Pushing Daisies: Second Touch, Dead Again... But Not Forever

Before I get into the Mel Brooks goodness, I had to do this post covering the "series finale" of Pushing Daisies. Last night, the final episode produced aired, meaning that for many people, the adventures of Ned, Chuck, Olive, Emerson, Lily, and Vivian are done. Bryan Fuller and co. modified the ending of "Kerplunk" to act as a kind of wrap-up, which was fine enough (I'll get back to it later), but many plotlines are unresolved, and will be picked up in comic book form later this year. There are also rumors of a movie, but I am less hopeful about that than I once was.

In one sense, "Kerplunk"'s story was fitting for a series finale because Lily and Vivian finally got back into the pool to become the Darling Mermaid Darlings again. The theme of the episode was new beginnings, which mirrors the pilot (Chuck got a new beginning). However, the episode was originally meant to be a turning point, not an "ending" (although, as the ending narration pointed out, and ending is nothing but a new beginning); Lily and Vivian get back into show business because of the death of a member of their rival synchronized swimming team, and the manager of an aquatic showpark needs a replacement. Oh, and by the way, the death was one of the most fantastic of the series, and that is saying something. The surviving member, a prima donna who is known as a spotlight hog, does everything to stay in the show, and when she fails, she tells Vivian Lily's dark secret: Lily slept with Vivian's fiance, leading to the birth of Chuck. The rival also allows us to see into Lily's soul; the rival team was also composed of sisters, and the surviving sister slept with the murdered sister's husband. Instead of sympathizing with her, Lily grew to hate the rival even more, because she saw herself in the rival, and, as the narrator said, there was nothing Lily hated more than herself.

Chuck and Ned, meanwhile, had to deal with the aunts' new success when they booked a tour through Europe. Ned, who helped broker the deal, thought Chuck would be ecstatic about their success, but it actually made her very upset. Chuck knew that she couldn't actually speak to her aunts, but as long as she could be near them, everything would be fine. If they were to go to Europe, she would have to choose between following them and leaving Ned behind, or staying with Ned and worrying about her aunts. I don't know if the episode would have ended the same if it hadn't been retooled, but I'm not sure how else it could have ended. Chuck finally revealed herself to Lily and Vivian, which helped break up their fight over Chuck herself (Vivian was in the process of throwing Lily out). I'm fairly certain that Bryan Fuller wanted a Chuck/aunts reunion before the series finale because (1) it would make for good stories and (2) they could only keep the aunts in the background for so long.

Emerson and Olive were important in the episode, but they didn't have any huge revelations/plot lines aside from helping in the investigation of the death. As usual, though, they got some of the best lines and actions. Every time Olive tried to imitate the oppressed male aqua-robat was hilarious, and Emerson's speech at the end about Ned and Chuck was extremely touching, and showed that, under all his sarcasm and anger, Emerson truly enjoyed the company of the Pie Maker and the girl named Chuck.

Finally, the show ended with a monologue from the narrator as the camera panned through Papen County, visiting the various locations we've seen throughout the series (the windmills from "Pigeon", the lighthouse from "The Legend of Merle McQuoddy", the nunnery from the beginning of Season 2, and the sewers, with a CGI Oscar Verbinius), taking moments to stop and give updates on the various characters. Olive and Randy Mann got together and Olive opened a macaroni restaurant called The Intrepid Cow, while Emerson's pop-up book finally brought his daughter back to him. These were likely hints at what was to come had the series continued. Sadly, we didn't hear anything about Ned's father and why he left Ned or why he saved his life in "The Norwegians". Charles Charles didn't return (by the way, how is it that Lily and Vivian have the surname Charles as well?), and we still don't know who hired the guy who killed Chuck (though maybe that was never supposed to come back as a mystery). We don't know why Dwight Dixon wanted the pocket watches or what his true connection was to Charles Charles and Ned's father (we still don't know Ned's surname). Hopefully, we'll get the answers in the upcoming comic book, and maybe, MAYBE a movie. A man can hope.

Up next: There goes the planet...

Pushing Daisies: Their One Minute

In a sense, its kind of appropriate that Pushing Daisies is back from cancellation, because the show is only back for a limited time to tell us what it already had completed. Much like the people Ned brings back, who only get one minute to explain what they already knew, Pushing Daisies is only back to run through the final three produced episodes before leaving the airwaves forever (it will be brought back as a comic book and possibly a movie a la Serenity). Why couldn't ABC have brought this back full time and sacrificed a different show? I hear According to Jim is pretty awful.

