Pushing Daisies

Wires · #1 10-06-2007, 11:52 AM

Anyone catch this? The wife and I watched it this morning and I thought it was insanely good. Quirky, likeable characters, dark humor, forbidden love. Of course this means that it will last five episodes, have me completely hooked and then promptly get canceled.

Hopefully not but I think it may be over the head of the average couch potato.

The show was created by Brian Fuller who also did Wonderfalls and Dead Like Me.

Avalanche333 · #2 10-06-2007, 11:59 AM

This has been the only new show of the season that I've watched, and I loved the pilot. It's got that quirky and funny quality, and I love the way the show looks. To get gay for a second, it's also one of the most romantic things I've seen in a long, long time. Just watch this show.

I'm a little afraid that the pilot was so good, that they wont have anywhere to go after it, so I'm a little tentative for the second episode, but I can't wait. If you guys want just a happy show, this does it perfectly.

And it's got Chi McBride, who ruled in Boston Public, so it's got that too.

Five-Star · #3 10-06-2007, 01:25 PM

It was a great first episode. I'm glad I caught it on Wednesday. My big problem is the first half hour is going up against "Back to You". So I'll have to flip back and forth for that part. I'm frankly surprised that no one made a thread in OOT about this show until now. I was hoping they wouldn't have solved her murder so quickly and it was a storyline for the whole season. I hope this show does well.

KneeCo · #4 10-06-2007, 01:27 PM

[ QUOTE ]
I watched the pilot over the summer, tried way way way too hard.

OMG LOOK AT ME I'M SO CUTE AND CLEVER OMG!!!

Also, Gray's + Desperate Housewives both suck, and now I hate them even more for making TV producers think narration = great. Other than AD, narration pretty much always sucks and this show used way too much of it.

[/ QUOTE ]

Jack of Arcades · #5 10-06-2007, 01:34 PM

I love it. I'm a big fan of Kristin Chenowith

Wires · #6 10-06-2007, 01:59 PM

"I watched the pilot over the summer, tried way way way too hard."

Actually the show is quite restrained for the genre.

A quirky, colorful show like Daisies is always going to be accused of trying too hard by people who are turned off by quirky, colorful shows.

Aloysius · #7 10-06-2007, 02:01 PM

Posted this in The Lounge TV thread couple weeks ago:

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
MrWookie,

The premise for Pushing Daisies seems gimmicky and more suited to be a 12-issue comic book miniseries, but I'll give the first few episodes a chance on the DVR. If it sucks, I'll let Aloysius fall on the sword for that. In general though, his level of taste is high.

[/ QUOTE ]

Haha... thanks I guess [img]/images/graemlins/tongue.gif[/img]

I've actually only seen the pilot for Pushing Daisies, have not gotten a chance to view other episodes. But in the many years I've been a part of pilot seasons, this screening received one of the best responses I've seen, almost uniformly praised as "amazing".

The premise is very high concept and seems gimmicky, but it's executed brilliantly... the acting is very good and the writing is very above average for a network one-hour.

Also Barry Sonnenfeld directed the pilot. The look of the world he creates is really captivating (think Edward Scissorhands-esque) and a unique template going-forward for the series.

So I would definitely recommend watching the premiere, and seeing if it's something you'd enjoy and want to stick with.

-Al

[/ QUOTE ]

Aloysius · #8 10-06-2007, 02:21 PM

[ QUOTE ]
"I watched the pilot over the summer, tried way way way too hard."

Actually the show is quite restrained for the genre.

A quirky, colorful show like Daisies is always going to be accused of trying too hard by people who are turned off by quirky, colorful shows.

[/ QUOTE ]

I'd agree with this and personally thought the pilot felt very organic- not forced at all.

But it's just a question of taste levels and expectations. If you're going in ready to slam it because the premise seems so silly, sure, you probably won't like it. And to be fair, it's very difficult to execute on such a high concept premise, so I can see people just not buying into this world.

Ironic though how a network airs an incredibly original series, gets criticized for "trying too hard", when considering the standard complaint that everything is recycled / retread.

[ QUOTE ]

The show was created by Brian Fuller who also did Wonderfalls and Dead Like Me.

[/ QUOTE ]

Also staffed as consulting producer for Heroes - sure IMDB can tell you which eps. he's credited with writing.

-Al

Wires · #9 10-06-2007, 02:26 PM

[ QUOTE ]

Also staffed as consulting producer for Heroes - sure IMDB can tell you which eps. he's credited with writing.

-Al

[/ QUOTE ]

I read that he wrote a handful of episodes one of which was "Company Man" which may have been the best episode of the season.

EDIT: imdb states he wrote 2 eps

Aloysius · #10 10-06-2007, 02:41 PM

Wires - cool, good to know, and I really did think the writing on Pushing Daisies pilot was incredibly good.

(I actually don't watch Heroes at all but I figure the nerds here who do might be interested to know this.)

As an aside, typically a writer staffed on a TV series will get official credit for 2-4 episodes. But Fuller was in the writer's room pitching story ideas, editing, etc. for the entire series, and I think he was a "consulting producer" which is fairly high position in the room, so he probably had a decent amount of influence on Heroes overall.

-Al