Best
New Shows of the 2007-08 Season
With
the first cancellation recently arriving in the form of CBS’s
Viva Laughlin, the 2007-08 television season can now be considered
fully under way. Although the ax will no doubt fall on many more new
shows before too long, there will likewise be a few rookie series that
receive full-season pick-ups. While some will be because of ratings
(i.e., Private Practice), a small handful will sneak through
based more on their overall quality than any blockbuster potential.
Pushing
Daisies on ABC is a prime example. Although pulling in respectable
ratings, it is far from a smash hit but has still been given the “green
light” for a full, 22-episode season. This innovative series revolves
around pie maker Ned (Lee Pace), who discovered at a young age that
he has the ability to “raise the dead” with a single touch.
There is a catch, however, in that a second touch brings irrevocable
death; also, if a second touch does not happen within sixty seconds
of the first, someone else dies instead. Ned’s life is further
disrupted when private detective Emerson Cod (Chi McBride) discovers
his secret and enlists him in assisting to solve murders (it is easier,
after all, to figure out who killed someone when you can actually ask
the victim). Pushing Daisies is no Ghost Whisperer
or Medium, however, as it plays out like a warped-and-twisted,
Dr. Seuss-style fairy tale.
The show
has colorful sets decorated in a retro-1940s style, makes extensive
use of CGI images, and utilizes a narrator to push the layered storytelling
along. The characters all recite eloquently-written, rapid-pace dialogue
more reminiscent of a Coen brothers’ movie than even Aaron Sorkin’s
West Wing or Amy Sherman-Palladino’s Gilmore Girls.
In fact, film director Barry Sonnenfeld, who was the cinematographer
for the Coens early in his career, serves as an executive producer and
helmed the camera for the pilot.
One of
the first cases Ned assists on involves the murder of the pie maker’s
childhood sweetheart, Charlotte “Chuck” Charles (Anna Friel),
whom Ned has never forgotten. Faced with the dilemma of granting Chuck
one last kiss or a second chance at life, Ned chooses to let the clock
tick down. Thus enters the fairy tale aspect of the series, as Prince
Charming can never again touch his Sleeping Beauty without losing her
forever.
Pushing
Daisies is not the only new show with a supernatural tilt or a
pilot filmed by a famous director. Reaper on the CW deals with
twenty-one year-old Sam Oliver (Bret Harrison), who discovers that his
parents sold his soul to the Devil (Ray Wise) before he was born and
now must serve as a bounty-hunter by retrieving souls who have escaped
from Hell as part of the deal.
Although
nowhere near as stylized as Pushing Daisies, Reaper
has a distinct feel to it nonetheless, thanks to creative consultant
Kevin Smith, the aforementioned “famous director.” In fact,
while Pushing Daisies conjures memories of Raising Arizona
or O Brother, Where Art Thou?, Reaper is comparable
to Clerks. For example, Sam works at a “Work Bench,”
the fictional equivalent of a Home Depot, which may just be the current
generation’s version of a convenient store. His co-workers are
all twentysomething slackers who would fit right in with any Kevin Smith
film, especially Bert “Sock” Wysocki (Tyler Labine), who
spends his time finding ways to amuse himself with the various items
that the store sells.
Not yet
picked up for a full season, Reaper took a few episodes to
“find its footing,” not uncommon with a new show. The pilot
was entertaining enough, but still felt “spotty,” while
the second dragged on a little too long before the episode’s plot
kicked in. These pacing issues have now been resolved, however, and
the show has found a proper balance between Clerks-style humor
and mystery-of-the-week storytelling.
Chuck
on NBC, meanwhile, is a perfect companion piece to Reaper,
right down to the titular character working at the fictional equivalent
of a Best Buy (Best More). Chuck Bartowski (Zachary Levi) is an awkward
twentysomething who accidentally has the government’s secrets
down-loaded into his brain and now finds himself doubling as a secret
agent. Chuck suffered early on in the same ways that Reaper
did in regards to figuring out what worked and what didn’t, but
likewise found the right formula in recent weeks.
Co-created
by Josh Schwartz of The O.C., Chuck’s Chuck
is an older version of Seth Cohen, and the series itself at times feels
like a manifestation of that character’s comic-book-induced imagination:
there is a hot female CIA agent (Yvonne Strahovski) who can ass-kick
with the best of them and a no-nonsense NSA agent (Adam Baldwin) who
also serves as an antagonist. But while NBC inherited Seth Cohen, it’s
the CW that
is
the beneficiary of the full O.C. legacy with its likewise Schwartz-co-created
drama, Gossip Girl.
Based on
the series of novels by Cecily von Ziegesar, the show follows a group
of teenagers growing up in the socialite circles of New York’s
Upper East Side, while Kristen Bell serves as the mysterious “gossip
girl” narrator who runs a blog about their on-goings. In true
O.C. fashion, however, the parents have their own plot lines,
and just like Chino outsider Ryan Attwood tried to fit into Newport,
wrong-side-of-the-track siblings Dan and Jenny Humphrey get drawn into
the story as well.
Gossip
Girl features sharp, witty dialogue fueled with pop-culture references
ala Amy Sherman-Palladino, is quickly paced and contains the best music
soundtrack since, well, The O.C. Part guilty-pleasure, part
intelligent, quality television, it was also the first new series to
be picked up for a full season despite disappointing ratings. Give the
CW credit for standing behind it, as well as airing two of the best
new shows of the season.
Pushing
Daisies, Reaper, Chuck and Gossip Girl.
None of them may be full-fledged blockbusters, and only two are ensured
of having full seasons at this point, but they are all worthy successors
to the casualties suffered last spring when Veronica Mars and
Gilmore Girls aired their final episodes. And that alone should
make any television fan happy.
October
29, 2007
