Showing posts with label Pushing Daisies. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Pushing Daisies. Show all posts
Monday, April 1, 2013
Monday, September 17, 2012
The Healing Power of Pop
It's been something of an emotional weekend - I've been moving out of the Avenues and into an apartment on the other side of town. I find I'm going to miss my old digs and the neighbors I used to have. So, while packing, I stuck in one of my old Pushing Daisies DVDs... and proceeded to bawl my eyes out let a single tear slide sexily down my cheek.
I've long thought that entertainment should do more than provide escapism. Sure, I mean, psychologically it does some good for people to, as a wise man once said, "forget about life for a while." Still, I've thought that people who sought entertainment solely for the escape are doing themselves a disservice.
I don't think I understood quite how I expected movies, books, TV shows, and the like to help, though, until just recently. Surprisingly enough, I made kind of an off-hand comment (dare I say a complaint?) a bit ago about how much I was bugged by the musical The Drowsy Chaperone which actually sums up what I now believe entertainment can and should do for a body:
I've encountered this phenomenon previously, but I feel a bit better equipped now to make my point known: Good entertainment can provide healing by exposing emotions a person may be experiencing but not know how to express. Positive emotions can be felt more deeply, while negative ones can be expressed appropriately and then exorcised.
I've long thought that entertainment should do more than provide escapism. Sure, I mean, psychologically it does some good for people to, as a wise man once said, "forget about life for a while." Still, I've thought that people who sought entertainment solely for the escape are doing themselves a disservice.
I don't think I understood quite how I expected movies, books, TV shows, and the like to help, though, until just recently. Surprisingly enough, I made kind of an off-hand comment (dare I say a complaint?) a bit ago about how much I was bugged by the musical The Drowsy Chaperone which actually sums up what I now believe entertainment can and should do for a body:
[You] have plays like The Drowsy Chaperone, which affirms that the purpose of musical theater is only to temporarily distract audiences from their problems, rather than enable them to confront those problems.I've done a pretty decent job of suppressing a lot of emotions. I don't really like to tip my hand that much on what I'm feeling, even to myself. For some reason, watching the saccharine goodness of Pushing Daisies helped me to face what I was feeling.
I've encountered this phenomenon previously, but I feel a bit better equipped now to make my point known: Good entertainment can provide healing by exposing emotions a person may be experiencing but not know how to express. Positive emotions can be felt more deeply, while negative ones can be expressed appropriately and then exorcised.
"The power of pie compels you!"
So I say yet again - mindless entertainment should be more than just mindless entertainment. It should be restorative.
Tuesday, May 24, 2011
The Three Season Theory
I haven't deemed it necessary to get cable hookup or anything like that in my apartment, so I don't really watch a whole lot of TV. Generally, everything I watch I pick up on DVD, usually borrowed from the library or pilfered from friends. Even so, I've built up a small but significant collection of DVDs.
So I've got this working theory on the quality of television shows: a series is good for only about three years. The first season shows a bit of promise - a hint of the series's true brilliance. The second season, the show hits its stride, cranking out quality episode after quality episode. By the third season, you can usually tell the writing staff has run out of ideas, as the plots get a bit more ludicrous, a bit more far-fetched. The writing and acting is usually GOOD still, but, by season four, things get so whacked out that the series might as well be over.
I've got three (of my personal favorite shows) which I cite when looking at this hypothesis:
The Office
Now, the first time I ever saw an episode of The Office (Season 2's "Sexual Harrassment"), I didn't care for what I saw. That said, after I went back and gave it another try, I found I absolutely LOVED it.
My favorite part of watching The Office was seeing the Jim/Pam/Roy triangle (or the Jim/Karen/Pam/Roy rectangle). By the time Season 3 concluded, that story arc had more or less resolved itself. Once Season 4 rolled around, it became clear that the Jim/Pam story had little room to grow. Meanwhile, Michael Scott's eccentricities had gone almost Tex Avery in their levels of cartoonishness. I decided to move one.
In short, this series is TOO long.
