¡Qué horror! 2013 Candidate #14

¡Qué horror! 2013

Candidate #14

HANNIBAL

(April 2013)

For the record, I love Bryan Fuller’s TV work (though the Mockingbird Lane pilot did leave me wanting), and the show of his I really, truly, and completely loved was Wonderfalls.

So the fact that Caroline Dhavernas is part of the cast of Fuller’s adaptation of Hannibal is all sorts of awesome.

Of course, that’s not the reason why I’ve singled out Hannibal--another TV series (after Les Revenants)--for a ¡Qué horror! candidate slot this year; Dhavernas is many things, but a “horror” she most certainly is not.

Hannibal is here because this is a solid adaptation of Thomas Harris’ serial killer novels featuring Hannibal “The Cannibal” Lecter.

Ostensibly, Red Dragon is the main source material for the show, a novel which has already been adapted to film twice, in 1986 by Michael Mann under the title Manhunter, and in 2002, by Brett Ratner.

According to Fuller’s roadmap of the show though, Hannibal Season 4 would be the adaptation proper of Red Dragon, while, if the stars align, we may actually see a television adaptation of The Silence of the Lambs,* envisioned as Season 5 of the show, should we get that far.

And if the level of creative quality remains constant (or hopefully, actually increases), then that’s a future I’d very much like to see. 

In Season 1 alone, we’ve got some heavy directorial hitters like David Slade (whose excellent Awake Pilot was one of last season’s TV highlights), Michael Rymer (who solidified his geek cred with his work on Ron Moore’s Battlestar Galactica), and 75-year-old Peter Medak (who scarred many an audience member with the chilling quiet horror of 1980’s The Changeling).

Then there’s Guillermo Navarro, frequent cinematographer for Guillermo del Toro (including the upcoming Pacific Rim), who won a whole slew of awards--including the Oscar--for his work on El Laberinto del Fauno. Navarro had previously worked with Fuller as DP on the Mockingbird Lane pilot, and here, he directs a trio of episodes (as do both Slade and Rymer, taking a lion’s share of the season between the three of them).

Some Twin Peaks episode helmers are also in here: James Foley (who also brought us the big screen adaptation of Glengarry Glen Ross) and Tim Hunter (no, not the Books of Magic kid).

All that livewire creativity and talent behind the camera, and we haven’t even gotten to the excellent cast.

The cold, clinical detachment Mads Mikkelsen brings to his Hannibal is a fine offset to the twitchy, tortured nature of Hugh Dancy’s Will Graham. And, you know, Mikkelsen had to walk in the intimidating footsteps of both Brian Cox and Sir Anthony Hopkins.

Plus, there are those guest star turns:

Gillian Anderson, who enters at the midpoint of the season, under the beautifully unlikely name of Dr. Bedelia Du Maurier;

Fellow Chris Carter alumnus, Lance Henriksen;

And other past Fuller collaborators: Raúl Esparza, Eddie Izzard, Ellen Greene, and Ellen Muth (but that was a pretty evil way to wrap up her guest starring stint, Mr. Fuller, an evil way…).

So with both Dhavernas and Muth having made their appearances, all we need are either Lee Pace or Anna Friel (or both) to enter Hannibal’s world, and we’ll complete the Past Fuller Leads Trifecta.

Hurrah!

In a world where TV procedurals have reached well beyond saturation point, one of the things that saves Hannibal from the potential pitfall of becoming just another one of those “serial killer of the week” shows is the serialized nature of its narrative.

Coming into the show with a general idea of the overarching narrative (from the Harris novels and the previous film adaptations of the material), the audience is hooked. They want to see how the cards fall, they can’t wait for the other shoe to drop, for Graham and company to discover exactly what kind of a monster Lecter really is.

It’s the same approach to story that was successfully utilized in Smallville (at least, for the first few seasons), and more recently, in Bates Motel.
We all know Clark Kent eventually becomes Superman, we all know Norman Bates eventually kills his mother and a whole string of unfortunate motel guests, we all know Hannibal Lecter eventually ends up in the loonybin where he gets to play cat and mouse with Clarice Starling.
Part of the fun lies in watching how we get there.

And thus far, this is some morbid, gruesome “fun.” (Network television is getting away with a lot these days…)

If I could ask for something though, I’d ask for a bit more psychopathology; the show doesn’t really bother to explain the whys of their killers. We meet them fully (mal)formed, without any significant idea of how these sick puppies got so ill, without knowing the twisted road they walked to get here.

It’s almost as if Fuller and company are saying, serial killers really are inexplicable.

It’s almost like they’re saying, there is no “Why.” Serial killers simply are.

And that’s a truly horrifying thought…

* A possibility that both intrigues me (because there were some bits of the novel that were dropped in Jonathan Demme’s adaptation; among them, Jack Crawford’s turmoil, the seeds of which, have already been planted by Fuller and company in Season 1) and terrifies me (because The Silence of the Lambs is one of those brilliant lightning in a bottle moments in cinema, where everything seemed to align exquisitely).

Again, for the record, Demme’s Silence is, thus far, the only Harris film adaptation that I’ve been completely floored by. All the others--from Mann’s Manhunter, through until Peter Webber’s Hannibal Rising--haven’t come even close.

Here’s hoping Fuller’s Hannibal can succeed where all those others failed…

(Hannibal OS’ courtesy of impawards.com.)