The first episode since October is about Olive Snook and her feelings for Ned. The opening flashback revealed the details of her childhood kidnapping and stated that often in her life, she gets what she wants, just not the way she intended (in her first flashback, she got a horse through very roundabout methods). When she was young, she wanted her parents to notice her, and it wasn't until her kidnapping that they did... sort of. In the present, she wants nothing more than to have Ned notice her. Meanwhile, it seems like she is not noticing potential suitors left and right; last season had Alfredo Aldarisio (he probably would have come back if the writers' strike hadn't happened; the actor who played him is known for his work on Broadway and a lot of people thought he was going to get a musical number) and this year as Ned's friend Randy Mann. In the last episode, Olive's love for Ned was fully reignited when he hinted that he may have had some feelings for her at one point. This week, the two of them had to pretend to be a couple, which allowed her to hold hands with and kiss Ned (they kissed once last season, but it was brief; this time around, it was a long, awkward kiss).

Why did they have to pretend? Olive's "kidnappers" recently escaped from prison and tracked her down. It turns out that they didn't so much kidnap her as she tried to run away from home to make her parents miss her, and they ended up together. The three bonded, but when the kidnappers did the right thing and returned Olive, they scolded her parents for their neglect. In return, the parents falsely accused them of kidnapping Olive. She constantly wrote them letters in prison, telling them of her love for Ned (among many many other things), and they believed the pair were engaged. Thinking it would break the mens' hearts, Ned decided to try a "normal" relationship, one that didn't require gloves to hold hands or saran wrap to kiss.

In the wake of the Charles Charles misadventure, Ned decided to forsake his powers and live a normal life. Therefore, he was involved in Olive's story rather than the murder mystery with Emerson and Chuck. The murder stories are never the highlights of the episodes, and this one was kind of dead weight, but as always, Emerson and Chuck were entertaining. Anyway, the purpose of Ned's adventure was to teach him that trying to be normal wasn't working because he kept trying to do what he THOUGHT people wanted of him, not what he thought was right. He eventually enraged Olive enough to finally get over her love for him, allowing her to finally see that other people were interested in her. Sadly for Ned, when he saw Olive and Randy together, jealously welled up within him. Whether he is jealous of another man having Olive or jealous of the ability to actually hold one's love remains to be seen, but it looks like things are going to get very rocky for the Chuck-Ned-Olive triangle... or it would if the show were actually still going on. Oh, and by the way, Olive sings again!



I was so happy to see Pushing Daisies again; it had everything that makes the show great. Witty dialogue, bright visuals, grisly deaths that seem almost normal, and alliteration. Then I got a little sad because I remembered that there are only 2 episodes left. And look what was to come; this screenshot isn't from "Window Dressed To Kill", but I had to put it up because Gina Torres plays Emerson's wife.

Up next: Angel #6...

Pushing Daisies: Predictions

In my last post on Pushing Daisies, I meant to make some predictions about what could have been had the show gone on, because Bryan Fuller has said that he had a definite planned ending for the story of Ned and Chuck. I know that it won't do much good, since it will be nothing but speculation that will likely never be (dis)proven, but it's fun, I guess. But first, I don't know why I didn't figure out who the masked man was in "The Norwegians", but I'm kinda glad I didn't, because I was blown away by the reveal at the end. **SPOILER ALERT** Ned's father briefly showed up in the Pie Hole in the season premiere, and the reintroduction of Ned's half-brothers has led us to believe that Ned's father will make a reappearance sometime this season, but I was not expecting it like that. I had a hard time believing that Charles Charles was the masked man who saved Ned and Olive, but I couldn't think of anyone else who it could be. So now, the questions are these: why did Ned's dad have to conceal his identity from Ned (aside from any obvious explanation of Ned would resent him)? Why did he need to wear gloves when he touched Ned? And why is he back now (or has he been silently lurking in the shadows for longer than we've realized)?

Anyway, I have often wondered whether the people Ned touches and leaves alive can ever die again of natural causes. Digby is still alive, which leads me to believe that only a second touch from Ned can re-dead the people (I am still not sure if the people Ned touches can be killed through methods that would kill a normal person, such as being shot or stabbed; I'm inclined to think no, because many people brought back are in pretty messed up conditions). So I imagined an ending where Ned is very old, and Chuck is still young and beautiful. This ending has a few possibilities. One has me imagining Ned touching Chuck while on his deathbed, so they are reunited in death. Another sees Ned dying without touching Chuck again, and when Chuck kisses Ned's dead body, she learns that the touch only works if Ned is alive, and she is doomed to be alone forever. As you can see, I am very sadistic when it comes to fictional characters. This is a dark story (in spite of the bright colors), and I feel something like the above ideas would fit it well. But now, we'll probably never know Fuller's intentions. Oh well.

