I wanted to like Pushing Daisies a lot more than I did, but I’m not giving up on it, either.
I’m committed myself to at least six episodes, though my gut tells me that there’s no way this show lasts that long before ABC pulls the plug. Reports that the network is already demanding the kinds of budget cuts that could end up neutering the show’s distinctive visual style are also not encouraging, as this is the kind of series that is desperately going to need an unusual palette to succeed.
Now that’s more like it!
Truth be told, I liked Bionic Woman’s pilot a lot more than others, though many of the complaints were valid. It was too dour, too mopey and Sackhoff upstaged star Michelle Ryan every time they were onscreen together. It’s not that I agreed with the notion that Michelle Ryan was bland, it’s just that Katee Sackhoff is a dazzling charisma generator in her own right. That was less of a problem this week, as Sackhoff ’s rogue bionic woman Sarah Corvus was kept seperate from Ryan’s Jamie Sommers, and that distance allowed Ryan to find some more confidence as the center of the show. Without having to compete with Sackhoff, Ryan’s Jamie Sommers was relaxed, amiable, endearing and even appreciative of her new status as a super hero and eager to put it to good use. That’s a definite move in the right direction, as any more scenes of Jamie horrified by her new body would really have been a drag.
