Thursday Top Threes: Pilots

J: The fall TV season is almost here! What are your top three favorite pilot/series premiere episodes of all time?


Mira:
1. Pushing Daisies: I can still imagine scenes from this pilot, and it's been a couple years since I've watched it. Ned describing bringing his mom back to life, only to accidentally kill her again; running around in a meadow of daisies with his dog (Digby?) and then his dog gets hit by a vehicle and he brings the dog back to life; describing Chuck's crazy mermaid aunts... It was so vibrant and represents the show's quirkiness so perfectly in 40 minutes.
2. Glee: This episode also well represents what made Glee so exciting and fun and great in the beginning! From highlighting all the characters through their audition songs to introducing snarky Sue, gullible Finn, enthusiastic Mr. Schuester... And of course, "Don't Stop Believing."  Perfection. :)
3. Alias: This is the only pilot episode of a show that hooked me so much I ended up watching 8 straight episodes in a row.  Actually no, Veronica Mars may have hooked me in a similar way. (I watched the entire first season over the span of one weekend.) But I'll still give Alias an edge. I mean the red wig, the Chinese speaking, the excitement of a story told forward and backward -- it was a great pilot!

 Jennifer:
1. Friday Night Lights: I hadn't seen the movie, I didn't know anything about Texas, I had no interest in football, but this pilot, especially the second half, just shot me straight through the heart. Love love LOVE.
2. Lost: I ended up having plenty of problems with this show, but one thing I'll give J.J. Abrams is that he definitely knows how to start off a show (perhaps that's why he's had more success in movies lately). There was a lot to set up -- a huge cast of characters, the flashback construct, the mystery/possibly sci-fi style and atmosphere -- and it was hugely successful with all of it. It's been rare that a pilot excited me as much as this one.
3. Roswell: A less obvious choice, perhaps, but don't forget that this show was created and written by Jason Katims who went on to run FNL and Parenthood. All the characters are introduced so well, the use of music is amazing (especially love the first scene in the Crashdown of Max saving Liz with Sarah McLachlan's "Fear" building in the background), and there's a nice balance of romance, humor, action, and suspense. Ah, the old days of the WB...

Oh, what's occuring?

A rundown of my TV and pop-culture consuming as of late.

!. The title of this post is a reference to the really great British romantic comedy sitcom, Gavin and Stacey, now airing on BBC America. I feel kind of bad that I haven't gotten around to blogging about it until now, but it's not my blogs have some great influence over the TV viewers of the world anyway. I really do love this show though! It's the story of a young couple (yes, named Gavin and Stacey) as they meet, fall in love, get engaged and get married. The best part of the show is really the supporting players, though, including Nessa, Stacey's best friend, whose catchphrase is "what's occurring?" There's also Smithy, Gavin's best friend, Gavin's parents, and Stacey's mom and uncle, all of whom are hilarious in their own way. There have been two seasons and the second is airing right now. Not sure if there'll be a third, though I believe a Christmas special will be airing in the UK soon!

2. The word is that ABC has canceled Pushing Daisies, Eli Stone, and Dirty Sexy Money. It's not entirely surprising...Pushing Daisies was a little too quirky for me so it was definitely too much for network TV, and Eli Stone and Dirty Sexy Money never really caught steam. I am glad that the writers' strike enabled all of them to get another half-season, but I'm definitely disappointed that they probably won't get to wrap up much storyline. It's pretty terrible that three generally critically acclaimed shows like these get axed while things like Knight Rider, Kath & Kim, and 90210 are going to keep going...

3. Speaking of 90210, I'm still watching it despite how really terrible it is. The writing is just so...BAD. The storylines have all been predictable, dialogue is horrendous, and the acting isn't much better. Annie is not interesting or likable enough to be the lead, and the original flavor characters like Kelly and Brenda aren't being given anything good to do either. And yet I keep watching...

