<--Promo posters for TV shows that don't exist are what I do when I'm bored. Clicky for big version! Two new season 1 loglines for my baby, Citizens of the World and a eulogy for one of my favorite shows, now canceled: Pushing Daisies.
THIS PAGE IS LEFT INTENTIONALLY BLANK – On October 31st, 6 year-old Gabrielle watched her father ride off on his motorcycle, never to be seen again. This episode looks behind the events leading up to that day, revealing in the process the sinister machinations of a covert black ops organization and how they changed James' life forever.
THE DANGEROUS EPISODE FOR GIRLS – Intent on stopping the all-male cult of Singulatarians from sacrificing James to the sentient Sysco matrix (S1. E?), Gabrielle and Christian, with Mickey's help and some specialized Cipher Suit tech, infiltrate the cult, disguised as males.
The final synopsis was actually written for an arc planned for the second season, but it seems proper to introduce the origins of that arc before properly planning season 2. Season two will be going deep into Philip K Dick territory, so we won't discuss it too often until I'm sure about Season and definitely not until the pilot is completed.
Now to briefly mourn the passing of one the best shows on American television.
Pushing Daisies.
This peculiar and adorably macabre program airs on one of the best channels on American television, rivaled only by NBC, PBS, The Discovery Channel and The Food Network. While initially a little odd and maybe disturbingly off-beat, Pushing Daises quickly won me over with it's quirky but not altogether hopeless concept of a friendly neighborhood baker bringing the dead to life with a single touch. This, coupled with a quirky undead love interest (Ann Friel as Charlotte "Chuck" Charles), fantastic Wizard of Oz style execution, a slew of talented stars, a cartoonish ability to make an absurd plot believable, and most importantly, pie, created a TV show that was light years ahead of every currently running show on television.
There is a 1950ies feel to Pushing Daisies--most likely deliberately...a certain agedness that permeates the shows characters and gives them a gritty yet incredibly soapy texture, if that description can be understood. It is the sensation of blowing the dust off of a preserved reel of I Love Lucy or Bewitched. Perhaps the avante garde expressionism of the show can be partially attributed to the addition of theatre trained actors such as Swoosie Kurtz, the ever adorable Kristen Chenoweth and Lee Pace, the star himself, who portrays the Pie Maker with a puppy-like recognition of his failure at being infallible, and yet, is the perfect panacea for nearly everyone he comes in contact with (dead people notwithstanding).
Bryan Fuller made anachronism as enjoyably silly as it is supposed to be, trussing his characters up in decade inappropriate wear and creating a world that defies any recognizable historical timeline, yet manages to leave the viewer feeling happily detached from a reality he/she probably doesn't enjoy that much anyway.
There is no pretension in Pushing Daisies, and certainly none of the "why so serious" urgency one may find in other seralized shows such as Heroes or Lost. The comparison to such shows, in fact, is unfair, considering Pushing Daisies' genre is storybook surreal rather than dramatic and plot focused.
It has the diversity of a sitcom, the action of a Mike Hammer episode and never once tries to be anything other than what it is. Another aspect of the shows beauty is how it's surreal beauty is not only fascinating to look at, but it serves the larger function of the world that the show exists in. It is altogether a happy accident of American engenuity that I will be very sad to see go.
No comments:
Post a Comment