favorite new shows

Separating the wheat from the chaff, watching the cream rise to the top, see what’s floating your boat… I can’t stop. Ok so here’s what I’m liking:

• Pushing Daisies (Wednesdays at 8 on ABC) – So I’ve only seen one episode of this so far, but I love it when a show tries to be innovative in some way and is successful. And this is! The visual style of the entire show is done in such a fanciful way that it completely compliments the fanciful context. Ned found out early in life, by touching his dog, that he could bring things back to life. Unfortunately when he tried it on his mother he found out the two cons, 1) it was a one time deal and if he touched them again they would die and 2) if someone stayed alive for more than a minute someone else would die. Our weekly stories seem to involve his work with a PI in solving murders. Why not just ask them what happened? And our overarching story should entail the untouchable love of his life, childhood sweetheart, and now back from the dead, Charlotte/Chuck. The show and the cast are in fact delightful.
• Dirty Sexy Money (Wednesdays at 7 on ABC) – They have struck the right cord in this over the top richest of the rich, spoiledest of the spoiled family drama. We’re following ‘normal’ guy Nick George who has inherited the post of family attorney, and solver of all problems, when his father was killed. Was the family somehow involved? Our patriarch Tripp Darling is trying to hold it all together, but did he know about the affair his wife Letitia was having with papa attorney? Their eldest, Attorney General Patrick, has greater political aspirations that may or may not be thwarted by the presence of his tranny mistress. Next up is the daughter Karen who is onto her fourth(?) marriage-to-be with some tennis pro, but is clearly still in love with Nick. Then there’s Brian, the man of the cloth who is hiding his illegitimate son from his family as a foreign exchange student. Rounding out the brood are the twins, wannabe actress Juliet and wannabe everything/playboy Jeremy. Not only is there tons of hilarity with all their foibles but I’m actually interested to see the story unfold and find out what happened to dad.
• Chuck (Mondays at 8 on NBC) – Alias meets The Office, as dude from the Nerd Herd at Buy More (a la Geek Squad at Best Buy – who are totally lame) gets all the world’s secrets downloaded into his brain, all from receiving an email from his girlfriend-stealing college roommate turned rogue CIA agent. That was his roommate’s last move. So now said roomie’s partner, and paramour, CIA kick ass gal and NSA’s kick ass guy have set themselves up in his pitiful little life to protect, monitor and use him on what will undoubtedly be a new case a week. And of course he isn’t sure who he can trust and he can’t tell any of his friends and family. It’s got good feisty action and a tongue and cheek humor about things, and so far our crew is a hoot in their fish out of water situations.
• Reaper (Tuesdays at 9 on CW) – Ok I’m still a little on the fence about declaring my deep like for this show but it has some real potential. I really dug the first episode, slacker guy Sam, whose parents dote on him, turns 21 and he finds out that they sold his soul to the devil. First we have some amusing escapades with the well played, both enticing and frightening devil forcing him to be a bounty hunter, returning souls to hell. He learns quickly that this isn’t a job he can blow off. He has some assistance from some random super abilities (they seem to be bounty specific), a vessel for storage (first week was as dustbuster), and the thrown in typical sidekicks and big crush. And then we have some actual touching moments with the family where they truly regret what happened, but of course Dad was sick and although they planned not to have kids after the deal was done, the devil made them do it. Sam and his buddies are likable, there is a great dynamic between Sam and Satan, but we’ll see if our hunt for the bounty of the week can keep us as engaged as we are at the start.

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