4. There is a good show on the CW on Tuesday nights though: Privileged. I'm not sure how it's doing in the ratings, but I think additional scripts were ordered so hopefully it'll stick around for a little while. The show centers around Megan, a recent Yale graduate who returns home to South Florida to become the live-in tutor to twins Rose and Sage, who are the granddaughters of Laurel, a wealthy cosmetic mogul. Megan is played wonderfully by Joanna Garcia...she's smart and optimistic and a little dorky, but she's not perfect. She has strained relationships with her father and sister, and is sometimes too wrapped up in her own life to realize what's going on with her friends. I do love the twins too -- Rose is played by Lucy Hale, who I found annoying in Bionic Woman and the second Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants but I find really sweet here, and Sage, who's the taller, bitchier twin has really been growing on me. Michael Cassidy finally gets to play the good guy as Megan's best friend from childhood, Charlie, and there's Marco, the house chef, who's hilarious as the gay BFF type.

5. I've fallen behind with Terminator, Heroes, and Fringe, for different reasons. I do like Terminator, but it's sometimes just a little too like angsty and serious and I'm not that interested in whatever Ellison and Catherine Weaver are doing. Heroes just sucks and I doubt I'll ever get back into it, but I haven't quite cut the cord yet. And Fringe...the gore every week has turned me off a bit and the "Pattern" thing worries me because it seems to have the potential to spiral off into some Rambaldi type thing. (Yes, I will always begrudge J.J. Abrams for screwing up Alias.)

6. My favorite shows this season so far: Gossip Girl, Top Chef, 30 Rock, and the Amazing Race.

7. Shows I'm looking forward to in 2009: Battlestar Galactica (final season), Scrubs, Kyle XY, and Joss Whedon's Dollhouse (though it's been doomed to a Friday night timeslot). Oh, and 24, too, I guess, though I didn't finish watching the last season and I'm a little miffed over the idea of Tony returning from the dead to be a bad guy. Can't they leave well enough alone?

8. I feel like I should comment on all the hoopla surrounding the Twilight movie. I originally wanted to see it but after reading some reviews and some audience reactions I think I'm going to pass and wait to see it on DVD. It's weird, I totally admit to have been sucked in by the books, but I really have a lot of problems with the series and I find it kind of bizarre that so many people are so ga-ga over it. (See my original reviews of Twilight/New Moon and Breaking Dawn. Also this article on Salon says a lot of what I was trying to.) But I'm sure it's going to make a killing at the box office anyway.

Pushing Daisies: A possibly unpopular opinion

In a way, I really really want to love this show. It's from Bryan Fuller who, thanks to Dead Like Me and especially Wonderfalls, I'm a huge fan of. I mean, it's quirky and different and has a ship to root for in Ned/Chuck. It's smartly written and well acted by a really great cast, and it can be really funny and sweet. And I mean, I do like it. But something is holding me back from really loving it. And I think it's the cuteness factor.

Now I'm not against cute. And I know that on this show, it's all intentional, that this candy-colored world of pies and honey and mermaids and silly alliterative names is supposed to be fanciful and over the top. And I know that it's supposed to be balanced by the fact that it's essentially a murder mystery show. But I find the full effect of it to not just be cute, but aggressively cute.

I think this manifests itself the most in the mystery-of-the-week component. I just can't seem to stand all the perky babbling people involved with the mysteries each week. They sort of remind of precocious children, which is bizarre because they're all adults. And I guess it doesn't help that I don't find the mysteries all that engaging and I think they all get solved somewhat predictably.

This is kind of unfortunate because I really do like most of the main cast. I think Emerson Cod is hilarious, I like the aunts, I like Digby (and Pigby!) and even Olive has grown on me (though the Sound of Music stuff in the season premiere was way too much for me). Oddly enough, Ned and Chuck are the ones that I'm the least sure about. Their not being able to touch strikes me as sad and almost annoying instead of romantic, and individually, while Ned is adorable and awkward he's just too fragile and damaged for me to be like swooning over him, and while Chuck is likable enough, I too often see her through Emerson's eyes: a perky busybody.