(For the record, I haven't seen a single episode of The Office since Season Five's Superbowl episode, and I don't really miss the show)
Pushing Daisies
Basically, I'm of the opinion that Pushing Daisies is the best thing to have ever appeared on television until someone gets the Rapture on camera. The characters were well-written and charismatic, the stories cute and engaging, and... *sigh*... the series unpopular enough to get cancelled after two seasons.
Really, though, a third season would have been perfect. All those little dangling plot threads that never got resolved could easily be wrapped up in another 12 episodes or so. The world would have been SO much better for it.
I guess we'll just have to wait for the comic book to come out to get any amount of resolution. But, in any case, this series is TOO short.
Arrested Development
Okay, now, in my opinion, Arrested Development ended at exactly the right time.
I understand that puts me in the minority with the Fox executives and... um, nope, that's probably it. Still, I don't know that I would have enjoyed a fourth season of Arrested Development nearly as much as I did the first three.
While the series continued to put out quality episodes right up to the very end, I got the vibe that the writers were really starting to tread water. The characters had all immersed themselves so completely in their neuroses that they were starting to come off as... almost completely unnatural (like an emotional "uncanny valley"). The plots were still great but verging on the unbelievably silly. Finally, those delightful in-jokes which make the series so good were getting to be... a little thick.
What we got, in the end, was about three years of top-notch comedy with no dangling plot threads to drive fanboys nuts. I imagine a fourth year would have been GOOD, but I don't see it being nearly as great as what we've already got. So, yeah, this series is... well, you know by now.
I'm sure there are exceptions to the "Three Season Theory" (Seinfeld and MASH are the most regularly cited), but, for now, I'm standing by this little rule of thumb.
So I've got this working theory on the quality of television shows: a series is good for only about three years. The first season shows a bit of promise - a hint of the series's true brilliance. The second season, the show hits its stride, cranking out quality episode after quality episode. By the third season, you can usually tell the writing staff has run out of ideas, as the plots get a bit more ludicrous, a bit more far-fetched. The writing and acting is usually GOOD still, but, by season four, things get so whacked out that the series might as well be over.
I've got three (of my personal favorite shows) which I cite when looking at this hypothesis:
The Office
Now, the first time I ever saw an episode of The Office (Season 2's "Sexual Harrassment"), I didn't care for what I saw. That said, after I went back and gave it another try, I found I absolutely LOVED it.
My favorite part of watching The Office was seeing the Jim/Pam/Roy triangle (or the Jim/Karen/Pam/Roy rectangle). By the time Season 3 concluded, that story arc had more or less resolved itself. Once Season 4 rolled around, it became clear that the Jim/Pam story had little room to grow. Meanwhile, Michael Scott's eccentricities had gone almost Tex Avery in their levels of cartoonishness. I decided to move one.
In short, this series is TOO long.
(For the record, I haven't seen a single episode of The Office since Season Five's Superbowl episode, and I don't really miss the show)
Pushing Daisies
Basically, I'm of the opinion that Pushing Daisies is the best thing to have ever appeared on television until someone gets the Rapture on camera. The characters were well-written and charismatic, the stories cute and engaging, and... *sigh*... the series unpopular enough to get cancelled after two seasons.
Really, though, a third season would have been perfect. All those little dangling plot threads that never got resolved could easily be wrapped up in another 12 episodes or so. The world would have been SO much better for it.
I guess we'll just have to wait for the comic book to come out to get any amount of resolution. But, in any case, this series is TOO short.
Arrested Development
Okay, now, in my opinion, Arrested Development ended at exactly the right time.
I understand that puts me in the minority with the Fox executives and... um, nope, that's probably it. Still, I don't know that I would have enjoyed a fourth season of Arrested Development nearly as much as I did the first three.
While the series continued to put out quality episodes right up to the very end, I got the vibe that the writers were really starting to tread water. The characters had all immersed themselves so completely in their neuroses that they were starting to come off as... almost completely unnatural (like an emotional "uncanny valley"). The plots were still great but verging on the unbelievably silly. Finally, those delightful in-jokes which make the series so good were getting to be... a little thick.
