Monday, October 8, 2007

Pushing Daisies

Pushing Daisies is a new ABC show that just started last Wednesday and is my new favorite show (I actually don't watch a lot of tv, not to be a tv snob, rather watching tv requires too much commitment and it gets in the way of my comic reading, anime watching, and trying to solve quadratic equations).

Basically Pushing Daisies is about Ned, who has this ability to make dead things (people, animals, plants, etc.) come back to life by touching them. If he touches them again, they'll stay dead and if he reanimates someone who was dead for more then one minute then someone else will die in their place. Like my friend Joel commented when he was first told me about Pushing Daisies, it really seems like a Showtime or HBO show and not something the networks would do. It's probably the best reviewed show of the season so far but it does seem to be one of those dividing shows that you'll either love or hate (if you don't like the first episode I'm going to guess that you probably won't like this series). All the actors are good and I was especially pleased to see that Ellen Green (from Little Shop of Horrors) is going to be a regular.

I liked Pushing Daisies within the first five minutes of the first episode and can tell that this is going to be one of those odd, quirky shows that has likeable characters and is funny in a left of center way. Pushing Daisies was created by Bryan Fueller, who also created the short-lived (but also much loved in smaller circles) series Wonderfalls for Fox a few years ago. I've heard that Pushing Daisies won its time slot last Wednesday and that it's not up against any real heavy hitters so that encourages me that maybe Pushing Daisies will stick around for a while. It'll be interesting to see how many people that watched the first episode will be back to watch the show this week. Part of me thinks that maybe Pushing Daisies should have been a mini series though because as much as I liked the first episode, I wonder how long Pushing Daisies can substain its smartness and charm. Anyway, as long as the quality of Pushing Daisies lives up to its first episode, I'll be happy to put aside my comics for an hour Wednesday nights at 8pm on ABC.

On the ABC website there's also an online Pushing Daisies comic with the two artists being Cameron Stewart (Seaguy and The Other Side) and Zack Howard.

3 comments:

Todd said...

I caught a preview of this a couple months ago and I am now terrified that something will happen and it will get canceled just like "Wonderfalls" was. I'm trying to think positive though. We can do with more shows like this on the air.

Ralph Mathieu said...

I worry also that something this good can't last, but my thinking with this show is that I'll just be thankful for any episodes we get even if it's just six. A show like this could end and even though we might like to see more of these characters at least it probably won't feel like we hadn't gotten any closure (although future episodes may have me thinking differently).

Todd C. Murry said...

The second episode put some of my worries to rest (I didn't even notice the color palate which I thought might be a problem, and the whimsy was more convincing) but I really like the sense that the stories both are endearingly "random" yet aren't secrificing their nerrative drive.