So I don't know, it's definitely worth watching and is a pleasant enough way to spend an hour, but I'm not in love with it the way I thought I might be...

jumping on the bandwagon...

Here are my entertainment favorites from 2007...

1. So You Think You Can Dance -- hands down my favorite reality tv show, EVER.
2. Harry Potter & the Deathly Hallows -- yay for closure!
3. How I Met Your Mother -- quickly becoming one of my FAVORITE tv shows. My favorite episode of Season 3: "Spoiler Alert"
4. The re-release of My So-Called Life on DVD!
5. Internet broadcasting of TV shows -- special thanks to ABC (Pushing Daisies, Samantha Who), CBS (How I Met Your Mother) and The CW (Gossip Girl). My DVR is already working overtime and I can't record all the shows I want to watch along with all the shows Russ wants to watch, so it helps to be able to catch the shows on the computer. :)

Honorary Mentions: Pushing Daisies (favorite new tv show of the 2007-8 season), Twilight/New Moon/Eclipse (favorite new series), the writer's strike (gives me a chance to catch up on tv)

blog may seem abandoned, but we're still watching tv... ;)

... at least until the shows start running out of episodes.

I'm probably in the minority, but I'm kinda glad this writers' strike is going on because it means I have a chance to catch up on all my shows. I'm still a few episodes behind, but here's what I'm still watching...

Every week:
* Heroes
* Chuck
* How I Met Your Mother
* Samantha Who?
* House
* Gossip Girl
* Pushing Daisies
* Private Practice
* Project Runway
* Grey's Anatomy
* October Road

Sometimes:
* Shark
* Dirty Sexy Money
* Las Vegas
* The Unit
* Numb3rs
* Friday Night Lights

Checking in with the new fall shows

I've been swamped with work and school these past couple of weeks, and with a week or more of TV backed up on my DVR, it's interesting to see which of the new shows I find myself wanting to watch first. So far, there have only been two shows that I've been watching live or almost immediately (Gossip Girl and Pushing Daisies), a couple more that I've been genuinely enjoying, and the rest are either still on trial or I've already given up. Here's the rundown, from best to worst:

1. Gossip Girl: I can't help it, I LOVE this show. Blair and Serena are just so perfectly cast and are really believable as those best friends that really are close but find themselves alternately warring and hugging. Also really loving Dan and Jenny and even boring Nate and jerky Chuck are watchable. The little romance with Dan and Serena has been cute, but I'm not getting too attached...at least based on the books, though I don't know how closely they're going to following them. I'm totally addicted.

2. Pushing Daisies: I actually didn't really like the second episode...I thought the whole dandelion car thing was just too much and it all looked a little too Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. But this week's episode really won me over. The Ned-Chuck romance is so sweet and I love all the funny ways they're getting around the touching thing: holding hands with gloves, kissing through plastic wrap...I'm also glad that Ned came clean with Chuck about some of the details of his power. I was a bit worried they'd drag that out too long, though of course he's still yet to tell her about her father. I figure that's a sweeps type storyline. I'm also totally loving Emerson Cod. He knits! And the Pooh thing from this week was genius. Chi McBride's done a lot of dramatic stuff and I never expected him to be so funny, but he's really stealing a lot of scenes here.

3. Kid Nation: Um yeah. I don't think it's really getting good ratings at all but for some reason I just really love this show. Obviously I'm susceptible to getting hooked on reality but I find it to be really entertaining. A lot of it is extremely contrived but the kids are an interesting mix...much more diverse than any other reality show.

4. Dirty Sexy Money: I think what I like about this show is that every character was introduced really well. All the wild and crazy things rich people do are really entertaining, and Peter Krause does a great job keeping it down to earth a bit. There's a little bit of a mystery going on too. It's just really a lot of fun and I hope they keep it up.

5. Aliens in America: The only sitcom on my list (though I've yet to check out Samantha Who? about which I've heard some good things). It's short, sweet, and satisfying, and all the characters are really likable.