What we got, in the end, was about three years of top-notch comedy with no dangling plot threads to drive fanboys nuts. I imagine a fourth year would have been GOOD, but I don't see it being nearly as great as what we've already got. So, yeah, this series is... well, you know by now.
I'm sure there are exceptions to the "Three Season Theory" (Seinfeld and MASH are the most regularly cited), but, for now, I'm standing by this little rule of thumb.
Tuesday, January 11, 2011
Top 5 Pushing Daisies Episodes
I don’t think I’m overstating things when I say that Pushing Daisies is the heaven-sent pinnacle of prime-time television that literally spewed love and glitter from the screen. The thought of the show’s cancellation still short-sheets my soul, but I can lounge out with a little bit of luxury thanks to my seven-DVD collection. I’ve been going through the show again, and, with every episode, I find myself in a giddy fit of giggles over the eye-popping visuals, dazzling dialog, and utterly charming characters.
Picking favorites from among these televised gems is like having to choose a favorite child when all of your children are independently wealthy and incredibly generous with their love and riches. Still, here are my top five:
5 – Pie-Lette
Pushing Daisies, for me at least, works as a series because of the wild imagination brought to the little screen in every episode. That train of imagination left the station with a hearty burst of creative steam. Ned and Emerson team up to solve the murder of Ned’s childhood sweetheart. The first episode of Pushing Daisies brought us our first glimpse of lovably neurotic aunts Lily and Vivian Charles, the magic powers of Ned’s finger, and, of course, the life-loving enthusiasm of a girl named Chuck.
4 – Circus Circus
The second season of Pushing Daisies lost a lot of the charm the first season had (I suspect but can’t confirm that budget cuts may have been responsible). However, the second episode, focusing on a young girl’s suspicious disappearance and a string of murders surrounding a travelling circus group, proves that the show still had some mileage left to it. Too bad the same couldn’t be said for the clown car run off the road and the twenty or so gaudily-painted bodies inside…
3 – Bitter Sweets
Ned makes such a good super-powered private eye that it’s sometimes easy to forget that he’s also a business owner and talented pastry chef. This episode focuses on the business side of Ned’s life, as he is forced to compete with a pair of dastardly confectioners and their underhanded business practices. Bitter Sweets also highlights Emerson Cod’s personal ability and intellect, showing that, even without supernatural help, the man is a fine detective.
2 – Window Dressed to Kill
Another episode which takes our main characters and puts them in situations we’re not used to seeing them in. Ned, taking a break from resurrecting after experiencing some personal trauma, decides to “try on” a relationship with Olive while helping her former kidnappers flee the country. At the same time, Chuck and Emerson track down the murderer of a store window dresser as her devotees mourn her loss. All that, plus a resurrected rhinoceros.
1 – Fun in Funeral
The third episode of Pushing Daisies is the first one I ever saw, so my attachment to it is a little sentimental. That said, I still feel “Fun in Funeral” is the strongest episode of the entire series. When Ned decided to let Chuck live in “Pie-lette,” he let another man – a thieving funeral home owner, die. The moral consequences of Ned’s actions are difficult to sort through, but the show deals with it with its usual charm, humor, and sophistication, proving that the magic of the first two episodes wasn’t accidental.
***
Just about every episode is worth watching. Looking back over this list, I realize I’m missing a LOT of great moments from the series: Ned’s magician half-brothers, the polygamist dog-breeder, and pretty much every Olive Snook solo.
That said, there is ONE (and ONLY ONE) episode of this show that I can safely say I don’t like. Heck, I’d maybe even say that I HATE this episode. Going with the Sophie’s Choice analogy again, this episode is like the child that is independently wealthy and generous but has an unfortunate inclination towards serial murder.
:-( – Kerplunk
The final episode of the series actually works in a lot of ways – a fittingly over-the-top mystery, fantastic visuals, and the climax of one of the most significant plot threads of the series. However, since the ultimate fate of the show was, at the time the episode was written, unclear, a half-hearted attempt was made to wrap up EVERY dangling plot thread. In trying to wrap up the whole series in a pretty bow, they left a lot of gaping holes in the package. “Kerplunk” is the most dissatisfying conclusion to any show I think I’ve ever seen, and it downright sucks. Given another season, the show could have easily concluded without leaving any mysteries unexplained, and Pushing Daisies would have just been a fantastic bite of fairy-tale sugar. Sadly, this final episode leaves a bit of a bitter aftertaste.
