Perk's Remote Control

Pushing for "Daisies"

2008-11-02T14:56:00.003-05:00

Too many good shows are are on the verge of being canceled. I've already written about "Friday Night Lights" and "Chuck." This time, it's "Pushing Daisies."

"Pushing Daisies" is as far from a typical TV show as one can get. It kind of takes place in a fairy tale world and the settings look like they come straight out of a Tim Burton film, only much, much brighter. There is likely not a better show on television to watch in HD because of all of the bright and colorful scenes.

The premise of the show is that a pie maker named Ned has the ability to bring dead people to life with a single touch. The problem is, if these reanimated folks stay alive for more than a minute, someone else dies. When he was young, Ned's mom died and he brought her back to life. After a minute, his neighbor, the father of his childhood sweetheart, Charlotte Charles (or Chuck), drops dead. Chuck (maybe having a character named Chuck is a jinx for these shows?) comes back into Ned's life when she is murdered on a cruise. He brings her back to life, but falls in love with her again, so he keeps her alive knowing he can never touch her or she would immediately die. Ned and his detective pal Emerson Cod devise a plan where they solve a murder by bringing the deceased back to life to help solve his/her murder. Naturally, the person is brought back to life only for a minute. Each week, they solve a new crime.

The acting is superb on the show. Lee Pace as Ned and Kristin Chenoweth as Olive Snook, who works at the pie shop, have already been nominated for Emmys. Anna Friel is excellent as Chuck (and she looks great to boot), and Chi McBride as Emerson has his best role since he was the principal on "Boston Public." (His previous role was on the show "The Nine," another excellent show that was canceled too soon.)

The show has been critically acclaimed since it debuted last season, but for some reason it's not holding an audience. It must be going up against one of the "CSIs" or "Law and Orders." It's too bad, because "Pushing Daisies" is what television needs -- a new, fresh approach to the comedy/drama (dramedy if you will).

Today's Tom Sawyer, He Gets High on You

2008-10-29T13:29:00.002-04:00

How can you not like a TV show that bases a major plot line on a song by Rush and the classic video game Missile Command?

Monday night's episode of "Chuck," which is one of those programs that is too smart for today's viewer and will likely be canceled at the end of the season, was entitled "Chuck vs. Tom Sawyer" and, yes, that was the Rush song that was featured. And in a superb piece of writing, it was determined that the way to beat Missile Command was to shoot the missiles in time with the melody of "Tom Sawyer." Brilliant!

So, the song was played twice during the episode (which also featured an Air Supply song). And there were a number of other references, like a guy wearing a Rush jersey and Morgan having the entire Rush catalog on his iPod.

It didn't help, however, that liking Rush and video games was equated to being a geek in your 40s reliving the past. It kinda hit a little too close to home. ;-)

It would really be a shame if "Chuck" is canceled. I'd certainly miss Chuck, Morgan, Captain Awesome, Ellie, Anna, Big Mike, Lester and Jeff. But mostly I'd miss Agents Casey and Walker. Adam Baldwin, in his best role since playing Linderman in "My Bodyguard" way back in 1980 (which also featured Matt Dillon as the bully), was made for the Casey role, while Yvonne Strahovski is the best looking agent since Barbara Feldon's Agent 99 on "Get Smart" and she can kick major ass as well.

And it's not like NBC hasn't tried keeping the show afloat. There have been guest appearances from major stars like John Larroquette, Michael Clarke Duncan, Rachel Bilson and even Nichole Richie. In Monday's episode, Tony Hale, who was Buster Bluth in the gone-but-not-forgotten "Arrested Development," came on board as the new assistant manager of the Buy More. Hopefully, his addition to the cast can give the show a boost.

Live From New York...

2008-10-27T14:51:00.003-04:00

I've been a big fan of "Saturday Night Live" through the years. I could probably count on one hand the number of episodes I have missed over the last 20 or so years (before anyone says "Man, what a loser he must be staying home every Saturday night," most of the time I taped it to watch at a later date).

While the current group of "Not-Ready-for-Primetime Players" is made up of some really funny people, especially Amy Poehler, Kristen Wiig, Jason Sudekis, Bill Hader and Andy Samberg, the show has lost a step in my opinion, and I put the blame firmly on the writers.

My first complaint about the writing is that many of the skits over the last few seasons, even the ones that start off being really funny, peter out at the end. Promising skits turn into forgettable ones when the endings are bad.

The other complaint is that there aren't enough funny recurring characters with this cast. Mike Myers had a ton of them; so did Dana Carvey. Will Ferrall did too. Even Chris Kattan had Mango and the Roxbury skits. But what funny recurring characters does this cast have? I can think of just one -- Kristen Wiig's Target lady, and that one is usually plagued by a poor ending anyway. McGruber's gotta go, so does DJ Dynasty Handbag or whatever that skit with Keenan Thompson and Andy Samberg is.

The episode two weeks ago with Josh Brolin as the host and with the appearance of Sarah Palin was embarrassingly bad. I think I laughed just twice the entire program -- once during the Mark Wahlberg skit where he responded to Samberg's hilarious impression from the previous episode, and the other time during Poehler's Palin rap. The rest of the show was a joke (in the negative sense) but I may give them a pass because they must have concentrated on the Palin appearance.