Up next: More great stuff...

Pushing Daisies: The Future?

So, all season, Pushing Daisies has been building up long story arcs that have been extremely captivating. Last year, most episodes were fairly stand-alone. Viewers had to watch each week to keep up with the characters' lives, but most stories were self-contained. The show did try to introduce a recurring story (Molly Shannon's salt-water taffy seller was supposed to be involved in a multi-episode arc dealing with her murder of the health inspector, but the writers' strike cut that short). The show was great, but I would have liked a little more overarching stories aside from the Ned/Chuck relationship (not that it wasn't great, because it was). Well, this year, my wish was granted. Then ABC cancelled the fucking show. Ugh.

This year, the show set up the return of Ned's father and the search for Emerson Cod's daughter in the first episode. From out of Ned's dad story, we were introduced to Ned's young half brothers and Dwight Dixon, who quickly became my new favorite character. I like to think that, had the show gone on, Dwight would have returned somehow, because he was far too compelling to leave buried in Chuck's dad's grave. Speaking of which, the end of last night's episode, "The Legend of Merle McQuoddy", set up one hell of a plot line. Chuck tricking Ned into not redeading her dad was great, but now that the half-decomposed man with a grudge against Ned is on the loose, things will likely get very interesting for the Pie Hole crew (or, at least, they would had the show gone on). Oh, and Olive as a junior PI was frickin' priceless. Speaking of Olive, we will be cheated out of her songs, which are always a pleasure:



Bryan Fuller has said that he is in talks to make a comic book continuation, and is hopeful of a movie, but right now, I'm kind of pessimisstic about the movie, which I would infinitely prefer over a comic (a comic could do things with visuals that a movie could not, but the actors breathe life into the characters, and their absense in the comic would truly be felt). Also, there have been reports that Fuller is reshooting the final episode to make it more final. In one sense, I guess this is good because we won't be left with as many loose ends, but there was obviously so much more that Fuller wanted to cover, and I doubt he'll be able to do what he envisioned by reshooting one episode. Oh well. It has been great while its lasted, and I'm sure the final four episodes will continue to be great. But there was so much more that was yet to be seen.

Up next: Finals are almost over, so plan for new ideas soon...

Pushing Daisies: A Love Song

I know that I've already addressed the cancellation of Pushing Daisies, but after tonight's incredible episode, the reality of the situation became all the more painful. The show has always excelled at simultaneously tickling the funny bone and tugging the heart strings, and tonight was one of the best episodes yet.

Note: Some spoilers...

The Dwight Dixon story line has successfully captivated me, and though I am sad to see its end, I know that there is still more to learn about this mysterious man. Chuck's little deception will certainly help shed some light on that subject... and will cause a lot of tension between her and Ned. Watching Chuck deal with her own guilt was hard enough, but watching how Ned will react will be something else entirely. Also, was I the only one who thought that the death in exchange for breaking the 60 second rule was going to be Lily?

The other story followed Ned and Olive at a baking competition, and we were treated to a Wonderfalls crossover, a disturbing reanimated body (extra crispy), and some great Olive moments. I love Ned and Chuck and the things they do to be together (they have found a great way to sleep in the same bed), but I can't help but feel for Olive (let's just say that I feel her pain, which made this episode a little tough tonight). After all, who could not love her after this:



I can't believe there are only 5 episodes left. I still remember the huge marketing push that ABC did before the season began (there are still a few ads on the trains and buses around the city), and how much hope it gave me for a full-length season and a long lasting show. Sadly, Bryan Fuller will once again be given the shaft and will be sent back to Heroes (another sinking ship, though that is for quality reasons). Well, at least what we got was incredible. There will probably be a few more posts as the remaining episodes air.

Edit: There are two videos because the second adds a little context. I can't get rid of the original video I posted though (which is why in the Eternal Sunshine post, the one trailer is posted twice).

Up next: Hope springs eternal...