THE FALL
(Review)


All right. Full disclosure.
I love Tarsem’s The Cell. It has its flaws, yes, but it’s got a whole lot of amazing, noteworthy stuff going for it.
There’s Howard Shore’s score, there’s Eiko Ishioka’s costumes, and of course, Tarsem’s very particular visual flair.
So it was that in the wake of The Cell, I began to actively track his possible feature film work. There was a moment in time when his name was associated with the then-in development Constantine, though that ultimately didn’t happen, due, in part, to what he fondly calls “this autistic child of mine,” The Fall.
And now, here we are, some four years and 24 countries later (the story behind the making of the film is equally as interesting as the film itself), and that “autistic child” is now ready to receive guests…


Following a haunting opening credits sequence in which many clues to the subsequent narrative may be found, we find ourselves in Los Angeles, once upon a time (or the early 1920’s, take your pick), as the paths of 5-year old Alexandria (an impressively unaffected Catinca Untaru) and injured Hollywood stuntman Roy Walker (Pushing Daisies’ Lee Pace), cross due to a misdirected message.
What follows is a tender friendship born out of necessity, a poignant celebration of the power of storytelling, and a breathtaking display of Singh’s artistry and passion.
Those who may have mistakenly written off the baroque imagery of The Cell as a barrage of hollow, MTV-styled trifles, would be well-advised to seek out the heartbreaking wonders of The Fall.


Helping Tarsem author this astounding piece of cinematic wonder are a returning Ishioka (who first impressed me deeply with her work on Paul Schrader’s Mishima, and then blew me away with her Oscar-winning efforts on Francis Ford Coppola’s Bram Stoker’s Dracula), first-time feature cinematographer Colin Watkinson, editor Robert Duffy (who’d also worked on The Cell), production designer Ged Clarke, and composer Krishna Levy (also responsible for the music of François Ozon’s Huit Femmes).
And of course, the central performances of Pace and Untaru, which anchor the narrative in a very human space, giving the film and its fantastic visuals, the beating heart any good story requires.
Many of today’s crop of feature directors with their roots in music videos and adverts seem much too preoccupied with framing the pretty pictures without paying enough attention to the narrative. With The Fall, Tarsem safely joins the likes of Mark Romanek, David Fincher, and Spike Jonze, as directors who are as much storytellers as they are visualists. (Incidentally, Fincher and Jonze are producers on The Fall, “presenting” the film to us, its eager audience.)


With his autistic child, Tarsem took home, not only a Crystal Bear from last year’s Berlin International Film Festival, but also the award for Best Film from Sitges, considered by some as the Cannes of genre film.
The Fall is a moving, breathtaking tale about the unbridled, impressionable imagination of the young, and how reality and fiction can bleed into each other in a child’s mind.
It’s also about stories, as both lifeline and currency. It’s about their mutability and elasticity, of their organic nature; how the listener can shape the story even as it unfolds. How, in the end, the story is as much the listener’s as it is the storyteller’s, and how the listener can, in influencing the story, also influence the storyteller in turn.
It’s a daring and wondrous piece of work, The Fall, and anyone who loves stories (as any film geek should), really does need to see this.


Parting shot: The Living and the Dead’s Leo Bill is here as Charles Darwin, as you’ve never seen him before…
Really.

(The Fall OS courtesy of impawards.com [design by The Arterie]; images courtesy of moviereporter.net and premiere.com.)

AFTERTHOUGHTS (100)
EMMY 2008

So this year’s nominations are out, and here are the nods I took note of:

80th Annual Academy Awards
Outstanding Art Direction For A Variety, Music or Nonfiction Programming (Roy Christopher, Production Designer; Joe Celli, Art Director)
Outstanding Directing For A Variety, Music or Nonfiction Programming (Louis J. Horvitz)
Outstanding Lighting Direction (electronic, Multi-camera) For Vmc Programming (Robert A. Dickinson, Lighting Designer; Robert Barnhart, Andy O’Reilly, Lighting Directors)
Outstanding Music Direction (Bill Conti, Music Director)
Outstanding Individual Performance In A Variety or Music Program (Jon Stewart, Host)
Outstanding Picture Editing Of Clip Packages For Talk, Performance, Award Or Reality Competition Programs [Oscar Show Tribute Sequence] (Chuck Workman)
Outstanding Sound Mixing For A Variety Or Music Series Or Special
Outstanding Special Class – Awards Programs (Gilbert Cates, Producer)
Outstanding Technical Direction, Camerawork, Video For A Miniseries, Movie Or A Special

Battlestar Galactica
Outstanding Cinematography For A One Hour Series [Razor] (Stephen McNutt, Director of Photography)
Outstanding Single-camera Picture Editing For A Drama Series [“He That Believeth In Me”] (Julius Ramsay)
Outstanding Sound Mixing For A Comedy Or Drama Series (one-hour) [Razor] (Rick Bal, Production Mixer; Michael Olman, Kenneth Kobett, Supervising Re-Recording Mixers)
Outstanding Special Class – Short-format Live-action Entertainment Programs [Razor Featurette #4] (Ronald D. Moore, David Eick, Executive Producers; Harvey Frand, Supervising Producer)
Outstanding Special Visual Effects For A Series [“He That Believeth In Me”]
Outstanding Writing For A Drama Series [“Six Of One”] (Michael Angeli)


Chuck
Outstanding Main Title Design (Karin Fong, Jonathan Gershon, Dana Yee, Title Designers)
Outstanding Stunt Coordination [“Chuck Versus The Undercover Lover”] (Merritt Yohnka, Stunt Coordinator)


