They Pull Me Back In

Someday I'm going to have a real life, with real adventures. I'm going to turn off my television, my computer, and my cell phone, get in my car, and drive West until I get tired.

Today is not that day.

Every year I say I'm going to cut down on television, and not add many new shows, if any. I'm enough of a Couch Potato with all the shows I regularly watch, and so far this year those shows have continued to deliver, with my favorites being Heroes, How I Met Your Mother, The Office and Prison Break. But have I added any new shows? Janet asks her readers that very question this week.

The new show I watch really appeals to me. It's protagonist is someone gifted and special, who leads a normal, everyday life with a perfectly ordinary job and some good friends. The cast of characters range from their mid-20s to mid-30s, and they're always quick with a pop culture reference especially significant to my generation. The blend between action and humor is great, and I confess to laughing aloud more than once. Every time I think I'm done, television pulls me back in, especially when this new show I'm describing is actually four shows.

Chuck was your ordinary nerd, working in a Best Buy style store, heading up the computer department's “nerd herd”. He's awkward around women, brilliant around machines, and plays a lot of video games in between hanging around with his MCF-ish buddy. Then an old college friend sends him an e-mail that somehow downloads all the government's secrets into his brain. He can't consciously access this information, but occasionally gets flashes, sometimes with hilarious results(I couldn't believe he mentioned Oceanic 815 in one episode). I wasn't sure I would watch the show since it airs against two other existing series I've already mentioned, but Rey made enough of a case for it that I've managed to keep up either by catching encore presentations or online versions, and this week a baseball game knocked out the Prison Break conflict. There's a really sweet romance blooming between Chuck and the female agent assigned to watch over him, played by the gorgeous Yvonne Strahovski. If that's not enough, it has Adam “Jayne” Baldwin as a tough, deadly government agent posing as an appliance store employee, scowling through it all and occasionally firing off some trademark sarcasm. Somehow, I'm going to find a way to keep watching.

Bionic Woman is a show I've been on the fence about. I think people have been too critical of Michelle Ryan's looks. I find her attractive, but her acting less so. She's often overshadowed by an evil bionic woman played by Katee “Starbuck” Sackhoff, who gets the best dialogue despite being saddled with cliché supervillain dialogue in the pilot. Each week has been marginally better than the previous one, though logical holes still pervade the plot and the script needs polishing. I think part of my problem is that I'm looking for a new Alias, and this show isn't even close. As of the latest episode, they've introduced an interesting element, that the very bionics which saved the lead character's life and gave her enhanced abilities, will likely burn out and kill her in a few years. Suddenly, there's more at stake and a doomed heroine is more interesting than a snarky barmaid delivering flat lines while trying to maintain an American accent. It's still not Alias, but I'm not giving up on the show just yet. It has potential.

Reaper is a lot like Chuck, except the young main character is a little cooler and works in a Home Depot type store. Also, instead of having a head full of secrets and being forced to work for the government, he has the onus of capturing escaped souls and returning them to hell for the devil, because his parents sold his soul before he was born. Its got action, effects, comedy, sidekicks, geek references, and a pretty girl. It follows a bit of a formula, but I see them breaking away as the show develops. Each week Sam(Bret Harrison) discovers some unusual temporary ability as well as a “vessel”, some ordinary object like a toy car or a toaster that will help him catch the soul of the week. The controller for the toy car acted as a lighting rod to contain an electrical soul for example, while sparks from the toaster zapped a woman who could turn into a swarm of bees. Ray Wise is evil, charismatic, and hilarious as the devil. Forget his turn as a thug in RoboCop or as a vice-president on 24; this is the role he'll be remembered for. There was a great exchange this week when he waves traffic around his car, and someone shouts “go to hell!” He pops his head out, shouts back “I'll meet you there, BRUCE!”, then informs Sam that the mole on Bruce's neck? It's not a mole.

I also enjoy catching all the nods to Ghost Busters that Reaper makes, even though there's a good chance the twenty-something target audience might not have actually seen that movie. In the pilot, there are jumpsuits and backpacks reminiscent of Ghost Buster gear. In the aforementioned insect queen episode, the way they throw out the sparking toaster and hold the cord reminds me of the ghost traps. This week one of the characters names a dove Winston, and coming attractions for next week show them fighting a green slime monster. I may be looking too closely, but there seem to be a lot of parallels.

Finally, I'd have to say Pushing Daisies is fast becoming my favorite new show. It's bright and oversaturated, with a warm narration, yet it infuses some of the darker elements of classical fairy tales. The subject matter could be very dark, yet it's bright and optimistic. Sometimes it's like a Tim Burton movie directed by Coen Brothers, but mostly it feels like Barry Sonnenfeld is bringing his film sensibilities to the small screen.

Once upon a time, there was a little boy who discovered he could bring dead things back to life with but a touch. His gift came with a price however; should he touch a reanimated being, he would kill it again forever, beyond his power to resuscitate. Even worse, after 60 seconds of a life restored, another life would be lost to maintain some cosmic balance. This boy grew up to be a pie maker, played by Lee “I was in The Good Shepherd” Pace. He leads a lonely existence, and harbors the secret that when he brought his mother back to life, it caused the death of his childhood sweetheart's father. Anna Friel plays “Chuck”(there's that name again), his aforementioned childhood sweetheart. When she's murdered, he revives her, and gives in to the temptation to not touch her again and keep her alive. As a result, a corrupt funeral director played by Brad “you might know my brother from Heroes, Alias, or Felicity” Grunberg dies instead.

So now the pie maker is reunited with his true love. She can never see her aunts again, who believe her to be dead. He can never touch her without killing her, and a new kind of tension is born. Here we have a show where the two main characters already share a mutual romantic interest; they just can't act on it. Chi “I've been a fan since The John Larroquette Show” McBride often steals the show for me. He plays Emerson, a grumpy private investigator who, upon discovering Ned's talent, partners with him to solve murders. Ned wakes up a victim, asks who the killer was, then reverses the process within the one minute limit. When Chuck joins the team, Emerson isn't happy, especially since he was in proximity when Ned kept her alive and he could have been the one to die instead of the funeral director. He has a hilarious moment this week when a coffin lid is stuck and he fears Ned can't get to a reanimated body in time. He runs, crossing himself and screaming “Oh HELL no!”

The show really is unique, a fairy tale and a black comedy. It appears wholesome and innocent, but it's made for adults. I won't repeat one double entendre that worked its way into the last episode, but I was sure it was my own warped mind until characters referenced the term again later in the episode with the same perception I had. In the same episode they find a way to call McBride Pooh and have Ned declare his desire to become a Jedi. It's awe-inspiring. With intelligent dialogue and vocabulary, phenomenal plot and storytelling, and a charming cast, this quirky show should appeal to both men and women, and I hope it sticks around for a few seasons and maintains the quality of the first three episodes.

In the end, the similarities between these four shows are only at the surface, common elements that attract my taste. The specifics that set them apart will keep me watching. I've added four new shows to my week, and shows I already watch will still be returning over the next few months. Television, will you ever let me be free?