ABC: Destiny Calls

So I bring good news and bad news with this post. As you can see, the new poster for the fifth season of LOST has been released, and I think it's pretty great. It nicely reflects the tone of the first season poster and has a side-by-side comparison of who is still lost. Also, check out this trailer:



With only two seasons to go, we'll hopefully start getting some bigger answers to questions, but I must admit that the weekly thrills are strong enough to keep me invested in this show.And now the bad news. And what bad news it is. ABC has decided to cancel Pushing Daisies, which is probably my favorite show currently in production (though I guess that isn't a proper descriptive anymore). The story of Ned the Piemaker and a girl named Chuck is one of the sweetest, funniest, and darkest worlds I have ever seen. Everything about it seemed to click with me, and, based on last year's ratings, it looked like the public at large was finally developing good taste. Sadly, there are now only about 9 episodes left, and what will become the finale apparently ends on a bit of a cliffhanger.

Bryan Fuller has said that he will do everything possible to finish the story in a movie or a comic book (he has said that he has a planned ending to Ned and Chuck's relationship), but time will tell if either of those comes to pass.

Up next: How happy is the blameless vestal's lot!...

Pushing Daisies: Back On Top

I'll admit that while I very much enjoyed the season premiere of Pushing Daisies, I think that part of it was just that I was so excited to have the show back. The premiere was certainly good, but was definitely not the best episode yet. The second episode was similar; very good television, but only good Pushing Daisies. This week's episode, "Bad Habits", was certainly the best of the season so far, and ranks up there with episodes like "Bitches" and "Pigeon".

This episode wraps up Olive's arc at the nunnery and takes us a step closer to resolving one of the overarching plotlines. I can't wait to see the repercussions of the final scene, because although the episode ended happily, the information will cause a lot of grief in the long run.

This episode was full of great dark humor and beautifully tragic (or tragically beautiful?) moments. Most notable for me was Olive's "final thoughts" as she fell from the bell tower (let's just say that I sympathize with her unrequited love more than I should).

Unfortunately, I've been hearing reports that ratings haven't been that good this season. PLEASE tell your friends about this show! There is no better combination of sweetness, satire, and darkness out there, and this is a show that deserves a nice long run!

Up next: Smoke gets in your eyes...

Pushing Daisies: A Touch of Awesome

Because I am law school, my available time to do my nerdy things, like watch TV and write this blog (I've been pretty good about it lately, though) has vastly decreased. However, I am going to do everything I can to stay on top of at least one show this year, Pushing Daisies. I don't know if I'll be able to watch and/or write about it every week, but this was the first new episode we've had in many months, and I couldn't not acknowledge it!

It looks like a few months have passed since Aunt Lily made her shocking revelation to Olive, and although Ned and Chuck are back on speaking terms, things aren't any less complicated at the Pie Hole. Olive's role as secret keeper for Lily (she's Chuck's mother), Chuck (she's alive), and herself (she loves Ned) is taking its toll on her, and when Aunts Lily and Vivian show up at the Hole, she nearly goes crazy. In order to keep her quiet, Lily shuttles her off to the nunnery where she went to give birth to Chuck (let's just say she has a pretty good reason to keep the maternity issue a secret from Vivian).

Meanwhile, Ned, Emerson, and Chuck are still solving mysteries together, and this week, due to Chuck's vast knowledge of bees, she takes her most active role yet by becoming the inside (wo)man at a honey-based cosmetics company. Of course, while the mysteries are fun, they are not why we watch this show. The crazy sets, great word-play, and sweetly mature double entendres make this show like nothing else on television. I commented to a friend that my love for this show may be unhealthy for a guy my age, but I don't care. It makes me smile and breaks my heart at the same time, and I like stories that make me run the emotional gamut.

Upcoming stories look like they'll expand on things that were hinted upon last year, and I cannot wait to see what happens next.

Up next: Shades of gray...

Heroes: The Good, The Great, and The Mediocre

Heroes is in many ways a televised comic book. The first year had a season-long story that connected all of the characters together, but smaller story arcs were told across three or four episodes, while each episode told a thematic story about the various heroes. These episode-long thematic stories and short arcs serve to build up our characters and reveal their motivations and experiences to us, which ultimately impact how they act in regard to the main story. Speaking of which, this grand story involves a nuclear explosion in New York City. Two characters' abilities set this story in motion; Isaac Mendes paints this bleak future, which allows the New York-based heroes to begin finding ways to stop it, while Hiro Nakamura accidentally traveled to the date of the explosion and experienced it before returning to the present day. This set him and his friend Ando Masahashi on their quest to New York, where Hiro hoped he would fulfill his destiny of becoming a true hero.