Dexter
Outstanding Art Direction For A Single-camera Series [“That Night, A Forest Grew”] (Tony Cowley, Production Designer; Linda Spheeris, Set Decorator)
Outstanding Cinematography For A One Hour Series [“The British Invasion”] (Romeo Tirone, Director of Photography)
Outstanding Drama Series
Outstanding Lead Actor In A Drama Series (Michael C. Hall)
Outstanding Sound Mixing For A Comedy Or Drama Series (one-hour) [“It’s Alive!”] (Patrick Hanson, Production Mixer; Elmo Ponsdomenech, Joe Earle, Re-Recording Mixers)


Entourage
Outstanding Comedy Series
Outstanding Directing For A Comedy Series [“No Cannes Do”] (Dan Attias)
Outstanding Sound Mixing For A Comedy Or Drama Series (half-hour) And Animation [“Adios Amigo”] (Steve Morantz, Production Mixer; Dennis Kirk, Bill Jackson, Re-Recording Mixers)
Outstanding Supporting Actor In A Comedy Series (Jeremy Piven)
Outstanding Supporting Actor In A Comedy Series (Kevin Dillon)


Heroes
Outstanding Art Direction For A Single-camera Series [“Out of Time”] (Ruth Ammon, Production Designer; Matthew Jacobs, Art Director; Ron Franco, Set Decorator)
Outstanding Single-camera Picture Editing For A Drama Series [“Powerless”] (Scott Boyd)
Outstanding Special Visual Effects For A Series [“Four Months Ago”]


Justice League: The New Frontier
Outstanding Animated Program (for Programming One Hour or More)


Lost
Outstanding Cinematography For A One Hour Series [“The Constant”] (John Bartley, Director of Photography)
Outstanding Drama Series
Outstanding Music Composition For A Series (original Dramatic Score) [“The Constant”] (Michael Giacchino)
Outstanding Single-camera Picture Editing For A Drama Series [“There’s No Place Like Home” (Parts 2 & 3)] (Henk Van Eeghen, Robert Florio, Mark J. Goldman, Stephen Semel)
Outstanding Sound Editing For A Series [“The Shape Of Things To Come”]
Outstanding Sound Mixing For A Comedy Or Drama Series (one-hour) [“Meet Kevin Johnson”] (Robert Anderson, Production Mixer; Frank Morrone, Scott Weber, Re-Recording Mixers)
Outstanding Special Class – Short-format Live-action Entertainment Programs [Lost: Missing Pieces] (Damon Lindelof, Carlton Cuse, Barry Jossen, Executive Producers)
Outstanding Supporting Actor In A Drama Series (Michael Emerson)


Pushing Daisies
Outstanding Art Direction For A Single-camera Series [“Pie-Lette”] (Michael Wylie, Production Designer; Halina Siwolop, Set Decorator)
Outstanding Casting For A Comedy Series (Camille Patton, Meg Liberman, Jennifer Lare)
Outstanding Costumes For A Series [“Pie-Lette”] (Mary Vogt, Costume Designer; Stephanie Fox-Kramer, Costume Supervisor)
Outstanding Directing For A Comedy Series [“Pie-Lette”] (Barry Sonnenfeld)
Outstanding Hairstyling For A Single-camera Series [“Smell Of Success”] (Daniel Curet, Department Head Hairstylist; Yuko Tokunaga-Koach, Key Hairstylist)
Outstanding Lead Actor In A Comedy Series (Lee Pace)
Outstanding Makeup For A Single-camera Series (non-prosthetic) [“Dummy”] (Todd A. McIntosh, Department Head Makeup Artist; David De Leon, Key Makeup Artist; Bradley M. Look, Additional Makeup Artist)
Outstanding Prosthetic Makeup For A Series, Miniseries, Movie Or A Special [“Smell Of Success”] (Todd A. McIntosh, Department Head Makeup Artist; David De Leon, Key Makeup Artist; Sara De Pue, Additional Makeup Artist)
Outstanding Music Composition For A Series (original Dramatic Score) [“Pigeon”] (Jim Dooley)
Outstanding Picture Editing For A Comedy Series (single or Multi-camera) [“Pie-Lette”] (Stuart Bass)
Outstanding Supporting Actress In A Comedy Series (Kristin Chenoweth)
Outstanding Writing For A Comedy Series [“Pie-Lette”] (Bryan Fuller)

In addition, Lost Find 815 and The Heroes Digital Experience also found themselves among the finalists in the Interactive Media Programming (Fiction) Juried Area, where “one, more than one or no award can be given.” (Other Fiction finalists included HBO Voyeur, Kyle XY: The Collective Experience, and The L Word Interactive.)

Now, while I’m happy for the whopping dozen nominations Pushing Daisies racked up (for a truncated season that lasted all of nine episodes, mind), I am still distressed at the distinct lack of love Emmy has perennially shown for Battlestar Galactica.
Not only were all the performers roundly ignored, but the tremendous work Bear McCreary has been doing in scoring the show also went unacknowledged.
Sigh.

At any rate, congratulations to all the nominees, a complete list of which you may find here.
The 2008 Primetime Emmys will be handed out on September 21 at the NOKIA Theatre in Los Angeles, while the Primetime Creative Arts Awards will be presented on September 13, also at the NOKIA.

Parting shot: Episodic reactions/recaps of Battlestar Galactica, Chuck, Dexter, Entourage, Heroes, Lost, and Pushing Daisies—as well as a review of the Battlestar Galactica straight-to-DVD film Razor—can be found in the Archive.

