Pushing Daisies [** US Discussion Only - SPOILERS **]

Basq

I'm giving this a pre-emptive discussion thread while awaiting episode 2 as i loved the pilot so god-darn much!

ABC - please, please, PLEASE give this show a chance and prove me wrong. It deserves it and Bryan Fuller deserves a break. Himself and Tim Minear must be the two most unlucky people working in television. But let's face it, Tim Minear have made the mistake in repeatedly going back to Fox.

Anyways, roll on episode 2!

PS - anyone catch the official name of the pilot? It was called 'Pie-lette'. Get it? Cos Ned makes pies.. and it's a play on the word pilot... and... and... hyuk hyuk hyuk. Christ, i need some sleep!

odyssey06

I'm looking forward to checking it out for two reasons:

I loved the Wonferfalls pilot (also by Bryan Fuller) but I thought it ran out of steam. Hopefully he can sustain the buzz a bit better with Pushing Daisies.

Anna Friel is almost too cute. I just saw her there in "Our Mutual Friend", an excellent BBC mini-series from 1998. She doesn't look like she's aged a day since then.

To repeat a quote I saw on the Interweb:
"I never used to believe in God, then Anna Friel starred in The Tribe."

Skinfull

Ah no! Anna Friel? I was all set to watch this show. but Anna Friel is a deal breaker for me.

odyssey06

Anna Friel is a deal-breaker??? I've never heard that phrase before! This is not the knife-wielding lesbian of the Brookside era we're talking about, this is the cute English actress incarnation...

RobbieMc

I watch the Pilot and it was very good. Been able to raise the dead, for one minute.

Anyway episode two is waiting for me tonight :-)

God bless the internet, the next generation in TV viewing.
Rob

Skinfull

I never watched brookside. It's just an irrational dislike. No rhyme or reason for it (hence irrational).

Basq

Oh sweet Christ.. episode 2 was sublime!

I loved everything about it - the dialogue felt so fresh (almost everything had a double meaning / poetic feel to it). The camerawork was magnificent especially in some of the panning shots.

Anna Friel and Lee Pace really have a cute chemistry - and Chi McBride is a top notch sidekick character.

The episode was quite wacky but the dramatic undertones in it worked very well. And the Grease musical number was odd, but was very welcome and nicely done.

This needs an audience.. am going to see how it performed in the ratings. Please say it got decent numbers!

** fingers crossed **

Mr E

Futon Critic wrote:

ABC's "Pushing Daisies" Wins its Second Straight Week in Key Adults, Retaining 94% Of its Series Debut in Adults 18-34 and Building on its Premiere with Women 18-34

http://www.thefutoncritic.com/news.aspx?id=20071011abc03

Basq

Excellent news Dave.. thanks for that!

Was looking around on the Futon Critic earlier and must have completely missed it.

Mr E

As long as the women like it, it'll stick around. Look at Grays Anatomy.

Basq

Yep.. hopefully the fairytale / romantic elements of it will appeal to the "wimmins"!

ShoulderChip

its excellent.

PullMyFinger!

What Basquille said above sums it up.

Beautiful little show. I was about to switch off the first episode till Anna Friel appeared and then I decided to stay with it a bit longer Im glad I did. Apart from the visuals and dialogue, looking at this on every episode wont be too hard

User45701

Just watched episode 2, really enjoying this show, didnt like the singing part though. Rest was all very well done.

ShoulderChip

The singing part was good I thought.

Arathorn

I didnt like this at all and I usually like this type of show. Can't see it lasting..

JohnnyStones

great show!! just after watching first two episodes hope it stays this good, and doesn't become completely ridiculous.:)

Episode 2 was fantastic. It's the most sublimely entertaining and sweetest TV show of all time. It's absolutly, fantstically brilliant and unique.

Mr E

Just watched episode 2 on the plane (god bless PMPs for long flights!)

Laughed out loud (and got funny looks) when the the dandelion company owner was shouting at the 3 in the car (and the voiceover guy says something like "little did he realise that he couldn't be heard due to the plastic body bags and windshield").

Fun show, I really love it.

Basq

Jaysus.. i was wonderful who this Mr E character was until i saw the subtitle and familiar Ike avatar!

Yes, that line in episode 2 cracked me up also. And tonight's episode is supposed to be even better.

I love everything about the show - from the characters, relationships, direction, general style, Jim Dale voiceover and most of all, the fresh witty dialogue which (like i've said) is almost poetic in it's flow.