Last Saturday's episode was better, but not by much. Jon Hamm has some better skits to work with, but the funniest part of the show was the Digital Short featuring Samberg as a faux Rastafarian doing a reggae rap. Poehler was certainly missed on the show, especially during Weekend Update, but she has more important things going on, like the birth of her son.

With Poehler out on maternity leave (although it wouldn't be surprising if she's back sooner than later), SNL should lean on two stars in particular -- Wiig and Samberg -- who are No. 2 and 3 in my book as far as being the funniest cast member behind Poehler. Wiig is consistently funny, while Samberg was part of arguably the funniest segment on SNL since "Wayne's World" or the "Needs More Cowbell" skit -- "Dick in a Box" with Justin Timberlake.

Next week, we get Ben Affleck, who was last seen making love to Jimmy Kimmel, and David Cook. Here's hoping the American Idol winner gets to perform three full songs like Coldplay did last week. Speaking of Coldplay, was it just me or did Chris Martin sound and look like he was lip-syncing?

"57 Channels (and Nothing On)"

2008-10-24T17:57:00.001-04:00

I posted the following on my MySpace blog, and figured I should bring it over here...

Those who know me pretty well know that I watch a lot of TV. My DVR is my best friend, and there have been nights where I've had to record shows on my roommate's DVR so I wouldn't miss a show. I have even designated some shows as "Train Shows," programs that I upload to my iPod Touch to watch on my train rides to and from work. The new "90210" is one of those Train Shows.

And although at this point, there's always at least one show to watch each night, I'm worried that all of the good shows eventually will be canceled. I am highly doubtful that two of my favorite shows, "Chuck" and "Friday Night Lights," will be canceled after this season. "Friday Night Lights" is still running only because Direct TV shared some of the production costs to make the third season possible. The tradeoff? All 13 episodes of the current season would be shown first on Direct TV and then on NBC starting in February. Luckily, I have the means of getting a hold of the episodes after they are shown on Direct TV; I would be going out of my mind if I wasn't able to see them.

And there isn't a better program on TV than "FNL." Kyle Chandler and Connie Britton, as Coach Taylor and his wife Tammie, are the best character actors on television today, period, and deserve Emmys even after just two episodes. Chandler says more in a scene without dialog than any actor I've ever seen. And the young stars, especially Zach Gilford, who plays Matt Saracen, deserve to be lauded for their roles and not regulated to satellite TV.

There has never been a show like "Chuck" before. The premise - a worker at a Best Buy-like electronics store who is forced to become a spy because he has downloaded vital information into his brain - is something that has never been seen before. But I am afraid that it is not being seen by enough people and will be sent off to pasture like other great recent shows like "Journeyman," "New Amsterdam" and "The Class."

Instead, we get mind-numbing programs like "The Wall," where contestants attempt to push themselves through a weirdly shaped cutout before falling into the water, or "Deal or No Deal," a game show in which a horse could be a contestant as long as he was able to count with his hooves. And these are some of the most popular shows in the TV ratings?

It's really scary that the same people who watch "The Wall" or that idiotic Flavor Flav show on VH1 will be voting for our next President.

Adam Watches Too Much TV

2008-10-24T17:13:00.000-04:00

In my apartment, there is a recliner that is positioned around 10 feet from a relatively new 37-inch flat-screen, high-definition television. On a daily basis, you can find your's truly sitting in said chair, usually with a Logitech Harmony universal remote in hand. That's because, as you can probably tell by this entry's subject, Adam watches way too much television.

Had I gotten a job at TV Guide, you could say that my excessive television watching was just career research. Instead, I work as a copy editor at Women's Wear Daily, the "Bible" of the fashion industry. So, you would think that all I get to read at WWD is stories about the new spring collection by Dolce & Gabbana, or the new Macy's store in New Orleans, or even what the socialites were wearing at the Chanel party the other night.

While most of the stories are on topics like I just mentioned, there are enough celebrity-based stories where my pop culture, especially television, knowledge has come in handy. Take, for instance, the interview with actor Jason Ritter the other day. Of course, the author mentioned his stint as the paraplegic brother on "Joan of Arcadia," but she failed to mention my favorite role of his, when he played Ethan Hass, the lead in the hilarious yet cruelly cancelled after a brief half-season comedy, "The Class." She decided to add it to her story and actually created a headline tied in with the TV show.

And there was the other time when there was a story about Tea Leoni where her last name was spelled incorrectly, but since I remembered her from another comedy that was on longer than "The Class" but was still chopped fro the schedule too soon, "The Naked Truth," I was able to get the correct spelling in.

So, the other day, WWD's managing editor was so impressed with my encyclopedic knowledge of all things television (he calls me the "Television Savant"), he said I should start a TV blog. I do have a blog on my MySpace page, but I'm going to go one step further and start a dedicated blog to my views on television, the shows I watch, and even those I don't.

My last blog post at MySpace was about television, specifically the trend of cancelling critically acclaimed programs in favor of mind-numbing shows that seem to be catered towards those with IQs in the single digits. I'll likely repost that entry here.

So, brace yourselves. This could get ugly!