(Images courtesy of SCIFI Channel and wired.com [Battlestar Galactica]; aintitcool.com [Chuck Season One and Pushing Daisies Season One DVD cover art and Justice League: The New Frontier image]; rickbrotherton.com [Dexter]; hbo.com [Entourage]; NBC and yahoo.com [Heroes]; ABC and eonline.com [Lost].)

AFTERTHOUGHTS (37)
TOP TV SHOWS FOR 2007

It’s that time of year when Top 10 lists breed like rabbits, and though the sheer number do make the head spin, I still check out a lot of them, just to see what others have to say about the shows that I love (if and when my top choices happen to coincide with theirs).

Time had two lists of top TV shows, and Lost crashed into the #2 spot on Time’s Top 10 Returning TV Shows, while Pushing Daisies took root in the #5 spot of their Top 10 New TV Series.

#2. Lost (from Time’s Top 10 Returning TV Shows)
Like a boulder on a desert-island mountain, a Lost season starts slow, but after a dithering first six episodes, season 3 was an awesome force. This spring's episodes delved deeper into the mythology of the mysterious island, then vaulted years ahead in an astonishing, forehead-smacking finale that set the bar even higher for next season. In between, we got Desmond's mind-blowing premonitions, invisible mystic island honcho, Jacob, and the moving death of doomed romantic junkie Charlie. What more could you want? Only more Lost, and soon.

#5. Pushing Daisies (from Time’s Top 10 New TV Shows)
It's whimsational! It's twee-riffic! It's preciously precious! In this grown-up fairy-tale, a piemaker (Lee Pace) can raise the dead with a touch, but kills them if he ever touches them again. This complicates matters when he resurrects the love of his life, whom he can never kiss, at pain of her life. Playful, fantastical, and art-directed within an inch of its life in candy colors by Barry Sonnenfeld, Daisies is as romantic as it is outlandish.

Pushing Daisies also sprouted in the #2 spot on Entertainment Weekly’s Best TV Shows of 2007.

2. Pushing Daisies (from Entertainment Weekly’s Best TV Shows of 2007)
Filled with mermaid divers and windmill farms, Pushing Daisies is a fantastically fantastical, bubble-gum-colored fable about a pie maker named Ned (Lee Pace), who magically brings his childhood love, Chuck (Anna Friel), back to life with his touch but will kill her if he ever makes contact again. Between solving oddball mysteries involving puppy cloning and scratch-'n'-sniff empires, Chuck and Ned banter and moon at each other. (As Ned's gruff detective buddy, wonderful Chi McBride undercuts any excess sweet.) When so many TV couples are bickery brats, there's something strangely mature about this chaste pair. It's easy to whip up a juicy drama about evildoing bastards — it takes a boatload of creativity to make all this niceness so mesmerizing.

Congratulations to all involved with Lost and Pushing Daisies. Onward, ho, to 2008. And let’s get the WGA strike resolved soon so we can all breathe easier…

Entries quoted above are from time.com and ew.com. To see the other Top 10 shows, the complete lists can be accessed from the links above.

(Images courtesy of abc, fanpop.com [Lost] and about.com [Pushing Daisies].)

AFTERTHOUGHTS (33)
2008 GOLDEN GLOBE NOMINEES (I’m excited about)

So another awards season has begun, and amidst a sea of critics’ nods, the Hollywood Foreign Press releases the first big salvo before the Oscars and the BAFTAs.
Below are the Golden Globe nominations that got me stoked.

Eastern Promises:
Best Motion Picture Drama
Best Actor in a Motion Picture Drama (Viggo Mortensen)
Best Score (Howard Shore)

(Sorry, but it’s the only nominated film I’ve actually seen, so it’s the only one I can legitimately get excited about, though below are some nominations for films I’ve mentioned ‘round these parts before.)

Juno:
Best Motion Picture Musical or Comedy
Best Actress in a Motion Picture Musical or Comedy (Ellen Page)
Best Screenplay (Diablo Cody)

Lars and the Real Girl:
Best Actor in a Motion Picture Musical or Comedy (Ryan Gosling)

Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street:
Best Motion Picture Musical or Comedy
Best Director (Tim Burton)
Best Actor in a Motion Picture Musical or Comedy (Johnny Depp)
Best Actress in a Motion Picture Musical or Comedy (Helena Bonham Carter)

And since I’m also a Sarah Polley and Coen Brothers fan…

Away From Her:
Best Actress in a Motion Picture Drama (Julie Christie)

No Country for Old Men:
Best Motion Picture Drama
Best Director (Joel and Ethan Coen)
Best Supporting Actor in a Motion Picture (Javier Bardem)
Best Screenplay (Joel and Ethan Coen)

On the TV end of things…

Dexter:
Best Actor in a Drama Series (Michael C. Hall)

Entourage:
Best Musical or Comedy TV Series
Best Supporting Actor in a Series, Miniseries or TV Movie (Kevin Dillon and Jeremy Piven)

Pushing Daisies:
Best Musical or Comedy TV Series
Best Actor in a Musical or Comedy TV Series (Lee Pace)
Best Actress in a Musical or Comedy TV Series (Anna Friel)

Congratulations, one and all, and to Pushing Daisies, an additional pat on the back, for scooping up three nominations on the strength of only 9 episodes to date.

You can find the complete list of 2008 Golden Globe nominees here.

Parting shot: Regulars here to the Iguana know I follow Dexter, Entourage, and Pushing Daisies, so you’ll find episodic recaps and reactions in the Archive, where a review of David Cronenberg’s Eastern Promises also resides in happy comfort. (Feed it some peanuts. It likes those.)

