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Pushing Daisies 1.4: "Pigeon" |
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Wednesday, 24 October 2007 |
By John Keegan
Visit Critical Myth for an archive of John's TV Review archives, with more than 1100 entries.
This was a good week for “Pushing Daisies” fans. The show was picked up for a full first season (pending the writer’s strike), and this is a good news for fans of original storytelling. That tempers somewhat the slight disappointment I felt in this particular episode.
I found the script to be a bit less hilarious this time around, focusing instead on elements of whimsy over black comedy. For me, much of the charm is the darkness within the brightly colored world of the Pie-maker, as seen in rapid effect in the first two episodes. This was more dramatic, focusing on the oddities of plot progression, and I found it more amusing than consistently funny.
Perhaps this was a conscious choice, given how the rest of the episode was constructed. This show has been the depiction of a modern fairy tale since the very beginning, but certain artistic choices were heightened in this installment. From the use of model-esque wide shots to the bald use of soundstages and matte paintings to the openly mechanical patchwork pigeon, the audience was directed to enjoy it for what it was and focus on the story being presented.
The aesthetic was charming enough to overcome most of my reservations with the dialogue, but not quite enough. It’s far too soon to tell if this is a slow shift on the part of the writing staff, representative of this particular writer, or just one of those episodes that didn’t click for me personally. I’ll be sure to keep an eye out for the writer’s name in future credits. |
