Of all the new shows headed our way this fall, Pushing Daisies is one of only two on my "Must Watch" list (and given the changes going on with Bionic Woman, I'm losing a bit of confidence in it).
The whole concept of the show is a bit bizarre- a guy who can bring dead things back to life with a touch... and kill them with another touch, but with the caveat that if he doesn't touch said thing again within a minute, something else will die instead. It takes a light-hearted, if a bit morbid, approach to things, but I wonder how well the quirkiness will work in a series.
I watched the pilot ep and... it was fun. Strange, but fun. The characters are almost cartoonish and the color schemes and sets (particularly with the Aunties' house) veer that way too, sometimes. It reminds me a bit of Tim Burton's stuff; very surreal at times.
Kristen Chenoweth was lovely. She's actually one of the main reasons I had any interest in the show (and the cartoonish nature of things suits her perfectly). The other reason I was curious is because I had the nagging feeling of, "Haven't I seen this somewhere before?" And I still maintain there are some points of similarity to a certain gimmick in Torchwood, but that show most definitely didn't play it for laughs.
I'm not sure how well this tilted perspective will work in the long run; what's fine in a 90 minute movie might get a little tiring spread out over an entire season. Even during the pilot there were times when I wished it wasn't quite so forcibly weird. Hopefully things will smooth out as the show continues (assuming audiences are curious enough to stay tuned). There's certainly a lot of interesting material to work with and I like most of the characters. Lee Pace, who plays Ned, has a certain geekish charm to him and Chi McBride looks like he'll be having fun.
And for the Harry Potter obsessives out there (who probably know this already) the Narrator is voiced by Jim Dale, who did all the audiobooks.
One thing did bother me in the pilot, though.
Still, it's good stuff. I hope folks will check it out. But keep in mind that it's a bit quirkier than the usual primetime fare.
The whole concept of the show is a bit bizarre- a guy who can bring dead things back to life with a touch... and kill them with another touch, but with the caveat that if he doesn't touch said thing again within a minute, something else will die instead. It takes a light-hearted, if a bit morbid, approach to things, but I wonder how well the quirkiness will work in a series.
I watched the pilot ep and... it was fun. Strange, but fun. The characters are almost cartoonish and the color schemes and sets (particularly with the Aunties' house) veer that way too, sometimes. It reminds me a bit of Tim Burton's stuff; very surreal at times.
Kristen Chenoweth was lovely. She's actually one of the main reasons I had any interest in the show (and the cartoonish nature of things suits her perfectly). The other reason I was curious is because I had the nagging feeling of, "Haven't I seen this somewhere before?" And I still maintain there are some points of similarity to a certain gimmick in Torchwood, but that show most definitely didn't play it for laughs.
I'm not sure how well this tilted perspective will work in the long run; what's fine in a 90 minute movie might get a little tiring spread out over an entire season. Even during the pilot there were times when I wished it wasn't quite so forcibly weird. Hopefully things will smooth out as the show continues (assuming audiences are curious enough to stay tuned). There's certainly a lot of interesting material to work with and I like most of the characters. Lee Pace, who plays Ned, has a certain geekish charm to him and Chi McBride looks like he'll be having fun.
And for the Harry Potter obsessives out there (who probably know this already) the Narrator is voiced by Jim Dale, who did all the audiobooks.
One thing did bother me in the pilot, though.
Spoiler:
Still, it's good stuff. I hope folks will check it out. But keep in mind that it's a bit quirkier than the usual primetime fare.
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