Closet Sci-Fi Geek

Pushing Daisies…Still Good & Getting a Full Season, Hurrah!

The big concern with Pushing Daisies was whether or not it could keep it up after the pilot. Last night’s episode (episode four) was the best since the pilot and proves that the show has a lot more it can do.

(Unfortunately, the World Series meant that Daisies got it’s lowest ratings so far last night…but who’s quibbling with over 9 million viewers?)

Last night’s episode was exceptionally fun and magical, with a strange quirky love story and…windmills! (Best line of the show: “I was born into the life of windmillery.”) The fantastic singing of Kristin Chenoweth was featured again to my great delight - and a They Might Be Giants song to boot! (Anyone who complains about her singing on this show is a curmudgeon. I’m sorry.)

Better yet - the show has been picked up for a full 22-episode season. Even if it does not come back next year, 22 episodes will make me incredibly happy.

Note to ABC: Don’t listen to the naysayers and let the vision here continue. Keep the singing, keep the quirkiness, keep it cute. Trying to please everyone with this would be a huge mistake.

Supernatural’s Season Three Soundtrack Sucks!!

Hey! What happened to the fantastic soundtrack on Supernatural!? This season they appear to be replacing the classic rock and heavy metal with cheesy generic elevator versions of the same. While we have seen a few good songs (”Hell’s Bells” by AC/DC), as the season progresses I feel like they are trying to save money and not put as many good songs into each episode.

Powers That Be - the soundtrack is one of the elements of Supernatural that keeps it a quality show. Don’t skimp on it. If you think we’re not noticing it, we are.

On a positive note: The episodes themselves have otherwise been terrific. I loved the Star Trek homage they did with the shapeshifting salt sucking kids, as well as last week’s black comedy rabbit foot episode.

Hey! Nielsen

The Nielsen company - you know, those powerful folks who put little boxes in certain mysterious homes and thus doom the rest of us to crap TV - has launched a new website, Hey! Nielsen. You can go there and rank your favorite television shows, personalities, and websites.

Already the sci-fi community has hit the site hard, with overwhelming (and probably overkill) responses for Stargate Atlantis, Supernatural, and The Dresden Files. Controversy is already ensuing over the Hey! Nielsen spamming, as certain people with way too much time on their hands are now getting into pissing contests with shows they don’t like. Still, it’s probably a good idea to go over there, get an account, and make your voice heard.

Sure, it is just TV, and when it comes down to it there are more important things in the world to be speaking out about - remember a little thing called “democracy,” for example? - but I suppose a well-entertained audience that’s not watching total mindless drivel is more likely to be a better electorate. Or, at least, I tell myself that…

Pushing Daisies Premiere - Absolutely to Die For!

If you have read this blog regularly you know I don’t gush much. I do have my shows that I am loyal to but more often than not I have a lot of lukewarm things to say at best. Last week I was happy to give a positive review for Reaper, which totally surprised me in its fresh take on what could be a tired premise.

But that did not prepare me for the shock and awe I felt at watching the first episode of Pushing Daisies. I’d heard some of the hype…but thought, “How new and interesting could a show about bringing the dead back be? It’s probably just a poor Dead Like Me clone.”

How new and interesting indeed? Well, when you consider it’s coming from the TV genius who brought us the fantastic and sadly short-lived Wonderfalls, prepare to be astonished.

From the opening sequence, where our hero is running through a field of yellow daisies as a child, to the first shot of his mystical pie shop, to the bathroom in a funeral home, we’re drawn into a beautiful, mysterious world. The series is filmed more like a magical movie than a typical fast-paced television show. Pushing Daisies is a feast for the eyes - bright colors, fantastic locales, and a set design that says today while retaining a mythical, timeless quality.

The comparisons to Tim Burton are inevitable, but notably to his pinnacle film Big Fish (one of my favorite movies) and not necessarily his cheesy excess. I sat there and felt I was watching a movie, not a TV show…and that’s a wonderful feeling to feel during prime time. To feel that sense of wonder and magic from plain ole television…all I can say is…wow…

I don’t want to get into the whole story…but sufficed to say, we have a guy who can bring back the dead (but with consequences), a girl he loves but he can’t touch (literally), and a host of quirky characters (including the fantastic Swoosie Kurtz).

I was concerned that the mundane aspects of the television concept - bringing back the dead to discover their murderer - would drag the show back down to TV banality. Instead, they use the opportunity to provide insightful and humorous observations on the human condition while pushing forward the obvious character development…and the meat of the show, which is the budding love between two people who have the chasm of death between them.

Quirky, well-written, and filled with heart, Pushing Daisies is not sure to be a hit (since it will be over some people’s heads) but it is sure to become a cult classic at least.

Not everyone will get or enjoy this show. This is a show for dreamers, for people with imagination, for people who still believe that somewhere fairy tales are real. But for me, this show was so sweet - and sweet is the word for it - and heartwarming that I could not help it but cry at the end by a simple gesture of our star-crossed lovers.

Whether the show can continue the magic week after week remains to be seen, but I will be forever touched by episode one. Wow. Wow wow wow wow wow.

Please, ABC, give Pushing Daisies a chance! Don’t be stupid and pull it if it doesn’t catch on immediately! Let it breathe!