(Images courtesy of screenhead.com [Eastern Promises]; latimes.com [Dexter]; hbo.com [Entourage]; and thepiemaker.com [Pushing Daisies].)

PUSHING DAISIES
Season 1 Episode 5
“Girth”
Written by Katherine Lingenfelter
Directed by Peter O’Fallon
(WARNING: SPOILERS)

Being the Halloween installment of Pushing Daisies, this one plays like one of those apparently supernatural revenge deals that turns out to be a Scooby-Doo episode.
Hmm. Now that I think about it, this plays like Tim Burton’s Sleepy Hollow, minus the overly Gothic Hammer touches and the flying heads.
Despite that less-than-flattering description though, this turns out to be another great episode, and certainly a better viewing experience than Sleepy Hollow.

The whodunit plot involves Olive’s past as a prize-winning jockey (winner of the… wait for it… Jock-Off 2000), and the unfortunate death by trampling of John Joseph Jacobs (Groove’s Hamish Linklater, also seen on The New Adventures of Old Christine).
When the other jockeys from the Jock-Off 2000 wind up getting trampled by what they believe is the ghost of John Joseph Jacobs (complete with fire-breathing horse), Olive begins to fear for her life.
As it turns out though, and no big surprise here, the real killer is Mamma Jacobs (Barbara Barrie, from TV’s Barney Miller, Suddenly Susan, and Bryan Fuller’s past show, Dead Like Me), long embittered by her son’s ruined career.
And John Joseph isn’t really dead, though he is taller now…

Meanwhile, the episode’s subplot involves the childhood event that traumatized poor Ned into the Halloween-o-phobe he is today.
Halloween was when he found out that his father had moved on after his mother’s death. Moved on quite literally, to a new home, and a new wife, and a couple of new sons. (The scene with little Ned and Digby in make-shift ghost costumes made from blankets, as they stand outside Ned’s dad’s new home, while Ned’s dad walks away with his new family, is heart-breaking.)

Sure, this one’s got some hiccups: Mamma Jacobs actually took the time and effort to rig a horse with some fire-breathing apparatus? And in the climactic chase sequence, Olive and Chuck run out of the house? The killer’s on a horse, for Pete’s sake. This would have been a wonderful time to ignore Sidney Prescott’s words of wisdom and run up the stairs.
But hey, some of the best bits of Pushing Daisies are the personal bits after all, and here, we see Ned coming to terms with his Daddy issues (as Lost has proven, there’s always a lot of dramatic traction to be gained from Daddy issues).
And you gotta admit, Emerson’s imaginary phone call with the money is a riot.

(Image courtesy of pushing-daisies.com.)

PUSHING DAISIES
Season 1 Episode 4
“Pigeon”
Written by Rina Mimoun
Directed by Adam Kane
(WARNING: SPOILERS)

This could very well be the best episode since the Pilot.
Opening with another flashback to Ned’s private school days, we see the faithful Digby make the three-day journey to find his master, “guided only by the compass of his heart.” He even saves lives and property along the way. It’s a nice, moving little sequence that sets up an episode that delves into the power of love, and how it can overcome any obstacle.

Even as Chuck bakes another pie (tart apple filling) for her aunts—a pie that Olive again intercepts, planning on delivering it so she can continue to lay her plans of exposing what she believes is Chuck’s faked death—a one-winged carrier pigeon smashes into the Pie Hole’s window.
In the bustle around the dead pigeon, Ned inadvertently touches it, bringing it back to life. (“It’s a miracle bird!” shouts Olive.) There’s some panic as Ned and Emerson wonder what will pay for the pigeon’s return (another bird, as it turns out), followed by a crop duster crashing into a nearby building.

What follows involves several symbolisms and parallels—a birdcage as metaphor for the house Chuck’s aunts live in; a one-winged bird, a one-armed man, a one-legged woman; love that is meant to be, but only at a distance—as most of the show’s characters (save Emerson, perhaps) witness and experience the potency of love.
There is even the (heh) daisy chain of Digby loving Ned who loves Chuck who loves her aunts, while Olive also loves Ned, and then comes to love Chuck’s aunts too. Emerson, of course, loves money…

This one’s directed by Adam Kane, who also directed the first episode of Heroes’ sophomore season where the story is actually allowed to breathe, “The Kindness of Strangers.” It’s the episode where I feel Season 2 took its first genuine step towards rehabilitation, getting past that awfully cluttered sensation that pervades the first three episodes. And though I am aware that a big reason for that is the script, I’d like to think that Kane also had something to do with this welcome turn-around.
Kane began as a cinematographer (he worked on the Heroes pilot), then went on to his directorial debut with “.07%” from Heroes’ first season.
Kane’s an excellent choice for Pushing Daisies, which is, by its very nature, a very visual series. Kane’s experience as a cinematographer clearly serves him well here, as this episode looks gorgeous.
Here’s hoping we see more of Adam Kane the director, not just here or in Heroes, but elsewhere on the cathode ray—or silver screen—landscape as well.

Parting shot: Kane was also the cinematographer on Jim Isaac’s Skinwalkers (review in Archive), and also shot Isaac’s upcoming feature, Pig Hunt.

(Images courtesy of pushing-daisies.com and gregbeeman.blogspot.com [Adam Kane on the set of Heroes].)

