here in a while, but i’ll definitely be visiting more frequently, now that the school year is back in session.
anyway, regarding your comments on the episode, i think you may have been a little too harsh. yes, b. fuller wrote it and yes, it is the season premiere so it should be a home run, but i’m just thinking that you are expecting a little too much out of the show (not necessarily a bad thing, mind you). i remember one of your posts regarding an episode from last season where you mentioned that you found it hard to keep watching due to the lack of physical contact between chuck and ned. i think it roughly echoed the idea of the writer’s writing themselves into a hole. however, i think this has turned out pretty well, don’t you think? how bout the scene from the most recent episode with ned and chuck doing an intricate apartment ballet? i thought that was incredibly well done, especially because they incorporated digby dialogue (by far, THE BEST character on the show). i’m just thinking that you might want to take one half-step back and consider the tremendous potential of this show and the shenanigans the main characters can get into with a FULL season ahead of them (thank god), rather than 9 measly episodes.
while i agree that there were a few mistakes it (i.e. french stewart, the individual strengths of the “A&B” plot-lines, and aunt lily’s “get thee [olive] to a nunnery”), the main point of this episode was, as you said in your post, to attract new viewers and reacquaint old ones with the plethora of characters on this show. and in that regard, i think they succeeded and I would probably give this episode a B+ were I to use your ratings system.
speaking of ratings, i’m also not quite sold that your point regarding the nielsen ratings is valid. between last year and this year, there has been an incredibly large influx of viewers who watch TV shows on their computers, rather than on their televisions. because of this, i think the show has more viewers than you assume.
anyway, keep up the posts and i look forward to reading more musings, especially about the dreck that was entourage season 5 episode 5. take care.
P.S. do you think we’ll see an episode in which emerson cod is reunited with his daughter (they had that little bit in the episode with emerson authoring lil gum shoe pop-up books with a black girl as the protagonist of those stories)?
Hey Solly, thank you for your kind words and thoughtful comments. Great to have you back on here. To respond:
While I agree that the episode succeeded in attracting new viewers/reacquainting us with the characters, it did so in a way that pretty much every single episode of this show does. We get a little flashblack that explains Ned’s power and his situation with Chuck, we get a little mystery, then bam, episode over. In a season premiere, I expect a little something extra than just your average episode.
Also, you might not be sold on the validity of my ratings argument, but that doesn’t mean its not true. Yes, more people watch online and on DVR, but when you’ve got 25% less people tuning in to your season premiere, the one episode even DVR-happy folks might watch on time, you’ve got a big problem. And Nielsen has started keeping tabs on delayed-watching too, so even with those taken into account, Daisies is not pulling strong numbers.
And yes, I think Emerson’s daughter will 100% come into play down the line. Emerson has no storyarc of his own whatsoever except for this daughter business, so you can bet they’ll explore it further down the line.