As the Writer’s Strike stumbles towards Christmas, the latest casualty of the AMPTP’s ongoing assholishness is Pushing Daisies, Bryan Fuller’s (all together now) quirky hour-long dramedy.
Tonight marks the last episode that was written and produced before the strike, and there are no more eps in the can. It’s a shame: Pushing Daisies was pretty much the only wholly original show that any of the broadcast networks put out there this season, and while the critical buzz was pretty strong, the ratings were mostly middling.
Of course this might be a good year for a mostly middling but critically acclaimed show to exist — after all, things are so weird out there that the networks can rationalize anything at this point. (Which shows in their negotiating tactics, for sure.) And a week before the strike, ABC picked it up for a full season.
But what does that even mean right now? Anyone? Yeah, I didn’t think so.
In the meantime, this is your last chance to catch a first-run episode of this deeply weird show, which you may very well totally hate. I know more than a few people who can’t get past all of the bright colors, overdrawn characters (who break out into song!), and the cutesy-pie love affair at the center of the show.
Man, that last sentence made me hate it! Not really: I realized really early on that all of that sweetness and light was just a mask for a dark, dark show about all of the terrible ways that people sometimes die, and the even worse ways that they sometimes live. I liken it to a really catchy song like “There is A Light That Never Goes Out,” — or even better “People Who Died” — which you can’t help but sing along with, but is totally and utterly about death.
What makes this work is the four main actors — Lee Pace, Kristen Chenoweth, Anna Friel and Chi McBride — who weave in and out of the absurd situations with just the right combination of disbelief and acceptance.
Also, did I mention that it’s funny?
And after tonight, it’s dead. And no one knows when the Piemaker’s touch will bring it back.
I couldn’t agree more.
What I personally love about this show, besides watching it in HD, is the simple beauty of the writing, featured in both dialog and voice over. You could almost turn off the picture and just listen to it and be mesmerized. Or vice versa. I watch very little TV so I’m no expert, but I would venture that there are few, if any, shows out there with the line for line lyricism of this show. And certainly the production design is simply a-fucking-amazing.
My main commentary about (network) TV is that it is basically interstitial entertainment to fill the dead time between commercials. Say what you will about commercials, but they can be entertaining. (And they should be as they have huge budgets and comparatively long shoots.) Daisies has the feel of a really, really good but long commercial. And that’s a compliment.
Come back! Come back! Oh, puh-leeze come back! I’ll believe, I promise! I believe in fairies! I believe in fairies!