Sunday, November 11th, 2007
05:30 Pushing Daisies
06:20 Reaper
07:10 Journeyman
11:30 The Six Million Dollar Man
12:30 The Nancy Drew Mysteries
Pushing Daisies. Episode 4. Another delightful outing from the Pie Maker and his friends. The show is very comfortable in it's voice now. It has a visual style and rhythm of language that comes easily. In some ways, it reminds me of early Moonlighting.
A place crash, two dead bodies, lots of scenes for Chuck's cool aunts, plenty of snappy dialogue, another song from Kristin (almost), and a plethora of oddball ideas highlight this story of an escaped convict in search of hidden diamonds. The story has more coincidences than you could shake a fake wing at, but that's only because the writers have correctly sussed that none of that matters in this mad world they have created. And they are right. The more outlandish the co-incidence the more I loved it.
My only gripe? Kristin Chenoweth (who has the absolute best cleavage on TV) sings a song. Almost. Her rendition of "Birdhouse In Your Soul" (one of my favourite songs) is used as background filler. Barely. We jump in mid-song and, seconds later, she is Shushed! and stops singing. Which sucks. I want more singing!
Reaper. Episode 5. As usual the bad-guy takes a back seat to the comedy between the regulars. And, as usual, it's a pretty good episode. We get hints that there is more to Sam's Dad than first appeared, and the Devil makes it clear for the first time that he wants Andi (the girl that Sam likes) to play no part in their adventures. The Sam-Andi romance is the only element of the show that fails to work for me. Sam's non-pursuit of her bores me, and Andi herself is getting to be irritating. Taken at face value, Sam's evasive tactics would indicate that he doesn't like her. So why is she acting like a stalker? It would make more sense for her to (incorrectly) take the hint and stay the heck away from him. That fact that she keeps confronting him over and over about his lack of interest in her makes her hard to like.
Journeyman. Episode 7. Another hard-to-like character in a new show, is Livia on Journeyman, the ex-girlfriend that Dan works with whenever he travels in time. That said, this was her best episode. Dan was stuck in 1999, trying to save his own life (the 1999 version of him, that is). Usually Livia contributes nothing except snide remarks and things are are glaringly obvious about the situation they are in. This time, at least, we get to see the time travelling experience from her perspective. And, even better, she gets to travel to 2007, and Dan's house, to save Dan. Both the 1999 and the 2007 version.
But Livia is only a small part of this episode. The main story is typically run-of-the-mill and filled with lazy co-incidences. Much better is the side story of Dan's wife as she prepares to go back to work, against Dan's wishes. The pilot of Journeyman had the best ending of any pilot of 2007. And, the closing minutes of this episode, with the events taking place, and the music used, is the first time the show has equalled the spine-tingling wonder of that opener's conclusion. Katie (the real star of the show) comes to Dan's rescue when he needs/needed her most and I'm reminded why I love this show so much.
Oh, and the cliff-hanger's awesome, too.
The Six Million Dollar Man. Episode 9. Despite a goofy bit in the middle, and production problems at the end, this is one of better episodes of SMDM. Dr. Wells (the guy who rebuilt Steve) is kidnapped in Austria and Steve goes after him, soon falling into the clutches of powerful people who want to built their own bionic man. The Austria of this story is a storybook version: a country of 1930s cars and snow on the ground. It would not seem strange to see John Steed drive by and give a cheery wave. The cars, however, do give Steve a chance to do something very, very cool during a chase (he reaches over and pulls out a steering wheel!).
Rudy Wells is well served by the script. His cleverness and strong bond with (genuine affection for) Steve are highlighted in several scenes. Rudy tells some very elaborate lies to keep Steve out of danger and alive and it's cool to see Steve keep up with the lies, as best he can, to keep the cover going. The villains are superb and everything that happens is conducted with the utmost civility. This adds a wonderful undercurrent of menace, as well as enhancing the feeling this is really an Avengers episode, with a bionic guest star in tow.
The episode's centrepiece is all out battle between Steve and several thugs in the snow-covered grounds of the country house where he and Rudy are being held. It's one of the coolest, and most visual, fights of the entire series. Also, it comes to a very surprising ending when the thugs over-power Steve and disable his bionic arm. Highlighting the fact that Season 1 is a story-driven action-show.
The goofy bit? Steve is able to find the mansion by learning a sentence of a foreign language after hearing it... once. Once! That's just mad. A real "what the?" moment. And the production problems? Rainfall seems to have washed away the snow, since the final scenes take place amid heavy showers where (on one occasion) you can see a production umbrella protecting the camera. Also, the script implies a cliff when there clearly isn't one, and the edited-in shot of a car going off said cliff is pretty darn awful.
Never mind. I enjoyed the episode, flaws and all.
The Nancy Drew Mysteries. Episode 5. It's got a cool setting (a carnival), and a great cast (A Martinez, Robert Englund, Jamie Lee Curtis, Robert Alda, Craig Littler & Beverly Garland) but the story is too muddled for my liking and takes far too long to get going. The opening ten minutes are meant to create intrigue and set up all sorts of red herrings, but - on screen - it's just a bunch of characters we've never seen before going over and back without showing/telling us what any of them are really doing. It's therefore easy for the attention to wander. By the mid-point of the story, things are have improved: Nancy is undercover at the carnival and we start to get a clearer idea of who exactly has been doing what. Even then, with several questions answers, the final twist still manages to be a genuine surprise. Reminding us that Nancy Drew was 1977's Veronica Mars.
By the end of the story, Carson Drew has four clients, all thanks to Nancy's one case. The moment when he observes that none of them can pay him, and glances lovingly at Nancy, is pretty much my favourite moment from the Nancy Drew series.
Highlight? Journeyman.
Journeyman, Pushing Daisies, Reaper, The Nancy Drew Mysteries, The Six Million Dollar Man
