Critics had been saying that tonight's new show Pushing Daisies was the best of this fall's new crop. Commenters right here on my blog had been telling me the same. And now that I've seen the first episode myself, I have to agree -- this is the show I've been waiting to be excited about.Pushing Daisies was most surprising to me in how extremely stylized it was. I have no idea how something like that could have gotten on television. I can't think of another show in recent memory that strays so far off the path of realism that most television embraces. This was a fairy tale, and damn proud to be one.
The pilot episode was directed by Barry Sonnenfeld, the director of the Addams Family and Men in Black movies, and it had his stamp all over it. The material was just this side of darkness, while somehow being whimsical and light about it.
The writing was just pure entertainment, fun and clever, and at moments snarky or serious in just the right measure. This is the sort of work that creator Bryan Fuller did on his also excellent but unfortunately short-lived television series Wonderfalls, and I'm happy he's got another medium for it here.
My only concern is this: as of right now, having seen just this one episode, I'm not sure I see where the series is here. It felt like a tight, perfect little 42 minute fairy tale that might have been perfectly at home in some light-hearted anthology series. Is there much variety to be mined here from the gruff and self-serving detective, the revived woman who brings tenderness from her own brush with death, and the sadly detached hero with the powers of life and death? The roles seem defined pretty tightly for there to be much room to play with in a series.
But, on the other hand, I think you could easily have drawn the same conclusion from just the pilot episode of Wonderfalls. And though it of course didn't really ever face the problem of how to change things up season after season, it did show in its slim 13 episodes that there was plenty of fun to be had within its concept. I hope the same will prove true here.
And I hope that unlike Wonderfalls, people catch on to Pushing Daisies, and that it can enjoy a longer life because of it. I give it an enthusiastic thumbs up. Indeed, it's the only one of this fall's new series I can say that about.
3 comments:
Yeah, I don't know what the heck happened there either, but it was kinda fun.
Glad you liked it. I've been pushing this show since I saw the pilot in May. I watched it again last night and enjoyed it all over again. I too hope it stays fresh and witty.
I'll try to catch this online, unless my wife caught it on the DVR. I think it's a small victory that the pilot made it to a national airing and that ABC has put much advertising behind it.
By the way, my wife says that the second episode of "Dirty Sexy Money" was great and put to rest her doubts about where the show could be going after the pilot. I haven't seen this yet either.
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