Pushing Daisies Burrows Deep

Cake or death?

After reading io9’s persuasive pitch for Pushing Daisies, I downloaded the first season of the undeservedly underrated TV show.

What I had originally assumed was just a gooey, flower-frilled sitcom is actually one of the most cleverly quirky yet cutely macabre shows on television. Pushing Daisies is the love child of Roald Dahl and Tim Burton—but with pies and morgues and cartoonishly saccharine characters.

Having now watched the first four episodes I can say this: WATCH PUSHING DAISIES NOW.

Animated Batman Flies Again

The animated avenger

More than 16 years since it first aired, Batman: The Animated Series is now available in a complete boxed set. The cartoon draws its storytelling inspiration from ’40s comics, while the aesthetic is a clear nod to the Tim Burton film made just three years earlier. Using voice actors like Kevin Conroy and Mark Hamill the show revolutionized “kids cartoons” with its sophisticated style and depth.

More beer, Ms. Qunn?

As a tribute to the show’s characters, I dressed as Harley Quinn last Halloween (drunkenly pictured above with my friend Captain Werewolf as the dark knight himself). I promise the animated version is better.

The Death Of Heroes

Carrie....?

Last week’s Entertainment Weekly cover story was a foreboding turn for the ever-worsening Heroes. With today’s news that execs Jeph Loeb and Jesse Alexander have been unceremoniously offed, it seems that the over-crowded, increasingly unimaginative TV show will need serious saving of its own. Not that I don’t feel a little smug about the whole thing anyways—after all, the story always seemed to be based on recycled plotlines and twists stolen from better, if underrated shows like 4400 as well as practically every comic book ever. Just kill the damn cheerleader and get it over with.

Bender Rides Again

Use your 12-sided die!

The third of four straight-to-DVD Futurama movies—the sum of which comprise the cult show’s fifth season—comes out Tuesday November 4th. While the preceding film, The Beast With a Billion Backs, was an awesome nod to movies like The Thing from Another Planet, Invasion of the Body Snatchers, and other ’50s pulp classics, Bender’s Game has fantasy in its satirical sights.

The story is Don Quixote meets Dungeons & Dragons, and the characters variously parody Lord of the Rings, Ender’s Game, and modern day environmental zealots. Like all of Matt Groening’s bizarrely brilliant creations, Bender’s Game is best enjoyed within the context of its original series, but still manages to stand alone.

TV Fantasy Full Of Cliches, Still Entertaining

I shall cup your bosoms like so.

Legend of the Seeker starts out like every fantasy story ever: a FARM BOY with no knowledge of his TRUE HERITAGE and MESSIANIC PURPOSE is aided by a WIZARD (formerly thought to be the village loon) on a quest to stop a DARK LORD who wants nothing more than to ENSLAVE ALL OF MANKIND. Also there’s a mysterious book, some pseudo-Tolkienian MAGICKS, and a chick with HEAVING BOSOMS and a HEADSTRONG ATTITUDE that will inevitably crumble as our bumbling hero woos her with his naive enthusiasm and eventual, improbable apotheosis.

Despite these sure-fire yawns, I have reason to believe that the show will actually be much better than the list of garbled clichés noted above. After all, Evil Dead/Spider-Man director/demigod Sam Raimi is one of the executive producers and he seems intent on filling the Xena-shaped niche in TV-land. Unlike the formulaic saga of the warrior princess (or that of her hulking counterpart Hercules in his equally banal Legendary Journeys), Legend of the Seeker is based on an actual plot. While I haven’t read the mega-selling Terry Goodkind series on which it is based, I can get into the idea of a story arc that extends for more than one episode.

The two hour premiere airs on Saturday Nov 1 and the free half-hour teaser is available for download on iTunes.