Picking favorites from among these televised gems is like having to choose a favorite child when all of your children are independently wealthy and incredibly generous with their love and riches. Still, here are my top five:
5 – Pie-Lette
Pushing Daisies, for me at least, works as a series because of the wild imagination brought to the little screen in every episode. That train of imagination left the station with a hearty burst of creative steam. Ned and Emerson team up to solve the murder of Ned’s childhood sweetheart. The first episode of Pushing Daisies brought us our first glimpse of lovably neurotic aunts Lily and Vivian Charles, the magic powers of Ned’s finger, and, of course, the life-loving enthusiasm of a girl named Chuck.
4 – Circus CircusThe second season of Pushing Daisies lost a lot of the charm the first season had (I suspect but can’t confirm that budget cuts may have been responsible). However, the second episode, focusing on a young girl’s suspicious disappearance and a string of murders surrounding a travelling circus group, proves that the show still had some mileage left to it. Too bad the same couldn’t be said for the clown car run off the road and the twenty or so gaudily-painted bodies inside…
3 – Bitter Sweets
Ned makes such a good super-powered private eye that it’s sometimes easy to forget that he’s also a business owner and talented pastry chef. This episode focuses on the business side of Ned’s life, as he is forced to compete with a pair of dastardly confectioners and their underhanded business practices. Bitter Sweets also highlights Emerson Cod’s personal ability and intellect, showing that, even without supernatural help, the man is a fine detective.
2 – Window Dressed to Kill
Another episode which takes our main characters and puts them in situations we’re not used to seeing them in. Ned, taking a break from resurrecting after experiencing some personal trauma, decides to “try on” a relationship with Olive while helping her former kidnappers flee the country. At the same time, Chuck and Emerson track down the murderer of a store window dresser as her devotees mourn her loss. All that, plus a resurrected rhinoceros.
1 – Fun in Funeral
The third episode of Pushing Daisies is the first one I ever saw, so my attachment to it is a little sentimental. That said, I still feel “Fun in Funeral” is the strongest episode of the entire series. When Ned decided to let Chuck live in “Pie-lette,” he let another man – a thieving funeral home owner, die. The moral consequences of Ned’s actions are difficult to sort through, but the show deals with it with its usual charm, humor, and sophistication, proving that the magic of the first two episodes wasn’t accidental.
***
Just about every episode is worth watching. Looking back over this list, I realize I’m missing a LOT of great moments from the series: Ned’s magician half-brothers, the polygamist dog-breeder, and pretty much every Olive Snook solo.
That said, there is ONE (and ONLY ONE) episode of this show that I can safely say I don’t like. Heck, I’d maybe even say that I HATE this episode. Going with the Sophie’s Choice analogy again, this episode is like the child that is independently wealthy and generous but has an unfortunate inclination towards serial murder.
:-( – Kerplunk
The final episode of the series actually works in a lot of ways – a fittingly over-the-top mystery, fantastic visuals, and the climax of one of the most significant plot threads of the series. However, since the ultimate fate of the show was, at the time the episode was written, unclear, a half-hearted attempt was made to wrap up EVERY dangling plot thread. In trying to wrap up the whole series in a pretty bow, they left a lot of gaping holes in the package. “Kerplunk” is the most dissatisfying conclusion to any show I think I’ve ever seen, and it downright sucks. Given another season, the show could have easily concluded without leaving any mysteries unexplained, and Pushing Daisies would have just been a fantastic bite of fairy-tale sugar. Sadly, this final episode leaves a bit of a bitter aftertaste.
Tuesday, March 2, 2010
Wish I Said it First #8
"You love secrets. You wanna marry secrets and have little half-secret, half-human babies." - Chuck, "Dummy," Pushing Daisies.