6. Reaper: This is where things start to get a little questionable. I did think the pilot was funny but the next couple of episodes had me a little bored, and honestly, they kind of remind of all the bad episodes of Buffy. I mean, even the bad episodes of Buffy had good things about them, and it's the same here, but...yeah. They're still kind of bad. Sock continues to amuse, Sam's pretty easy to root for, and Ray Wise as the Devil is perfect, but I wonder if maybe they need a little bit more of an ongoing storyline.

7. Chuck: I'm a couple of weeks behind with this one, and maybe it's gotten better but I kind of it's just a little too silly at times. And I don't know, Chuck just seems a little too Seth Cohen 2.0 for me. I guess his dorkiness is kind of endearing but I found myself thinking he was just lame a lot of the time. Adam Baldwin is pretty hilarious though. It's not all working for me yet but I'm willing to give it a few more weeks.

8. Journeyman: Really makes absolutely no sense but I kind of like Dan, the main character. I'm kind of afraid to get too into though because it sort of seems doomed for early cancellation.

9. Bionic Woman: I want to like this show, I really do, but it's just so heavy and humorless. And Jamie still has no personality. I guess it's the butt-kicking babe thing but I can't help comparing Jamie to Sydney Bristow. Sydney might have gotten a little cold as the series progressed, but she kind of instantly made you care about her. Jamie's just...blah. I'm still liking Sarah Corvus and Jae though. Oh, but was I like not paying attention during the pilot and Will is already dead? That's maybe a plus because I thought he was annoying. I'm trying to stick it out, really, but it's getting tough.

Off the DVR: Moonlight (boring), Cane (boring), Private Practice (bad/uninteresting), K-Ville (uninterested), Life (boring), Big Bang Theory (uninterested), Big Shots (stupid).

Pushing Daisies!

When I first heard about this show I was a little afraid that it was going to be one of those quirky but brilliant shows that gets canceled prematurely because it never quite finds the right audience, like Bryan Fuller's last show, Wonderfalls (which I really need to blog about someday...it's beyond awesome). Usually I blame these kinds of situations on the networks. But this time around, I'm happy to say that ABC has done an extremely good job promoting the show. In the Philadelphia area where I live I've been seeing ads for it on buses for weeks now and on Wednesday, I was walking to class in University City and there were people on the street handing out daisies with little tags advertising the premiere that night! So cute!

And cute really is an operative word here when describing the show. The look of the show is quite different...the only thing I can think of comparing it to is Big Fish. And it is sort of fairy-tale-ish, thanks in part to the narration by Jim Dale, who does the Harry Potter audio books. Lee Pace plays our protagonist, Ned, the lonely pie maker with the strange gift, and I love him! I loved him back on Wonderfalls and I'm so glad he's leading his own show now. Anna Friel, yet another British import, plays Chuck, his childhood sweetheart. I really like her too...I just recently saw her in Our Mutual Friend (a BBC miniseries...yes, I'm still obsessed with those) and despite initial misgivings, she really won me over. Also in the cast are Kristin Chenoweth, who's SO TINY next to Lee Pace (though I guess I'm not one to talk...I'm probably only a inch or so taller than her), Swoosie Kurtz and Ellen Greene as Chuck's aunts, and Chi McBride (bouncing back from last season's doomed The Nine) as a private detective and Ned's "business partner." I really like that the cast is more varied and not just a bunch of pretty people like a lot of the other new shows this season.

I don't really want to recap the episode since I really encourage everyone to go watch it themselves, but there's a really sweet but kind of doomed romance, lots of quirky characters and details (uh, honey for the homeless?), and enough of a procedural element that will give the show structure but not overwhelm it. I do already have some questions about Ned's "gift" but I'll hold off to muse on them since well, it's only one episode.

So definitely yes to Pushing Daisies. I'm eagerly awaiting upcoming episodes, and I hope you all will check it out too!