“Pushing Daisies” — Pigeon
Of all the “case-a-week” dramas on the networks this fall featuring nerdy guys with super-powers, Pushing Daisies is the only one that can regularly hold my entire for the entire hour. Granted, that’s about the lowest praise one could heap upon a television show, but sadly it’s true. Chuck and Reaper both have their charms, but as the weeks have gone by I find myself less and less invested in what is actually happening on screen and tend to multitask. Chuck while opening my mail. Reaper while folding clothes. At least with Pushing Daisies I enjoy the actual process of watching the show. That is, after all, the whole damn point, right? More after the jump…
This week’s episode continued to push network television to new visual heights — specifically in the scenes at the windmill farm, which looked absolutely gorgeous. Like I said last week, the show certainly treads a fine line between cute and nauseating preciousness, but I’m not sure how much this really matters anymore. Tonally, the series is pretty locked in and one would have to assume the audience has either said I like this or I don’t by this point (and given the show’s recent full season order, it appears that most have said yes).
I continue to be impressed by the creativity in the story telling. With the help of a very understated (and maybe a little bored) narrator we’re allowed all sorts of asides that fill out the gaps in the plot as well as provide some of the episode’s best comedy (the rest of the comedy is placed squarely in the mouth of Chi McBride, who utter contempt for this “magical romance” really cuts down on a lot of the cutesiness permeated throughout most of the rest of the hour. His line deliveries are perfect and keeps the series on a leash, without which is could easily spiral out of control into a giant ball of Jiffy-popped, sugar-coated, happiness on a stick.
I also have to give props to the scene where Olive and the two aunts drove to the windmill town following the homing pigeon while singing They Might Be Giant’s “Birdhouse For Your Soul.” Pushing Daisies knows how to incorporate singing without it coming off as Laughlin-esque.
Tags: ABC, Pushing Daisies
October 25th, 2007 at 4:55 pm
Not only did that TMBG song refer back to their conversation in the earlier scene, but it’s also an in-joke. The name of the band was Don Quixote’s justification for jousting with the windmills!
I love this show! Plays hob with my concept of a TV Universe, but it doesn’t matter. There’s been only one thing on TV that I could compare this to and that’s Fractured Fairy Tales! Jim Dale is the new Edward Everett Horton, LOL!