Question: I know that you and every other critic seems to be in love with Pushing Daisies. I just watched the pilot, and while I was thoroughly entertained, there are three problems that I think could become much bigger over the long run. Firstly (in order of escalating seriousness), I imagine that the extensive narration, though helpful in the pilot's exposition, will become very grating after a few episodes. In the pilot, I think the narrator had more lines than any individual character, including Ned. The second is the weakness of the supporting cast. Lee Pace does such an amazing job portraying the whimsical and fast-talking Ned, and Chi McBride plays a great strait man to his oddball. But Kristin Chenoweth and Anna Friel absolutely cannot keep up with him and his fast-paced dialogue. I feel like every scene where he talks to either one of them slows the whole thing down. Was Alexis Bledel not available? Chenoweth is so distractingly short that she can't properly interact with ...
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Question: I was intrigued to hear that the creative team behind Dead Like Me is producing the new Pushing Daisies. And since Tony Award-winning actress Kristin Chenoweth is in the cast, I can't be more excited for this show. I find her to be one of the most underrated talents in television and film. Producers are now choosing their actors from the Broadway community (i.e., Sara Ramirez) more than ever. Considering Chenoweth's career as a popular character actress in film and television (remember her show Kristin?), it will be interesting to see how her persona comes through and is challenged by this character.
Answer: As I've been telling everyone, and as I reported again in the last days of the TCA press tour, Pushing Daisies is easily my favorite pilot of the new fall crop. Besides Chenoweth, the cast also includes stage vets Swoozie Kurtz, Ellen Greene and, as the romantic leads, theater-trained Lee Pace (who was also seen in Bryan Fuller's Wonderfalls) and Anna Friel (Broadway's
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Lee Pace in Pushing Daisies by Bob D'Amico/ABC
Could the third time be the charm? Being an eternal optimist when it comes to TV shows I love, I certainly hope so. For the third season in a row, the show I’ve picked as my favorite pilot of the fall season is on ABC, and once again, after two consecutive seasons of my pick failing to make the grade, this show’s projected success is far from a slam dunk. But let me tell you why I believe, despite all logical skepticism to the contrary, that the dazzling “forensic fairy tale” called Pushing Daisies has a shot at making it.First, here’s why my earlier picks didn’t pan out. For one thing, both shows — Invasion in 2005, The Nine in 2006 — had the mixed fortune of being scheduled directly after Lost. (As we’ve learned, the Lost viewing experience is so intense and its fan base so obsessed that it’s pure folly to put any show, especially a demanding one, after Lost.) Both shows were also exceedingly dark in tone, whereas Pushing Daisies...
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