Oh, what a delight! A brightly-colored fairy tale confection of whimsy and romance and dry wit, with a top-notch cast.
Lee Pace stars as Ned, who learns at the age of 9 that he can, with a single touch, bring the dead back to life. There are complications -- a second touch, and they're dead again, this time for good; but if he lets them stay alive for more than a minute, then someone else in close proximity will die instead -- but Ned finds it a useful gift. It's certainly handy in his primary career as owner of The Pie Hole restaurant, where rotten fruit is never a problem. It's even handier in his sideline work with private eye Emerson Cod (Chi McBride); much easier to collect reward money when you can briefly revive the deceased and ask who killed them.
When Ned's childhood sweetheart, Chuck (Anna Friel), comes back into his life as one of those to-be-revived murder victims, Ned can't bring himself to touch her back to death, setting up the show's great tragic romance -- two lovers who can literally never touch. Chuck's presence, and Ned's love for her, is greatly resented by Ned's waitress, Olive (Kristin Chenoweth), who wants Ned for herself.
The cast of characters is rounded out by Chuck's aunts, former synchronized swimming stars Lily and Vivian (Swoosie Kurtz and Ellen Greene), who don't know that Chuck has been brought back to life. And it's all set in a bright Crayola-colored world that looks like nothing else on TV.
It sounds horribly precious, and it may very well topple over into an excess of twee at any moment, but the pilot gets the balance just right. The sharp wit and rapid-fire dialogue (these people talk almost as quickly as the Gilmore girls) undercut the cuteness, as does the underlying sadness of Ned and Chuck's doomed love.
The cast is perfection. Pace and Friel are extraordinarily likable, both individually and as a couple; McBride gets to show off a comic side we haven't often seen from him, and the tough-guy cynicism he wears (seemingly more because it goes with the job than out of any real conviction) plays nicely against Ned's optimistic, generous nature.
I hope this show survives, but I'm worried. Creator Bryan Fuller has done other terrific shows with a similarly whimsical style, and they tend to die too quickly; Dead Like Me scraped out two short seasons on Showtime, and Wonderfalls lasted only a few weeks on Fox. There's also cause for concern about whether the show can maintain its distinctive visual style; director Barry Sonnenfeld was reportedly fired a few episodes in for repeatedly going over budget. But I'm keeping my fingers crossed, and I'm going to enjoy the ride for however long it lasts.
No comments:
Post a Comment