For the most part, the structure of the mini-stories feeding into the big one works very well. Everything that happens somehow directs the characters to be in a position to somehow deal with the New York storyline; Matt Parkman's manhunt for Sylar brings him to New York to pursue the killer, while Nathan's dealings with criminal Linderman gives him a new perspective on what it means to be a hero. Claire's search for the truth about herself leads The Company to finding her, forcing Mr. Bennett to relocate her to keep her safe.

Speaking of which, I'd like to bring up the episode "Company Man", which was written by Bryan Fuller. This is an example of Heroes at its best; there are a lot of characters on the show, some of which seemed unnecessary, and most episodes tried to feature each of them. While this worked for the most part, there would be times when we felt like our favorite characters didn't get nearly as much screentime as we would have wished (and this forced their episode storyline to not be as fleshed out as possible). "Company Man" focused only on the Bennett family, Parkman, and Ted Sprague, a radioactive man who is on the run from the US government, and they were all involved in one story. Parkman and Sprague believed that The Company was responsible for their abilities, which were beginning to cause grief for the pair. Mr. Bennett is one of the most compelling characters on the show; his murky morality and secretive past (and present) led to some extremely great conflict both within himself, with his family (notably Claire) and other powered characters, like Parkman and Sprague.

Since the entire episode followed Parkman and Sprague attempting to hold the Bennett family hostage, the story had a more complete feeling than other episodes. This was the dramatic conclusion to the Parkman-and-Sprague-hunting-for-answers mini-arc, which was contained in the entire episode, as opposed to having the conclusion either truncated or spread across two episodes. "Company Man" also contained revelations for the characters (Mrs. Bennett learned about her daughter's powers) as well as for the audience. Bennett's boss was introduced (Eric Roberts rocks), Bennett's history with invisible man Claude (who we'd seen earlier as a sort of Yoda-esque character for Peter) was shown in flashbacks (and Claude was certainly a different man back then), and one of the season's most touching scenes ended the episode. Hopefully, we'll get a few more episodes that only focus on three or four of the characters in the future (SPOILER!!: I really hope that we get a Nathan-centric episode, assuming he pulls through the shooting).

I've mentioned how the immense cast can sometimes be a detriment for episode-by-episode storytelling, and that is the biggest flaw the first season displayed. Taken as a season, this is pretty forgivable, and it is much easier to deal with on DVD, since we can just pop in the next episode. There were a few other problems as well, though. Lack of explanation about certain characters' powers (Nikki) led to some confusion, while sometimes logic was sacrificed for the sake of story (Peter tended to be associated with these things). Finally, while Heroes was excellent at setting stories up, the conclusions weren't always as dramatic and astounding as they could have been; a lot of people complained a lot about the final battle of the season. I agree that it was less than what I was expecting, but it was by no means awful.

Fortunately, the first year of Heroes was a pleasure (if a slightly guilty one). The show proved that ubergeeky superhero stuff can be compelling drama and had the potential to be the next big superhero universe in a world that is dominated by superheroes decades old from two universes.

EDIT: I can't believe I forgot to mention this, but the world of Heroes is expanded online through an internet comic strip (that was later printed as a trade paperback containing the first bunch of stories; I don't know if this will continue though, since I have not heard anything about a second volume) that is updated every week. This serves to introduce characters (Hana Gittelman, who was in one or two episodes of the show, was barely a character on TV, but was a huge player in the comic stories) and reveal backstory about featured characters (Linderman's past with the father of Nathan and Peter Petrelli was told in these comics). I think that the writers have said that there is more material than airtime for the characters, and this allows them to flesh out their characters more. This is certainly a cool idea, but there are definitely fans who don't read the comics (I stopped after a while because the writing quality was definitely a step down from the televised stuff), and there are certain plot developments revealed in the comics that make the things on TV easier to follow (Hana's motivations and a possible return of Adam Monroe are revealed in the comics).

Up next: And then there was Season 2...

Heroes: Super Men and Women

Bryan Fuller did not create Heroes, but wrote for it during its first season; possibly the best episode of the series, "Company Man", was written by him. As a sci-fi fan, it is easy to see why he was drawn to this series, and while it is sad that he will no longer be contributing to it (he left to do Pushing Daisies), both Daisies and Heroes seem like they will be here for a while (unless the third season is anything like the second).

