Pushing Daisies is an excellent show. It is cinematically beautiful and brilliantly acted, the stories are engaging and linear, the tone is consistent, the mythology is well-developed, the characters are multi-dimensional and the symbolism resonates clearly. So what's the problem? There has to be a big problem since no one actually watches the show and ABC has pulled the plug after only 2 incomplete seasons of episodes. The problem is that while Pushing Daisies works on paper and all the elements work unto themselves, the show is somehow not at all greater than the sum of its parts. All the fantastic elements that I've listed above should make for a fantastic and successful show but Pushing Daisies, for reasons passing understanding, is boring. It's a terrible, terrible mistake, but somehow I just don't care about this show. It's always my last pick out of Wednesday night's TV, a fact that I am more than a little ashamed to admit.
So, let's all try and learn from Pushing Daisies: a perfect cast, clever writing, innovative art direction and a promising premise don't always guarantee that your show will posess that irreplaceable element, that lightning in a bottle that makes a show un-missable. And the fact that Pushing Daisies was missing that might be the greatest tragedy in TV since the cancellation of Wonderfalls.
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