PUSHING DAISIES
Season 1 Episode 3
“The Fun In Funeral”
Written by Bryan Fuller
Directed by Paul Edwards
(WARNING: SPOILERS)

We kick off with a flashback to Ned’s time in private school, immediately following his mother’s death, where he quickly establishes the whole one-minute window deal by experimenting on some CGI fireflies.
We then settle down to the heart of this episode’s matter: Louis Schatz (Brad Grunberg, real-life brother of Heroes’ Greg), brother of Lawrence (also played by Grunberg), suspects foul play in his brother’s death, and hires Emerson to get to the bottom of it.
Here are the facts: the dead Schatz brother was caught pilfering family heirlooms from the funeral home’s clients, a crime which was made public, causing a furor and an avalanche of hate mail demanding items back. Louis suspects that Lawrence was murdered by one of the disgruntled family members.
What no one knows, except for Emerson and Ned, is that Lawrence was the unfortunate living being-in-close-proximity when Chuck was not returned to her deceased state after the one minute window.

Emerson tries to get Ned to interview Lawrence without Chuck present, but she manages to be at the morgue. When Ned sees who the dead body is though, he panics and rushes out. Annoyed, Emerson makes it clear to Chuck what keeping her around cost. Chuck, confused and guilty about the circumstances of her return from the dead, keeps her emotional distance from Ned.
Later on though, Chuck says she’d like Ned to talk to Lawrence, and she’d like to be there too, so Ned can apologize, and she can say “Thank you.” (Emerson, of course, wants to be there so he can find out where all the family heirlooms are, so he can make some kind of profit from all of this.)

When they talk to Lawrence though, it turns out that it’s Louis who knows where the heirlooms are, and the whole investigation was to throw suspicion off him. Chuck also finds her father’s watch in Lawrence‘s possession.
Emerson is just getting down to planning Louis‘ surveillance, hoping he’ll find out where the loot is, when Louis is discovered in The Pie Hole’s refrigerator, now just as dead as Lawrence. In a panic, Ned calls Emerson, who says someone’s framing Ned, and that that someone already probably called the cops.
Cue cops knocking at The Pie Hole’s door.
So Ned touches Louis, and they tell him he’s gotten into Heaven, but Heaven’s about to close in a minute, so he’s got to hustle. Ned, Chuck, and the reanimated Louis scramble to Emerson’s car, which he pulls into the Pie Hole’s back alley. They also manage to find out that Louis choked on his food when he was once again accosted by an irate family member demanding a Civil War heirloom be returned. The minute runs out though before they can find out where the loot is hidden.

Upon hearing about a Civil War heirloom, Chuck recalls one of the hate letters mentioning just that, a letter written by Wilfred Woodruff. So they know who inadvertently caused Louis‘ death, and who attempted to frame Ned.
First though, they attempt to get Louis‘ body back to the funeral home, where he died. The place is all locked up though, and they break in through a basement window. Emerson however, gets Winnie the Pooh-stuck, much to Chuck’s amusement.
There’s minor panic as Ned bumps into a number of cadavers in the basement, though he quickly touches them again.
There is, however, someone else in the basement: Wilfred Woodruff (That ‘80’s Show’s Eddie Shin), who has found his family’s Civil War saber (there’s also a funny flashback to show us how an Asian-American connects to the Civil War).
Apparently, Woodruff was there the day Lawrence died, and seeing Ned run out of the funeral home, simply assumed Ned had murdered Lawrence (thus, the frame-up). A duel ensues, Woodruff armed with the saber, Ned, with some funeral home equipment.
With a little help from Chuck and Pooh-stuck-in-the-window, Ned wins the duel, and finds the loot.

Chuck then takes it upon herself to match hate letters to missing family heirlooms, and sets about gift-wrapping each item so it can be returned. Emerson also sees the error of his ways… and vows to lose some weight.

In the episode’s subplot, Olive sees Ned and Chuck kiss (through a sheet of plastic wrap) and gets light-headed, inadvertently becoming the object of Alfredo (Find Me Guilty’s Raul Esparza) Aldarisio’s attention. Alfredo’s a traveling salesman who sells homeopathic cures for all sorts of illnesses, including depression.
When Chuck is given some samples of Alfredo’s wares, and upon discovering from Louis Schatz that her aunts spiraled back into depression just as the Darling Mermaid Darlings were about to make a splashy comeback, she decides to anonymously bake them a pie, and mixes a few drops of happiness in the recipe.
But when The Delivery Boy (Malcolm In The Middle’s Victor Z. Isaac) sees the address is out of his regular area, he refuses to deliver it. Feeling sympathy for the pie and its intended recipients, Olive takes it upon herself to deliver the pie herself.
She then meets the Darling Mermaid Darlings, and is regaled of tales of their dead niece Charlotte, who happened to be the childhood sweetheart of the “Beaver Boy” next door, who grew up to be a Pie Maker.
That’s when it all clicks in Olive’s head: now she believes that Ned faked Chuck’s death, and that there’s some nefarious reason behind the conspiracy.
And in her fixation on Ned, Olive remains oblivious to the attention being paid her by Alfredo…

If you frequent the Iguana, you know I love Pushing Daisies, and this episode’s no exception.
Sure, this one’s got some defects (the motivation for the frame-up seems a little muddled, and just how did Chuck get into the funeral home anyway, given that the door was supposedly locked and Emerson Pooh had jammed up the window?), but the writing continues to be funny, and the romantic tension is still both taut and touching, and the stylized look of the show remains some of the best eye candy primetime TV has to offer.
Oh, and Jim Dale’s narration is just plain brilliant.

(Image courtesy of pushing-daisies.com.)