I'm still surprised that this show has taken off. In addition to the fact that Heroes is basically a televised comic book, I don't remember NBC promoting this show exceptionally well until after it started airing. I may not be remembering this properly, but I remember knowing that this show existed. There were plenty of posters that premiered at Comic-Con '06, but aside from the fact that we knew it would be about "normal people discovering superpowers", there wasn't much other information that I was aware of (though this doesn't prove much; many things have slipped past my radar). Then the pilot aired and things turned around. Despite mixed reviews, the ratings were huge and the first season became the new must-watch show (I started watching with the second episode and immediately went online and watched the series premiere).

Most of the praise given to the show was deserved (strangely, a fair amount of the negative reception was deserved as well, but more on that later). The story of a group of people discovering superpowers that they have trouble controlling and understanding was extremely captivating, and was supplemented by amazing special effects. There was a season-long arc that directed the characters, but the main point of season one (called "Genesis") was to introduce the various "heroes" to us.

It is very hard to find a true lead character, but I guess the closest thing in the first season was Peter Petrelli (though the biggest break-outs were definitely Claire Bennett, Mr. Bennett and Hiro Nakamura). Peter is a hospice nurse (first gripe: in a show that claimed that it followed "normal" people trying to deal with superpowers, Peter's normal life as a nurse disappeared pretty quickly) who only wants to help others. He helps others so that he does not have to focus on his own shortcomings and insecurities, of which he has many. He is a very admirable human being, he is kind and selfless, but he longs to be special. A series of dreams lead him to believe that he can fly, but the truth is so much more incredible... and dangerous. He has the ability to mimic the power of any other superhuman he meets, but his insecurities manifest in his inability to control these powers.

The power of flight was procured from his older brother, Nathan, a New York City Assistant District Attorney running for Congress (and is one of my favorite characters on the show). Nathan and Peter are nearly perfect mirrors for each other. Whereas Peter is open and optimistic, Nathan closes himself off and is often critical of humanity's ability to accept unfamiliar ideas. Peter would never compromise his values for the greater good, while Nathan gets in bed (figuratively) with organized crime; he hopes that the money they give him will help him get elected, which will allow him to do more good than he would be able to do as a private citizen. Both are inherently good people, though Nathan's goodness is much, much murkier than Peter's.

My other top favorite character is Mr. Bennett, a man who begins the series as a very shadowy personality who's agenda is kept a secret (unfortunately, the promotional materials kind of laid the "Mr. Bennett is evil" very thick, which is what led me to deduce where his character was really going to go). Bennett has no powers of his own, but he works for an organization that tracks and documents the actions of powered individuals. His daughter, Claire, is a cheerleader at a Texas high school, who discovers that she is invulnerable to harm. Mr. Bennett (his name is a highly-kept secret throughout the first year, which was done to enhance the mystery around him) works for a company (called The Company) that monitors the heroes. He joined them due to pure motivations (there are dangerous powers and dangerous people out there, like Sylar), but the organization has some shadowy motives. The story of the Bennett family follows Claire as she tries to figure out her origins (she's adopted) in order to understand herself and her powers, while Bennett has to determine how far he is willing to go to keep his job and keep his family safe (and to prove to the audience that he really does love his family).

Other major players include Hiro Nakamura, a Japanese salaryman/drone who discovers that he can manipulate space and time. He can stop time, teleport across distances and travel across time, allowing for the very interesting "Five Years Gone" episode, which takes place five years in the future and shows a darker side of our heroes. Matt Parkman is a telepathic cop who has perpetually been down on his luck. His dyslexia has prevented him from passing the detective exam, and no one ever seems to take him seriously. When his mind reading powers manifest, they are initially uncontrollable and he uses his accidental discoveries give him an edge at crime scenes and in the bedroom. Mohinder Surresh is a sort of anti-Bennett; he is a solo scientist who is also researching the heroes, but his motives are purely benevolent.

Unfortunately, not all of the characters work as well as the aforementioned heroes. Isaac Mendes, an artist who was able to paint the future while high on heroin, was always more of a plot device than a full-fledged character (his mural of New York City being atom-bombed was the impetus for the first season's plot). Unfortunately, his girlfriend Simone was even less of a character. This is sad because both had a lot of potential to be more interesting; Isaac's ability could have allowed him to be a power player at The Company, while Simone had many interesting stories planned for her, only to be abandoned by the writers. Finally, the family of D.L. Hawkins (phasing), Niki Sanders (super strength... sort of) and Micah Sanders (technopathy- think of Mitch Hundred from Ex Machina) never grabbed my attention. The most interesting of this group was D.L., but he wasn't introduced until around the seventh episode, and one of the coolest aspects of his character, a prisoner who could walk through walls, was basically ignored and rarely referenced (in a deleted scene, we see that he was originally going to be introduced in prison and we'd see his breakout). Micah filled the annoying kid role while Nikki's abilities were vague at best and was not written as well as the rest of the cast.

