The show premiered Tuesday night in Canada, and I absolutely totally loved it.
The premise is very cool, and in practice comes across like Six Feet Under meets Pleasantville, with a dash of detective work thrown in for good measure.
I won’t say more, because it would be too easy to spoil it for most of the board, but watch this show!
My favourite lines:
“Bitch I was in proximity!”
“Umm… it looks like your van has caught fire.”
Watched the last half last night. Very Burtonesque in some ways. Still, I liked it a lot. It is quirky and odd and visually quite different from most things on the air. Loved the Narrator and the odd characters and black humour worked. I even like the detective who seems to be dropped in from another series all together which actually works. I’ll definitely tune in again.
Burtonesque is precisely the word I used when I watched it.
The romance is perhaps the sweetest and most tragic thing I’ve seen in a long time.
I suppose I shouldn’t say too much more…
I’m never going to catch it because I have bowling league on Wednesday nights, but I heard an interview with the creative team yesterday.
Barry Sonnenfeld is the executive producer and has worked with the Coen brothers, and he seems to have some interesting, and well thought out ideas about directing comedy (as well as criticisms towards how other people do it).
He was cinematographer (for instance) on Raising Arizona. Big fan of old Preston Sturges movies.
He directed Men in Black, Addams Family, among other things. Enjoys black comedy.
I’d check it out if I could.
I will check it out tonight. The reviewer in the SJ Merc gave it a big thumbs up. My tastes don’t always align with his, but they often do.
Yep, checking out the pilot, at least, as I’m somewhat of a Sonnenfeld fan. We’ll see if I continue after that.
I really liked it. The vibrant colors and storybook narration mesh very well with the morbid subject matter. Perhaps the best thing I can say about the show is that it’s different from anything else on the small screen. Hopefully its distinctiveness will help the show find a viewer base.
I missed a few minutes at the start…did it explain how he’s gone twenty years without touching his own dog again? I mean, when he was a kid, I imagine it took him a while before he realized the other half of his ability. One would think he pet his dog before he had a chance to kill something he brought back.
And did it say if he can bring back someone he just killed from a second touch?
At the beginning, they tell how he discovered his power by reviving his mother from a fatal stroke when he was 10 years old. Reviving his mother and letting it go past the 1 minute limit killed Chuck’s father, though, which is why she was raised by her aunts. This is Ned’s huge secret that he can’t tell Chuck. Later that same night, his mother kissed him on the forehead when she tucked him into bed, and died again instantly and permanently (the narration actually said “forever”).
So I’m pretty sure that a) he revived the dog well after he knew what was up with everything and b) after the second touch, they’re dead forever.
Spoilered answers
When he was a boy his mom died. He brought her back to life (at the expense of Chuck’s dad, though he didn’t know that would happen beforehand) and then when she kissed him good night she died again. Died for good, he can’t bring someone back again.
Argh, jayjay beat me to it.
Incidentally, I never realized how TINY Kristen Chenoweth is!
I know! The contrast between those two is very striking.
I really enjoyed this show, it’s a very promising premiere and I’m hoping it stays good…and stays on the air (please ABC, pretty please?)
Oh, Chenoweth’s short stature has always been pretty noticeable.
I think the show started slowly because of all the exposition for the set up, but after twenty minutes it began to find its stride.
I liked it. It’s a throwback to the romanticism of the 30s and 40s (which is often a handicap these days). I’d love to see where they go with things.
So when they go past a minute, a random person dies to take their place? So basically the main guy (forgot his name already) killed someone else to keep Chuck alive? What about the dog and that fly we saw early on? Did two people die because they kept on living, or did another dog and fly die? And can his dog live forever, then, as long as he doesn’t touch it? Same deal with Chuck?
Ned should probably buy some gloves.
I don’t know about the fly, but after he brings back his dog, we see a squirrel fall out of a tree. I’m guessing it’s some kind of equivalency thing.
The thieving funeral director died when Chuck’s minute was up. Incidentally, this is what the PI was upset about when Chuck showed him the obituary for the funeral director. The effect is, as Ned said, “a random proximity thing.” The PI said, “Bitch, I was in proximity!”
Okay, another question that I wasn’t sure of…is Kristen Chenoweth’s character in on the secret or not? Several times, Ned and the PI were talking about it when she was around, and interjecting things into the conversation (“I used to think masturbate meant to chew your food!..I don’t NOW”). They didn’t seem terribly worried about her hearing them.
I must have misunderstood the opening, then. I could have sworn I saw him realize his power when he revived his dead dog, then experiment with it by reviving dead flies. All of this happened before his mother had the fatal stroke.
I found the narration giving people’s ages, etc. to the minute rather annoying.
I don’t know if she is, but I liked that line she had:
“Does he touch you? He doesn’t touch me!”
Honey, that’s for a WHOLE 'nother reason. 
And now the deal with the funeral director makes sense. I was half-watching at some points, and doing laundry at other points, so I missed some of the narration/exposition and conversations.
The people seem pretty casual about DYING and then coming back to life, though.