Finally!
By The Misfit | October 6, 2007
Every once in a blue moon a movie or book or TV show captures my soul in a way like no other. It’s almost as if the stars align in just the right formation. Shaun of the Dead did it for me, as did the Harry Potter books, but TV is usually more miss than hit – There are shows I love, of course, namely House, but I can’t tell you how many times I’ve had my hopes lifted only to have them dashed from sheer disappointment. As a result, I very rarely ever believe the hype.
With any new show, the pilots generally aren’t all that captivating – take Moonlight and The Big Bang Theory, for instance. I watched the pilot for the latter and was a bit insulted at how contrived it was – I have no problem with playing off of stereotypes, but there were no surprises, no different way of looking at things. Revenge of the Nerds it’s not. The pilot for the former was also contrived, with typical story lines, but there is ample room to improve and I did notice a distinct improvement in the second episode. I don’t think it’ll ever truly be a stand-out show, but it’ll be guilty-pleasure fun to watch.
Even more rare than an amazing TV show is an amazing pilot episode. I knew from the trailers that Pushing Daisies was something I wanted to check out. I held back on the hope a bit because most of the time trailers are not a good way to judge whether a show is going to be good or not. But within the first five minutes I knew it was something special.
The Pie-lette began with young Ned and his dog, Digby, romping through a field of bright white and yellow daisies – an idealistic and romantic look at the simple joys of childhood on a day that nothing could possibly mar – until they come upon a two-lane road dissecting the field; Digby continues his frolic into the middle of the road and gets smacked by a semi.
That’s the point when I knew that Pushing Daisies was something special. In the spirit of complete disclosure, that’s also when I had my first giggle. (I have a history of giggling at things during movies and TV shows that would appall most people.) I simply love dark comedies because of their irreverence, and Pushing Daisies contains a healthy dose.
Bryan Fuller, the writer, obviously loves to play with words – his dialogue is witty and his use of alliteration made me absolutely salivate. He managed to capture a charmingly sweet innocence in such a dark subject without a sense of trying too hard – something that most people tank. The use of colors, both light and dark, is impressive and gives a sense of being off-kilter because there’s such a distinction between the two and because they’re not used in the “normal” way of dark alluding to bad and light alluding to good.
For a recap of the entire episode, check out the review by ohamanda at The Disney Blog.
I’ll be patiently waiting for the next episode.
Topics: tv for the misfit | No Comments »
October 8th, 2007 at 12:25 pm
Wow! You’re recap was better than mine! You captured exactly what I was thinking about the alliteration and the colors, etc. Blah blah. Like I said, you said it best!
October 8th, 2007 at 12:45 pm
I don’t know about all that – yours was great! But I appreciate the compliment, for sure.
October 8th, 2007 at 8:02 pm
Thanks for the review! I am so used to there being nothing to watch on Wednesday nights, that I forgot the pilot episode was on (despite quantities of ads on all the busses downtown….).
October 9th, 2007 at 1:31 pm
Yeah – TV has definitely taken a turn for the worse, for the most part.
But in good news, you can watch the pilot online at the ABC site.