And then there's Sylar. Sylar is the kind of man The Company was designed for; he is unhinged and uses his powers for personal gain and to hurt others. And not only that, he has a mission to hunt down other powered individuals in order to increase his own power; you see, he is another kind of mirror for Peter. Peter acquires the powers of others by accident, and does so harmlessly. He is not looking to increase his power, but he uses his growing strength to try and help people. Sylar, on the other hand, has the ability to acquire other superpowers by devouring the brain of the holder of the power (he may also be part zombie).

Up next: The first season's story and themes...

Pushing Daisies: Storybook Love

The fact that this show has taken off continues to perplex me. When I first saw the TV spots for the show, I thought it looked interesting, but it could never last as a series. But then, the love story element was revealed, and being the sucker for tragic love stories that I am, I had found the new show of the season to check out. But I was still afraid that I was going to once again fall for a critical darling that would gain a very small (but very loyal, but very small) fanbase, which would die an early death. Instead, Pushing Daisies gained a sizable audience. The reviews are glowing, and were probably a factor in the early full-season pickup (the ratings are good, but it's not like they are LOST-sized), and I found a new show that is able to make me run the gamut emotionally almost every week, which is a feat very few shows are able to do.

I realize that my tastes aren't exactly the tastes of the average American, and the things about Pushing Daisies that make me smile every week may not be appealing to everyone. Some of you may think that I am about to sound like a crazy person when I talk about how the bright colors and silly puns can enthrall me. But if you're willing to set aside conventional ideas about what drama "should be", you will find a true gem of a television show.

Bryan Fuller has said that his goal for the show was to make it resemble a child's storybook, and along with Barry Sonnenfeld (who did visual work on the Men In Black films and the Addams Family films), he succeeds. An omniscient narrator, bright colors, seemingly innocent characters and clever wordplay (including alliteration and puns) create the sense that we are once again young children being fascinated by a whimsical picture book. But these childlike attributes cover up a much darker side of the world of Pushing Daisies. The world is brightly colored; even the morgue is painted with candy stripes. The narrator is omniscient, and he points out the dark nature of many of the characters. And those who don't hold dark secrets tend to have tortured pasts. Ned's childhood was fraught with despair; after his mom died (twice), his unloving father sent him away to a boarding school run by a cold staff and populated by cruel students. Olive hides her sadness with an overly enthusiastic personality, while Emerson has a painful family life that has yet to be fully explored. Oh, and the wordplay? There are many times when euphemisms for sex or violence are hidden behind more benign language.

Speaking of the visuals, you may have noticed that these posts contain many more pictures than I normally use. I love the promotional stills from Pushing Daisies; the sets and costumes are deliciously quirky, and the actors are very beautiful people, and I just can't get enough of seeing how the production designers put them all together.

But there is substance in addition to style (if there weren't, this would be nothing more than a very guilty pleasure). Watching these characters interact is incredibly fun to watch, even when the interactions break your heart. We know that, unless there is some big change to the rules, Ned and Chuck will never truly be a couple; intimacy is part of the package, and that is a luxury that they can never achieve. So it's fun watching them come up with ways to get around this handicap, such as using saran wrap to put between themselves when they kiss, or when they each held a monkey statuette and pressed the lips of the monkeys against each other's statue. But at the same time, it breaks the heart, because we as the audience know how futile their attempts truly are. Olive never fails to amuse; Kristen Chenoweth is a gifted actress who knows how to use herself to make great physical comedy. She is a very short actress and Lee Pace is very tall, and there is a scene where she stands up on a table to be eye-to-eye with him, only to realize that she's STILL shorter than him. She also is very adept at excess cheeriness (she wasn't the original G(a)linda in Wicked for nothing), which is funny until we remember that it is nothing but a front.

