Noooooo!!! Yessssssss!!!

ABC's Grim Reaper made the rounds on Thursday, swinging his scythe down on Pushing Daisies, Dirty Sexy Money and Eli Stone.

Despite the subject matter and the occasional political preachiness, I enjoyed Stone, but the true gut-punch here is the loss of Daisies, which was the most inventive, charming, literate and laugh out loud funny show I've seen in ages. I wasn't on board from the very beginning (fuck you Comcast), but quickly got sucked into the wonderful world of the pie-maker, and watching this delightful and different show was a highlight for the week. Once the DVDs come out, Pushing Daisies will occupy a place of honor on my shelf next to another of Bryan Fuller's brilliant (and canceled too soon) creations, Wonderfalls.

The rumors around the TV watercoolor are that Fuller, if the fate of Daisies was sealed, would move back to Heroes. Lord knows that show could use his deft touch. In fact, if I was NBC, I would give Tim Kring the bum's rush out the fucking door and install Fuller as show-runner ASAP. Did anyone else read about Kring's latest idiotic statements? At a writing conference recently, he asserted that serialized shows are more difficult for people to follow in this era of DVRs. Huh? That's the most counter-intuitive and stupid thing I've ever heard. DVRs make it soooo much EASIER for people to follow Lost and BSG and Dexter and Mad Men and serialized shows now. If you can't make this week's ep in real time to follow the ongoing plotlines...HELLO!.... you can catch up because you have the episodes saved to watch at your leisure. In fact, lots of folks I know save up weeks and weeks of 24 to watch them all unfold back to back. Sheesh. And this guy is running a "flagship" show, albeit into the ground? Put Fuller in charge, like now.

RIP, Daisies. If only HBO or Showtime had the pie-maker's magic touch to bring you back. (If that was the case, and Pushing Daisies remained "alive" for more than 60 seconds, perhaps The Hills and Hannity and Colmes could die in your place to balance the cosmic equation).

But speaking of brilliant, funny shows euthanized before their time, it appears there's life for the Arrested Development movie. Yeeeeahhhh!

This week's Ledger

PLUS

• Remember this "Should I watch it?" post? Well, I made an executive decision, and deleted Breaking Bad and decided to give Eli Stone a chance. And I was rewarded for my efforts. Eli Stone is a funny, whimsical and compelling show, filled with charismatic performances. Definitely worth adding to the TiVo.
• Speaking of good TV, In Treatment finished its run Friday night. At the end of the day, it's hard to say whether or not Paul was a good therapist. (SPOILERS) He tried to fuck one patient, but couldn't, though that made her appear to be on the road to understanding how she uses her sexuality to her detriment. One patient killed himself. Oooops. One patient, portrayed by the breathtaking and revelatory Mia Wasikowska, seemed to be happier and healthier after her time with Dr. Weston. One couple was headed for divorce, but after the wife fucked her boss, I can't see where that would go anywhere good anyway. But Jake was more well balanced after the fact. And Paul was a mess at the end of the day, but committed to talking about it with his shrink. Regardless of whether or not Paul put up some scoreboard successes with his patients, the 30 minutes per night mini-dramas were fascinating and anchored by outstanding, Emmy-worthy performances from each and every actor.
• Catching up with an old friend. Again.
• The return of kinda warm weather.
• Braves on TV tonight!
  
• Did everyone watch the BSG specials on Friday like I told you to? They were great. I particularly enjoyed the "Phenomenon" show, where various celebrities espoused their total geek love for BSG. Joss, as usual, was fantastic. If you didn't TiVo it, no fear. Check it out, peeps:
  

• Listening to Lost podcasts while taking a walk. Of course, I'm probably going to be caught up in figuring out the rules of time travel or contemplating Ben's master plan and walk right into traffic. Keep monitoring the news for the headline: "Man in Dharma t-shirt walks into freeway listening to iPod."
• Ahhh yes. The t-shirts. I got a geeky wild hair last week and ordered these beauties:

Geeky? Yep. Awesome? Frak yeah.

MINUS

• The unexpected fizzling of something kinda cool.
• The Braves not on TV every night. It figures with my Schleprock like luck that I would move JUST when TBS decides to take the Braves off national telecasts and confine them to regional Georgia broadcasts, only viewable here if I pay out my ass for the Extra Innings package. At least I'll get to watch them on Washington Nationals local broadcasts. I think.
• No more Lost until April.
  

Should I watch it?

My TiVo is littered with potential and failure.

Sometimes, I'll set up a season pass for a show that seems promising, never get around to watching a single episode, and then delete all the eps once the show is canceled or implodes critically. Last year, Smith and The Nine were examples of these types of shows. However, there are also shows that received at least a modicum of acclaim that for some reason, I just never found time for. Brotherhood and The Riches are examples of this category.

Currently, I have two shows racking up TiVo storage hours that I haven't yet viewed. First, there's AMC's Breaking Bad. I set up the season pass based mainly on the fact that I loved AMC's first dramatic offering, the terrific Mad Men, and it promised a darker anti-hero, which is always appealing. Yet I haven't heard much buzz about the show, and the premise does seem very similar to Weeds (whose second season I haven't yet seen -- just like my beloved Dexter -- thanks to the great Comcast debacle of 2007). Second, there's Eli Stone. It seemed like an interesting enough premise, and I could watch SpyDaddy in just about anything. But after an hour of having my brain warped, my reality fucked and taking pages of notes watching Lost on Thursday nights, I'm just spent and forget that Eli Stone ever aired.

So what say you, TNRLM readers? Are these shows worth my time?