Pop Vultures

Continuing my theme of watching every new show I can get my meaty paws on in order to have ample mocking opportunities, last night I watched the first episode of Pushing Daisies. After my lament of the last post, I can at least say this: it is original. I’m just not sure yet if that’s a good thing.

It looks to be this season’s love-it-or-hate-it show, but with my typical contrary nature, I’m somewhere in between. I’ve spent the last 24 hours or so trying to figure out if I actually like the show or not.

It’s from the creator of Wonderfalls and shares the magical realism sensibility of that show, though it lost the forced cynicism that made that one so annoying. It’s good…but I’m not sure that it’s anything as special as it seems to think it is. Still confused, it became clear that a pro/con list was the only way I would sort this one out. (I’m telling you, a good pro/con list could solve all the world’s problems. The minute we can convince the UN to create a proper pro/con committee, world peace would break out, global warming would cure itself and Paris Hilton would finally disappear back into the fame-whore ether from which she first emerged. Trust me on this.)

Pro: It’s gorgeous. It uses fairy tale conventions as its framework, and the sets capture that other-worldly sense brilliantly. Plus, it takes the story-teller’s perspective, which I’m bound to love. The leads are extremely likable and even, at times, adorable in a cute puppy sort of way, and that goes a long, long way to selling a show. At the very least, it helped remove the faint stench of Moonlight that was still lingering around my television.

Cons: The narration is a bit intrusive and frequently a bit too self-consciously precious. Yes, you’re quirky. We get it. You don’t need to name the travel agency the ‘Boutique Travel Travel Boutique’ to get that point across (and having the Darling Mermaid Darlings synchronized swimmers is overkill — yes, we all learned about repetition in English class and no, it does not always improve the writing). Some of the non-lead characters (the aunts, the pie-girl whose name I have already forgotten and don’t care enough about to even look up) seem pointless at best, pretentiously annoying at worst).

Verdict: it’s a tie. And while I could watch the second episode and try to come to a more definite opinion, I think the real fault of the show is that I feel no desire to do this. The first episode was a lovely, self-contained story. It was a gentle fairy tale that ended exactly as it should. And, for now, that’s good enough for me.

I know lots of other people love this show. What tips the scale in favor of must-see viewing for you?