PUSHING DAISIES
Season 1 Episode 2
“Dummy”
Written by Peter Ocko
Directed by Barry Sonnenfeld
(WARNING: SPOILERS)

Chuck’s sudden arrival in Ned’s life may be great for Ned, but Emerson and Olive are less than thrilled. Olive feels a distance growing between her and Ned, and has taken to some snooping, noting the fact that there doesn’t seem to be much physical intimacy between Chuck and Ned.
Emerson meanwhile, has tried to deal with the stress by knitting, but really, nothing beats a murder (in Emerson’s book, at least): one Bernard Slaybeck (Jonathan Mangum, from The Drew Carey Show), apparently a hit-and-run victim.
But when Chuck gets all Jabberwocky with the revived Bernard (asking him if there was something that he left undone), the minute passes, and all they’re able to get out of Bernard concerning his death is, a crash test dummy killed him.

Fulfilling Bernard‘s last wish, Chuck and Ned take a pie over to Dandy Lion Worldwide Industries, where they must tell Jeanine from Promotions (Riki Lindhome, from Pulse and TV’s Gilmore Girls) that Bernard loved her. While there, we discover that Chuck speaks Japanese (aside from a bunch of other languages), and that the car of the future—the Dandy Lion SX—could very well run on dandelion weed.
When they find Jeanine though, she claims not to have known any Bernard. She does however, take the pie and, unseen by anyone, scarfs it down while crying.
Meanwhile, Chuck sneaks away from the tour and discovers a room filled with crash test dummies, though one, tellingly, lacks its mask and jumpsuit.

When they confer with Emerson, both he and Chuck agree that they need to break into Dandy Lion later that night. Not only do they find that the room with the crash test dummies now contains a whole bunch of dead people (which, when “interviewed” by Ned, don’t seem to have been murdered), but that Jeanine actually did know Bernard.
Moving to The Pie Hole, Jeanine wolfs down pies like there’s no tomorrow, then spends an inordinately long amount of time in the lavatory. Between eating and bathroom breaks, they discover that Jeanine couldn’t talk at work because she was being watched, and that, yes, she did have a relationship with Bernard. She also wants to show them something.
On the drive there though, Jeanine’s Dandy Lion SX explodes.

At hospital, Jeanine tells Emerson and Ned that she wanted to show them the “bodies in the big hole.” This turns out to be a massive pit filled with the crash test dummies that used to be in Dandy Lion; someone wants them buried to keep whatever data’s been recorded in them a secret.
Ned and Chuck and Emerson are unable to act on this knowledge though, as someone wearing a crash test dummy outfit tasers them into unconsciousness. The Crash Test Dummy Killer tries to murder all three by crashing an SX (already a potential death trap because of a design flaw, the big secret worth killing Bernard for) with them in it, but Emerson manages to get them free with his trusty knitting needle.
A car chase occurs, but the Crash Test Dummy Killer is caught by the cops, and Ned and company are saved from the SX exploding by none other than Olive herself, out giving Digby a walk.

Oh, and Jeanine takes her first steps to overcoming her eating disorder…

There’s a lot of stuff that’s great in this second episode (particularly the theme of secrets, and how it’s pretty evident that the three main characters of Pushing Daisies hardly know anything about each other, just as we, the audience, hardly know anything about them… yet), but what seals the deal, making the case for Pushing Daisies currently being the most amusing, inventive, and yes, moving hour of primetime television, is Olive’s Musical Moment with Digby and Manuel (Omar Avila; The Punisher and TV’s Watch Over Me). Brilliant.
What else can I say? The writing’s funny and touching, the cast is amazing, and Jim Dale’s narration is spot-on. Check it out, people.

Parting shot: ABC has given Pushing Daisies a full season pick-up, pumping up the original 13 episode order to a full 22. I say again: Brilliant.

Parting shot 2: A review of the Pushing Daisies Pilot—TV Watch 2007 (3)—can be found in the Archive.

(Images courtesy of pushing-daisies.com.)

reVIEW (18)
WONDERFALLS

Instead of taking a look at an old film, this installment of reVIEW is about the sadly cancelled Bryan Fuller co-created TV series Wonderfalls. Consider it a companion piece to TV Watch 2007 (3), where I heartily recommended Fuller’s new ABC series, Pushing Daisies.

“It’s a really quirky, smart, feel-good show about a pathological narcissist who wakes up one day to discover the universe has sort-of forced her to become fate’s b!tch.”
-- Bryan Fuller, when asked to describe Wonderfalls


Classic Gen Y underachiever, Jaye Brewster (Caroline Dhavernas) has a Philosophy degree, but works a dead-end job at the souvenir shop of Niagara Falls. However, inanimate animals—wax lions, metal monkeys, stuffed donkeys—begin to speak to her, giving her cryptic instructions, which she finds herself hesitantly following, inadvertently helping others, when all she’d really rather do is nothing in particular.
That’s the quirky premise of a great TV show called Wonderfalls (one of its working titles during its development, Touched by a Crazy Person), which almost never got seen.


Fox, you see, unceremoniously pulled the plug on the show after a mere four episodes, despite the fact that it was a critical darling. Apparently, the show wasn’t racking up the ratings Fox would have liked, and the network wasn’t willing to wait for an audience to discover its witty charm.
(It should be noted that this isn’t the first time Fox has speedily kicked a show off the air. They’ve done it to Chris Carter twice, despite the phenomenal hit he gave them in The X-Files—with his virtual reality series Harsh Realm, and the X-Files spin-off, The Lone Gunmen.)


