META-TAINMENT » Pushing Daisies

Why Do TV Shows Often Avoid The Premise?

Larry — Thu, 29 Nov 2007 14:21:14 +0000

It’s happens all to often. A new television show forms around a particular idea, and then tries to avoid that idea as much as possible. Smallville is one example. The premise is to make a story about Superman as a teenager, but they always go out of their way to make the Smallville-Clark as unSuperman-like as possible.

They even go as far as to have several other comic-heroes on the show with full abilities, but Clark still can’t figure out how to fly. By avoiding the premise they have failed to evolve the character of Clark Kent while everyone around him has evolved, turning a killer show into Smallville-90210. At least when 90210 hit that wall of un-evolving characters, the producers evolved it into Melrose (note: I hated 90210 post season 2 and Melrose post season 1).

Another, more recent example is NBC’s Bionic Woman. Why, when chasing a dangerous bad guy, does Jamie not always use her bionics? Last week she ran almost 2 blocks before she turned on the bionic-speed. Again, the show continues to avoid the premise. Even the genius change of having Jamie programmed with combat training is underused. Avoiding the premise is the cause of the flub that this series has become.

Let’s look at when it is done right…Pushing Daisies. They have weaved the premise into an integral part of the show. Ned’s powers are an essential ingredient in each and every episode. If they were to forget the simple and basic premise of Ned’s touch they show would fail. It would become pretty looking pie-crust with no filling (sorry).

There are many more examples of this phenomenon, I just wanted to touch on a few. Let me know what you think.

Pushing Daisies Does It Again

Larry — Thu, 11 Oct 2007 12:10:16 +0000

I was completely delighted to see that Pushing Daisies managed to keep the freshness alive in the second week. I have started to feel nervous whenever Ned and Chuck are standing next to each other. We know that they won’t kill off Chuck anytime soon, but they really create the tension. The surreal environment that they have created allows the leap that you need to take to enjoy the show.

Again, the narration adds so much enjoyment to the show, and keeps the whimsical atmosphere that I enjoyed in the Pie-lette. The dandelion car, at first, seemed a little much but almost immediately fit into the world of Daisies. Here was an episode that was completely on par with the first. Guest star Patrick Fabian was excellent as the car company president.

I’m really pulling for Daisies. It is great to have such a well crafted show that doesn’t need to be dissected (i.e. Heroes/Lost). I finally realized that the show was created by Bryan Fuller who created one of my favorite canceled shows Wonderfalls. This show definitely has the same style, but was implemented better.

I can’t wait for next week.

Pushing Daisies…wow

Larry — Thu, 04 Oct 2007 13:52:39 +0000

The Pushing Daisies pilot was the best 40 minutes of television that I can remember seeing. It was so good it could have been a theatrical movie. It looked beautiful. It was acted and directed beautifully. It was extremely entertaining. The Suess’ian voice-over would normally be annoying in a prime-time show, but in the case of Daisies, it was perfect. From the very first minute, I was completely engaged in the show. After only one episode, I feel like I’ve known these characters forever.

For those who have not seen Daisies (shame on you), it will remind you of Big Fish and possibly Stardust. Though not a fairytale, the tone is very much a fairytale. Kind of like Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.

I really hope that they can keep the freshness of this show throughout the season. I have never been this engaged in a show after only one episode. It is just amazing.