Mr E

One slightly tiresome aspect of the show is the "12 years, 2 days, 3 hours, 6 minutes" crap. Cute in episode 1, but it gets boring quickly...

User45701

na i think its a great part, i hope they dont drop it

Mr E

I think episode 3 took a bit of a dip in quality. Still very good, just not as good as first 2 weeks.

JohnnyStones

Mr E wrote: »

One slightly tiresome aspect of the show is the "12 years, 2 days, 3 hours, 6 minutes" crap. Cute in episode 1, but it gets boring quickly...

No way that's a keeper!

Basq

Mr E wrote: »

I think episode 3 took a bit of a dip in quality. Still very good, just not as good as first 2 weeks.

Yeah, i thought it started off very slow but got better as it went on.

Some of the best bits were in the last few minutes.. the Winnie The Pooh references alone and Chi McBride were enough to save it.

Still the best thing i've watched this week so far!

ixoy

It's like eating a cake (or a pie!) every time that you watch it - rich and wonderful. It's the happiest, sweetest, cutest show about death ever and it's great to see it's doing bloody well (2nd highest rated show of its night after "Private Practice").

Anyone else giggle at the Tim Burton shout outs? Must've been deliberate given the style of this show.

User45701

3rd episode was very good, id love to know what the overall direction of the series is because if it is tooi repetative people will lose interest because when you look at it he has already got the girl so i hope the comming episodes are enoough to entertain the americanas, Ive loved every episode so far, if someone comes accross them would they mind posting the ratings for that episode please?

Mr E

If you go to www.thefutoncritic.com, you can use the search function at the top of the screen to look for any news relating to viewing figures of your favourite shows. Here is the latest about Pushing Daisies (after episode 3):

For the third straight week (on each of its telecasts), ABC's "Pushing Daisies" won its 8 o'clock time period across each of the adult demographics: Adults 18-34 (3.2/10), Adults 18-49 (3.6/10) and Adults 25-54 (4.0/10). In the key Adult 18-49 sales demo, "Daisies" dominated its nearest competition in the hour by 16% (NBC = 3.1/9). For the second straight week, "Daisies" stood as No. 2 TV show on Wednesday among Adults 18-34, behind only ABC's "Private Practice."

Winning its time period for the first time in Men 18-34, "Pushing Daisies" jumped 21% over the prior week among hard-to-reach young men (2.3/8 vs. 1.9/7). The new ABC series also delivered the No. 1 position in the hour with Men 18-49 (2.6/8).

chalkitdown1

As much as i'm enjoying this, it just makes me long for 'Dead Like Me'.:( Can't wait for the movie 'n' all, but without Rube, I fear it just won't be the same.

Bounty Hunter

really impressed by the first two episodes and looking forward to the third in this delightfully burton-esque series. However i fear for how long it can last before a)Standards begin to slip from such a high and b) people stop caring about how whomever was killed each week. If this show does not last i think the format would work perfectly in a movie.

edit: 3rd episode kept up the high standard which if sustained would mean this is my favourite new show

beanyb

I think the show can definitely last. I dont think the standard will slip that much. It's basically CSI or Without a Trace and countless other police shows, just with a twist. It's also much better, but that's not the point!

I absolutely adore this show. Especially Emerson. He's hilarious.

Bounty Hunter

is the guy who does the voiceover the same guy that did the doctor seuss movies?

edit: Jim Dale of Carry on fame and one of the more creited audio-novel voice guys

Bounty Hunter

Bounty Hunter wrote: »

is the guy who does the voiceover the same guy that did the doctor seuss movies?

edit: Jim Dale of Carry on fame and one of the more creited audio-novel voice guys

That's him. Jim Dale does the rather quirky and brilliant voice over, which is a large part of the shows charm.

im...LOST

Watched the first episode last night there. Was well impressed at how funny it was. I wasn't aware that it was even supposed to be funny..

odyssey06

Latest news from the States is that Pushing Daisies has been picked up for a full season order of 23 episodes. Gossip Girl and Private Practice have also been given full season orders. The remake of the BBC show Blackpool has been killed after 2 episodes. Yikes.

ixoy

Given its excellent ratings, "Pushing Daisies" was pretty much locked in for a full season but it's nice to hear it getting closer to a definitive report.