The magnitude of this injustice is compounded even further when you consider that, a) Wonderfalls was actually a really good show, and b) as I’ve pointed out before, this is a world with three CSI’s. Three CSI’s and we can’t have room for one unique show with a voice all its own, managing to fuse the inertia of Gen Y slackdom with the inevitability of destiny, turning in an existential comedy bristling with witty dialogue, and pop culture referents and metaphors aplenty.

“She’s a snarky character, so she’s going to be snarky about the things that she encounters in her life. When tchochtkes start talking, let the snark reign.”
-- Bryan Fuller, discussing Jaye


As Jaye Brewster, Dhavernas (from a host of Canadian productions) displays a refreshing, disarming quality, even when she’s in her persnickety slacker mode, and witnessing the character’s torturous metamorphosis from self-involved, aimless cynic to confused, hesitant Samaritan is a peculiar joy.
Surrounding Jaye with their own brand of insanity is her family, father Darrin (William Sadler, from The Green Mile and Kinsey), mother Karen (Diana Scarwid), sister Sharon (Katie Finneran, from You’ve Got Mail, and the 1990 remake of Night of the Living Dead), and brother Aaron (Lee Pace, from Soldier’s Girl).
Of particular note amongst the Brewsters is Scarwid (from What Lies Beneath and Party Monster), whose Karen is the aloof, snotty socialite who nonetheless loves her family (though she may not particularly understand them).

Ultimately, Wonderfalls is a show that manages to give us a funny glimpse at the workings of those “mysterious ways” we keep on hearing about. It’s like an Early Edition or a Touched by an Angel, but with a lot more wit, and a lot more brains; a show that displays the causality of destiny, and how every little thing we do, no matter how seemingly insignificant, impacts somewhere, on someone, thus keeping the great engine of life moving in perfect synchronicity with the Will of some higher, manifest Power, a Power that, apparently, has a pretty hip (and often absurd) sense of humor.


Parting shot: Though only four episodes of Wonderfalls were broadcast on Fox, thirteen were actually filmed, and all are available on DVD.

(Images courtesy of aintitcool.com, episodeguides.com, hollywoodjesus.com, and logoonline.com.)
(The above is an altered version of a previously published article entitled “The Causality of Destiny (Or, The Greatest TV Show You May Never See).”)

TV WATCH 2007 (3)
PUSHING DAISIES Pilot

I am in awe of Bryan Fuller.
Wouldn’t you be? Not only did he bring us the unjustly cancelled Wonderfalls, but he also worked on the first season of Heroes (having written “Collision” and the astounding “Company Man”)*, and brought The Amazing Screw-On Head (review in Archive) to zany animated life.
Now he’s at the helm of Pushing Daisies, one of the best new series of this coming season.

“This was the moment young Ned realized he wasn’t like the other children, nor was he like anyone else, for that matter. Young Ned could touch dead things and bring them back to life.
“This touch was a gift given to him, but not by anyone in particular. There was no box, no instructions, no manufacturer’s warranty. It just was.”

At a young age, Ned (Lee Pace, from Wonderfalls) discovers that he can bring the dead back to life with a touch. There are, however, rules to his “gift” (which I won’t disclose here to try and save the suspense; though said rules are outlined in the first five minutes of the Pilot, they do have long-term ramifications that serve to inform the Pilot and the series as a whole).
In the wake of Ned’s discovery, he is parted from his first love, Charlotte (though he calls her “Chuck”; Anna Friel, from the Goal! films and the upcoming Bathory, where she plays the Blood Countess herself, Elizabeth Bathory). Years later (but still as a direct result of that childhood incident), he opens a restaurant called “The Pie Hole,” where he bakes exquisite pies and has a lucrative partnership with a local PI, Emerson Cod (Boston Public’s Chi McBride).

To say any more would cheat the show’s potential audience of the poignant wonder Pushing Daisies holds.
I can say this though: Fuller’s script is narrated from start to finish by Jim Dale, in a very conscious fairy tale styling. And the look of the show—which recalls the technicolour Fantasia of Tim Burton, circa Big Fish—mirrors that fairy tale motif to a tee.
Small wonder then, that the Pilot’s director is Barry Sonnenfeld, whose Addams Family films proved that he could be Burton when you couldn’t have the real Burton.
And if that isn’t enough to tantalize and to pique your curiosity, the supporting cast also includes Ellen Greene (Sylar’s kooky mom on Heroes) and Swoosie Kurtz (Locke’s kooky mom on Lost) as Chuck’s aunts, and Kristen Chenoweth (Running with Scissors and Stranger Than Fiction; reviews for both in the Archive) as Olive Snook, waitress at The Pie Hole, who lives in the apartment next to Ned’s.

The Pushing Daisies Pilot is a wonderful, heartfelt hour of life, death, and what should, by all rights fall squarely in the middle of those two extremes, love.
It’s funny, and moving, and smart. It’s vintage Bryan Fuller, and you have got to see this show.

* Over the course of Heroes Season 1, Bryan Fuller wrote most of the Claire scenes. Anyone who’s checked the Iguana out in the past will know that Claire is one of my favorite characters on the show, who also had, I feel, one of the most satisfying character arcs in the first season. I’ve also long maintained that Hayden Panettiere is one of the best of the show’s ensemble.
So thanx to Mr. Fuller, for giving Hayden all those great scenes to work on, and for helping shape a great character.

Parting shot: I never got the chance to see Dead Like Me, Bryan Fuller’s other show, though I’ve heard lots of good things about it.

(Images courtesy of abc, about.com, and thepiemaker.com.)