The show also uses musical theater as a way to set it apart from most other series on television. This isn't a musical show (not every episode features a song), but every now and then, characters will randomly burst into song:



These songs serve as a way to both express the emotions of the character singing (don't make a Whedon reference, don't make a Whedon reference... shit) and remind us that anything can happen on Pushing Daisies. And I do mean anything. Conventional logic is thrown out the window. This is a show that has featured a redneck Chinese man who is a descendant of a Confederate war hero ("I wanted to be a Jedi!"), a carrier pigeon has its wing replaced with that of a stuffed parrot's, and a scratch-and-sniff book proves to be a deadly weapon. If these examples aren't crazy enough (and you are caught up with the show), check out this preview for the new season:



By popular (enough) demand, here is a great crash course for those of you who haven't seen the first season:



I wish that I could have watched Buffy (and the other four seasons of Angel) when it was actually on television, so that I could talk about plot developments with other fans and speculate about what was to come. I am very happy to have found a show that makes me feel the same way and will allow me to do the aforementioned activities... wow I'm a nerd.

Up next: Holding out for some Heroes...

Pushing Daisies: The Facts of the Case

This is just wild speculation right now, but Pushing Daisies could one replace Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel at the top of my list of favorite television shows. Of course, only nine episodes have aired so far, and there is a long way to go before that happens, but if the quality we have seen continues (and grows), I will have to rearrange my list (ok, so I have to rearrange it anway, now that I've seen the end of Six Feet Under, more of How I Met Your Mother, and have now seen Deadwood, Spaced, Mad Men, and The L Word).

But the purpose of this post is to talk about Bryan Fuller's first show that has both been picked up for a second season and remains under his control (before this, it was one or the other). Lee Pace (who played Aaron Tyler on Wonderfalls) leads as Ned, an emotionally stunted man who has never been able to get too close to anyone. He is gifted/cursed (isn't that always the way in modern fiction) with a life-giving touch; if he comes in physical contact with any dead object, whether it be person, animal, or plant, he will imbue it with new life, or, really, with its old life. But if he ever touches it again, it will revert to its dead state, and will never be alive again. And if he does not return the being to death within a minute, something of equal size will die in order to keep the scales of life and death balanced (and this doesn't give the revived object immunity from Ned's second death-giving touch). Because of this, Ned is afraid of getting too close to anyone, since the desire to return them to life could become too great. Doing so would rob someone else of their life, and he would never be able to touch his beloved again.

Unfortunately for him, such a case occurs when he runs into his childhood sweetheart one day. But I get ahead of myself; Ned has become a piemaker (following in his mother's footsteps) and cuts costs by buying dead fruit, and returning it to life. He further finances his business through his dealings with Emerson Cod, a shady, money-obsessed private eye. Emerson accidentally discovered Ned's ability and immediately figured out a way to capitalize on it; Ned brings murder victims back to life and asks who killed them. With this information, Emerson "solves" the case, collects the reward money, and splits it 50-50 with Ned. It is this arrangement that brings Ned back to his hometown to bring Charlotte "Chuck" Charles back to life. The two were sweethearts as children (sort of) but after the death of Ned's mother, Chuck's father (due to Ned bringing his mother back to life), and the second death of Ned's mother, Ned was shipped away to boarding school, never to see Chuck alive again. And Ned's greatest fear is realized when he cannot bring himself to return Chuck to her dead state. This creates one of the sweetest and saddest romances that I have ever seen; their courtship for each other must remain entirely innocent, which is both cute and heartbreaking.

Chuck becomes the third partner in the arrangement, and goes to work at Ned's establishment, known as The Pie Hole. This arrangement upsets Olive Snook, Ned's only other employee who harbors a crush on Ned that's obvious to everyone except for our main characters. Olive's outward perkiness masks her sad true self that hopelessly pines away for a man who only has eyes for a woman he can never touch.

The other two main characters are Chuck's insanely quirky aunts, Lily and Vivian. The two are former synchronized swimmers who have developed an intense case of agoraphobia. They raised Chuck after her father died, and their fear of leaving the house helped shape Chuck's love of reading, learning and beekeeping.

So far, there hasn't been a grand, overarching storyline, but there have only been nine episodes. The show got a full-season pick-up within a few weeks of the pilot airing, but due to the writers strike, the ninth episode's ending was reshot to feature a season finale ending. Sadly, a storyline involving a neighboring candymaker (played by Molly Shannon) was aborted after her first appearance towards the end of the season, since she won't be available to continue, but I am sure that Fuller and his writers have plenty of other great stories to tell about a piemaker named Ned and a girl named Chuck.

Up next: It's quirky, bizarre, deceptively innocent, and I love it...