Tuesday, February 16, 2010
Things I'll Love Forever: Pushing Daisies
So, Valentine’s Day… Normally, I don’t really get all angsty about Cupid’s annual hunting trip, but this past weekend got me feeling a bit down. Now, I don’t actually know what single guys DO with the “lonelies”… probably involves small furry animals and shotguns. I decided to turn to one of those “Things I’ll Love Forever”: Pushing Daisies.
1 – There’s a lot to be said for a good “high concept” well-executed. For those not in the know: a pie-baker with the power to raise the dead for 60 seconds at a time teams up with a private-investigator-slash-knitter and his reanimated girlfriend to solve murders by reviving the victims and asking who killed them. The premise is creative, a bit quirky, and utterly fantastic.
2 – Despite my rugged and rough-chiseled exterior, I’m a sucker for a good romance. The romance in Pushing Daisies is one of the best I’ve ever seen. Ned – the aforementioned baking resurrectionist – brings his girlfriend Charlotte “Chuck” Charles back to life. Of course, the conditions of Chuck’s resurrection prevent her from ever being able to touch him again without dying. A love story where the lovers can’t actually touch is heartrending and touching in a way no other romance can achieve.
3 – Every single character in the show – from the money-loving egocentric Emerson Cod to Charlotte Charles’s introverted aunts, the Darling Mermaid Darlings – is extraordinarily and lovingly neurotic, but in such an artistic fashion that none of them come off as one-dimensional. In fact, every character – even the bit players with one appearance in a single episode – is so well-crafted that they are instantly and completely developed.
4 – Olive Snook – played by Kristen Chenowith – gets a musical number once every couple of episodes, and… DANG, that girl has pipes!
(I know I said the same thing about Amy Adams. So I guess I have type).
5 – Pushing Daisies has some of the best and brightest visuals I have ever seen in any television show. They’re the closest I’ve ever seen to live action emulating a cartoon in a totally classy way.
6 – Jim Dale’s narration is some of the classiest voiceover work I’ve heard.
7 – I’m a sucker for quality writing, and Pushing Daisies is brilliant. Every line of dialog is peppered with enough spicy alliteration and witty metaphor to make even the bookwormiest of English majors weak in the knees.
Alas, Pushing Daisies died young, leaving plot-threads dangling like Chthulhu’s accursed tentacles. Even so, I’ll love it forever.
1 – There’s a lot to be said for a good “high concept” well-executed. For those not in the know: a pie-baker with the power to raise the dead for 60 seconds at a time teams up with a private-investigator-slash-knitter and his reanimated girlfriend to solve murders by reviving the victims and asking who killed them. The premise is creative, a bit quirky, and utterly fantastic.
2 – Despite my rugged and rough-chiseled exterior, I’m a sucker for a good romance. The romance in Pushing Daisies is one of the best I’ve ever seen. Ned – the aforementioned baking resurrectionist – brings his girlfriend Charlotte “Chuck” Charles back to life. Of course, the conditions of Chuck’s resurrection prevent her from ever being able to touch him again without dying. A love story where the lovers can’t actually touch is heartrending and touching in a way no other romance can achieve.
3 – Every single character in the show – from the money-loving egocentric Emerson Cod to Charlotte Charles’s introverted aunts, the Darling Mermaid Darlings – is extraordinarily and lovingly neurotic, but in such an artistic fashion that none of them come off as one-dimensional. In fact, every character – even the bit players with one appearance in a single episode – is so well-crafted that they are instantly and completely developed.
4 – Olive Snook – played by Kristen Chenowith – gets a musical number once every couple of episodes, and… DANG, that girl has pipes!
(I know I said the same thing about Amy Adams. So I guess I have type).
5 – Pushing Daisies has some of the best and brightest visuals I have ever seen in any television show. They’re the closest I’ve ever seen to live action emulating a cartoon in a totally classy way.
6 – Jim Dale’s narration is some of the classiest voiceover work I’ve heard.
7 – I’m a sucker for quality writing, and Pushing Daisies is brilliant. Every line of dialog is peppered with enough spicy alliteration and witty metaphor to make even the bookwormiest of English majors weak in the knees.
Alas, Pushing Daisies died young, leaving plot-threads dangling like Chthulhu’s accursed tentacles. Even so, I’ll love it forever.
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