Picture-perfect 'Daisies'; TV's best new drama
Chicago Sun-Times, Oct 2, 2007 by Doug Elfman
'PUSHING DAISIES' Rating 4 out of 4
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Here it is at last, the new TV show with the biggest buzz among critics. I almost hate to say this (since I can be a contrarian at times), but "Pushing Daisies" deserves its high praise. It's the best new drama of the fall, finding sweet hope in morbid tragedy.
There's no way you haven't seen what this romantic adventure is all about if you read about TV or watch ABC commercials. At an early age, Ned (Lee Pace) acquires the inexplicable, supernatural ability to bring people back to life. He touches them once; they live again. But if he touches them a second time, they die forever.
"Daisies" follows Ned as a grownup, a piemaker who one day happens upon the woman who used to be his neighbor when they were kids. Clearly, they are in love. As an adult, he finds her dead and touches her back to life, but he may never touch her again. Sounds horribly romantic. Isn't.
Ned and his woman Chuck (Anna Friel) will go on the prowl for private-eye cases, along with a harder-edged partner, Emerson (Chicagoan Chi McBride). Chuck brings murder victims back to life to find out who killed them.
The premiere is lovely in scope, ambition, casting, acting, narrative, writing and direction. Two people in particular illustrate these creative and cool stories: creator-writer Bryan Fuller and director Barry Sonnenfeld, who won't direct every episode but has set the tone.
As Fuller says to me, his original idea for the feel of "Daisies" was "Amelie" meets "Kiss Kiss Bang Bang." So "Pushing Daisies" is one of the prettiest, oddest moving paintings on TV.
The first episode begins with a visual of saturated-yellow daisies against a saturated-blue sky. Then a woman is found floating in a sea seeped in sumptuous blue. Chuck's aunts' house is an ornate mansion of stuffed birds frozen in time among pathways of antiques. It seems impossible not to get lost in the swell morbidity of it all.
I was concerned "Pushing Daisies" wouldn't look this lush at all times every week, just as the first season of "The Sopranos" never shined visually as much as it did in its premiere episode. But Fuller assures me it will. We'll see.
I also don't want it to get caught in another Sam-Diane/Rachel- Ross quagmire. Ned and Chuck aren't completely unrequited like that. It can be assumed they will take sexual matters into their own hands, off screen, in each other's company (so Fuller intends). They just may never truly get together-together.
"It's not going to be a sexless relationship," Fuller says. "But it definitely won't be an intercourse relationship."
Fuller sees this as a way of introducing clever and ABC-clean sensuality into the show. Fine. Right. But there's my one word of caution for voyeurs of snogging: It could become annoying or frustrating.
At any rate, it says something that "Pushing Daisies" wins me over despite my worry Ned and Chuck are the untouchables of love.
How could it not? The debut is a luxurious beast of a fairy tale that finally brings "Amelie's" French-daydream rhythm and soul to the small screen. If viewers take to "Daisies" the way critics have - - I can't imagine this won't be at least a cult hit -- a field of copycats may bloom next fall, and American TV would become a Frenchier landscape of fresh fantasies.
TALK SHOWS
"The Oprah Winfrey Show" (9 a.m., Channel 7): Actress Halle Berry; actor Benicio Del Toro.
"Late Show With David Letterman" (10:35 p.m., Channel 2): Actor Jude Law; comedian Sarah Silverman; musician John Fogerty.
"The Tonight Show With Jay Leno" (10:35 p.m., Channel 5): Actor Jason Lee; actress Kristin Chenoweth; singer Pat Monahan.
"Late Late Show With Craig Ferguson" (11:35 p.m., Channel 2): Actor Chi McBride; actress Teri Polo; musician Steve Bertrand.
"Late Night With Conan O'Brien" (11:35 p.m., Channel 5): Journalist Ted Koppel; actor Jason Schwartzman.
"Jimmy Kimmel Live" (12:05 a.m., Channel 7): Actress Sandra Oh; musician Mark Ronson.
ON AIR:
FLIPPING THROUGH OTHER CHANNELS
TONIGHT
"Cavemen" (7 p.m., WLS-Channel 7): It's one of the most talked- about new shows, and critics who saw a test pilot were fairly aghast, since it seemed like 22 Geico commercials in a row. But ABC has been tinkering with "Cavemen" so much, the network didn't even have the finished debut ready to send to reviewers. So. Will it suck? Will it be suddenly awesome?
"Five Days" (7 p.m., HBO): In this miniseries, a mom, her kids and their dog go missing in London. It's a thorny character study, shown already on BBC. Four more parts run on future Tuesdays.
"Sunday Best" (7 p.m., BET): Six of the 20 contestants are from the Chicago area on this search for America's best gospel singer. Funny: BET says the winner "may" receive a record deal and money. "May"? As in "maybe"? Bebe Winans and Mary Mary do the judging.
"Carpoolers" (7:30 p.m., WLS-Channel 7): At first, this new comedy about four mostly wimpy dudes seems just stupid, but some of it is decent. Gracen (the quite talented Fred Goss) turns down sex because he thinks his hot wife (Faith Ford; she's good) makes more money than him. Ugh. Other situations are also like poorly executed, live-action cartoons of sad sacks. The Rating 2 out of 4 show could be funnier if it focused on two people: Gracen's son, a "Napoleon Dynamite"-like slacker named Marmaduke (the excellent T.J. Miller from Chicago), and Laird (the very good Jerry O'Connell), a sexed- up divorcee determined to make his buddies man up. I hope Laird succeeds, because these de-testicled guys make me want to go tie a nerd's shoelaces together.
"Queer Eye for the Straight Guy" (8 p.m., Bravo): The former pop- culture splash begins its last season with a pageant where queer- eyed guys from the past pose for the gay men and guest Susan Lucci.