User45701

The ratings are good but im concerned that they are not all they can be, it airs on a wed in the us yet it is released every single week on the internet on tuesday GMT.

i dont know about the rest of you but when i follow a show i take a bit of a intererest in the ratings as i want more episodes and preairs on the internet do have a effect on the ratings because why watch it or even why "tevo" it if you have it on your pc.

Its just odd that every week the episode is leaked so its obsvially someone doing it but i never got why someone involved in TV would risk there job uploading preairs especially only a day and 1/2 before the air. If he is cought hel be fired if the ratings drop and the show stops he loses that job as well ???

ixoy

If you researched a bit further User, you'd have found it airs in Canada the day before the US and that's why it's available. I don't believe that a show like this would be too adversely hit by downloads anyway as it's not a cult show in the manner of "Lost" or "Battlestar Galactica".

Mr E

Blame Canada!

Basq

Absolute stupendous news!

Pushing Daisies has a full season order!

Mr E

Yeah it was mentioned on the preair thread earlier today... brilliant news alright.

You'd have to imagine if it was on Fox, they'd still have found a reason to cancel it.

User45701

just like firefly...

Anyway i didnt know about canada, i have yet to find a good tv episode site that actually lists when each show is on first regardless of country, it was hard for me to find out that the shield airs in france months before it airs in the us and years before the dvd comes out.

EDIT: Actually now that we have a full season how about a Pushing Daisies forum?

Bounty Hunter

another great episode this week despite the fact that i am now fully used to the quirky set-up so the its new appeal has faded. Emerson is truely great and the perfect comical counterbalance to some of the other characters IMO and this episode truely shocased this.

PullMyFinger!

What happened here? 5 episodes of brilliance and then an episode so bad Im not that pushed to watch another.




Oh ok, one more then but I never wanna see an episode that contrived again I watched it tired and late but it still shouldnt have been so much hard work to look at after the fantastic first 5 episodes.

I wonder will the strike kill this off?

you still watching Basq?

Qs

So am I the only one who loved the first 2 episodes and then got really bored of how the show goes nowhere?

Mr E

I'm ashamed to admit I have a backlog of 3, I think.

Basq

I'm up to date but haven't watched last night's episode.. hope it isn't as bad as PullMyFinger is making out. But i really don't see how a single episode could make you not watch it again if we got "5 episodes of brillance" (your own words) so far.

I still adore it anyways.

Qs.. whatcha mean the show goes nowhere? Where you do want it to go? Do you mean in terms of an ongoing storyline? Well, how much story did you expect them to progress through after 2 episodes? I swear since shows like 'Lost' and 'Heroes', people want a mini-adventure an episode.

The show is a slow-burner. We gets little developments here and there but it's not a drama. It's a show which excels in the way the story is told, the gorgeous scenaries and the witty dialogue.

If you want a show that "goes somewhere", i recommend something a little more dramatic.

PS - oh.. and this Emerson steals the show really. My favourite bit of the series so far is probably Emerson "calling money" half-way through this clip:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ZteHIzbruw

davejones

PullMyFinger! wrote: »

What happened here? 5 episodes of brilliance and then an episode so bad Im not that pushed to watch another.




Oh ok, one more then but I never wanna see an episode that contrived again I watched it tired and late but it still shouldnt have been so much hard work to look at after the fantastic first 5 episodes.

I wonder will the strike kill this off?

you still watching Basq?

Totally agree with you there, not very good this week.
I think its become very stale very quick, and it started so well.
Not pushed to watch again.

Basq

The episode was weak but it wasn't a monstrosity either. I think people are being far too harsh on it.

Was not a strong episode.. some of the dialogue was a bit patchy and tge storyline was drawn out.

But a few good lines ("Hope there's methane down here.. the skinny ones are the first ones to go!") and a bizarre appearance from Paul "Pee Wee Herman" Reubens warranted a watch.

Why would a single weak episode after 5 brillant ones never make me wanna watch again?!

PS - and the strike won't kill this off. Unlike most shows, it's been given a full season order!

davejones

It's been going down hill since the third episode imho.
Sorry i've just gone off it.

It will last two series at most i reckon.

Basq

It's perfectly fair that you've gone off it.. not everyone will like the show. In fact, when we discussed the pilot i think most people saw it as a "love it or loathe it" type show.

But i don't think this week's episode was that bad to be honest. I was expecting a helluva lot worse after reading reactions to it. I was sure it'd be an episode with all singing instead of spoken dialogue or something!