'PUSHING DAISIES' Rating 4 out of 4
- - -
Here it is at last, the new TV show with the biggest buzz among critics. I almost hate to say this (since I can be a contrarian at times), but "Pushing Daisies" deserves its high praise. It's the best new drama of the fall, finding sweet hope in morbid tragedy.
There's no way you haven't seen what this romantic adventure is all about if you read about TV or watch ABC commercials. At an early age, Ned (Lee Pace) acquires the inexplicable, supernatural ability to bring people back to life. He touches them once; they live again. But if he touches them a second time, they die forever.
"Daisies" follows Ned as a grownup, a piemaker who one day happens upon the woman who used to be his neighbor when they were kids. Clearly, they are in love. As an adult, he finds her dead and touches her back to life, but he may never touch her again. Sounds horribly romantic. Isn't.
Ned and his woman Chuck (Anna Friel) will go on the prowl for private-eye cases, along with a harder-edged partner, Emerson (Chicagoan Chi McBride). Chuck brings murder victims back to life to find out who killed them.
The premiere is lovely in scope, ambition, casting, acting, narrative, writing and direction. Two people in particular illustrate these creative and cool stories: creator-writer Bryan Fuller and director Barry Sonnenfeld, who won't direct every episode but has set the tone.
As Fuller says to me, his original idea for the feel of "Daisies" was "Amelie" meets "Kiss Kiss Bang Bang." So "Pushing Daisies" is one of the prettiest, oddest moving paintings on TV.
The first episode begins with a visual of saturated-yellow daisies against a saturated-blue sky. Then a woman is found floating in a sea seeped in sumptuous blue. Chuck's aunts' house is an ornate mansion of stuffed birds frozen in time among pathways of antiques. It seems impossible not to get lost in the swell morbidity of it all.
I was concerned "Pushing Daisies" wouldn't look this lush at all times every week, just as the first season of "The Sopranos" never shined visually as much as it did in its premiere episode. But Fuller assures me it will. We'll see.
I also don't want it to get caught in another Sam-Diane/Rachel- Ross quagmire. Ned and Chuck aren't completely unrequited like that. It can be assumed they will take sexual matters into their own hands, off screen, in each other's company (so Fuller intends). They just may never truly get together-together.
"It's not going to be a sexless relationship," Fuller says. "But it definitely won't be an intercourse relationship."
Fuller sees this as a way of introducing clever and ABC-clean sensuality into the show. Fine. Right. But there's my one word of caution for voyeurs of snogging: It could become annoying or frustrating.
At any rate, it says something that "Pushing Daisies" wins me over despite my worry Ned and Chuck are the untouchables of love.
How could it not? The debut is a luxurious beast of a fairy tale that finally brings "Amelie's" French-daydream rhythm and soul to the small screen. If viewers take to "Daisies" the way critics have - - I can't imagine this won't be at least a cult hit -- a field of copycats may bloom next fall, and American TV would become a Frenchier landscape of fresh fantasies.
TALK SHOWS
"The Oprah Winfrey Show" (9 a.m., Channel 7): Actress Halle Berry; actor Benicio Del Toro.
"Late Show With David Letterman" (10:35 p.m., Channel 2): Actor Jude Law; comedian Sarah Silverman; musician John Fogerty.
"The Tonight Show With Jay Leno" (10:35 p.m., Channel 5): Actor Jason Lee; actress Kristin Chenoweth; singer Pat Monahan.
"Late Late Show With Craig Ferguson" (11:35 p.m., Channel 2): Actor Chi McBride; actress Teri Polo; musician Steve Bertrand.
"Late Night With Conan O'Brien" (11:35 p.m., Channel 5): Journalist Ted Koppel; actor Jason Schwartzman.
"Jimmy Kimmel Live" (12:05 a.m., Channel 7): Actress Sandra Oh; musician Mark Ronson.
ON AIR:
FLIPPING THROUGH OTHER CHANNELS
TONIGHT
"Cavemen" (7 p.m., WLS-Channel 7): It's one of the most talked- about new shows, and critics who saw a test pilot were fairly aghast, since it seemed like 22 Geico commercials in a row. But ABC has been tinkering with "Cavemen" so much, the network didn't even have the finished debut ready to send to reviewers. So. Will it suck? Will it be suddenly awesome?
"Five Days" (7 p.m., HBO): In this miniseries, a mom, her kids and their dog go missing in London. It's a thorny character study, shown already on BBC. Four more parts run on future Tuesdays.
"Sunday Best" (7 p.m., BET): Six of the 20 contestants are from the Chicago area on this search for America's best gospel singer. Funny: BET says the winner "may" receive a record deal and money. "May"? As in "maybe"? Bebe Winans and Mary Mary do the judging.
"Carpoolers" (7:30 p.m., WLS-Channel 7): At first, this new comedy about four mostly wimpy dudes seems just stupid, but some of it is decent. Gracen (the quite talented Fred Goss) turns down sex because he thinks his hot wife (Faith Ford; she's good) makes more money than him. Ugh. Other situations are also like poorly executed, live-action cartoons of sad sacks. The Rating 2 out of 4 show could be funnier if it focused on two people: Gracen's son, a "Napoleon Dynamite"-like slacker named Marmaduke (the excellent T.J. Miller from Chicago), and Laird (the very good Jerry O'Connell), a sexed- up divorcee determined to make his buddies man up. I hope Laird succeeds, because these de-testicled guys make me want to go tie a nerd's shoelaces together.
"Queer Eye for the Straight Guy" (8 p.m., Bravo): The former pop- culture splash begins its last season with a pageant where queer- eyed guys from the past pose for the gay men and guest Susan Lucci.
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