Twee-rrific Ratings for "Pushing Daisies"

Dear America,

Yesterday I said some, um, things. Some things I didn't mean. I blamed you for George W. Bush and criticized your lack of respect for Barry Bonds. While I stand by both comments (762 home runs... 514 steals... Get over the steroid thing, people!), I'm going to cut you a bit of slack.

Nearly 13 million of you (not my readers, since this blog would be a lot more lucrative if I had 13 million readers) tuned in for the premiere of "Pushing Daisies." That's a lot, thankfully more than tuned in to "Cavemen." Whew. This means several things: First, it seems unlikely that ABC will pull "Pushing Daisies" before the start of November sweeps as I'd predicted. Second, it means we're going to get to watch enough episodes to see just how difficult is is to sustain that level of intelligence, whimsy and twee, plus those production values. Yup, thanks to the endorsement of the American People, we're gonna get to see "Pushing Daisies" eventually suck. Sorry. I'm cautiously pessimistic about the show's long-term potential. But love that pilot.

Other thoughts from last night's TV? Well, you can read my reactions to "Kid Nation" (Yay Mallory!) and "Top Chef" (Yay Hung!) over at Zap2it. I haven't gotten to "Dirty Sexy Money" (on my DVR at home) or Mandy Patinkin's "Criminal Minds" exit (on my DVR at work).

But how about...

"Bionic Woman" -- The second episode was, um, muddled. My first and biggest question: Why hasn't Jamie Summers gone into her employers and asked to have her other arm bionicized? That's going to be a really annoying liability if she has to do everything left-handed (or right-handed, whichever is actually bionic). As it is, I don't exactly understand the degree of her strength. Yes, she can run 60mph and punch through brick, but in hand-to-hand combat with her Asian trainer she's got an even match? Is he bionic? And what can we do to write off Molly Price entirely? She's uncomfortably uncharismatic in that way that stars of SciFi Channel shows are entitled to be, but network stars just aren't. They have to turn up the sexy and turn down the whiny on Michelle Ryan, who is perfectly capable of being the former and not interesting as the latter. I continue to believe this show has potential, but it's not there yet.

"Gossip Girl" -- Those who know me known my policy when it comes to field hockey catfights: I fall squarely in the "Pro" camp. It then shouldn't be surprising that my sense of "Gossip Girl" is that the more trashy the show goes, the better. If it's going to be a guilty pleasure, make me guilty! I highly doubt that Blair and Serena are going to be reconciled for long, so we'll get to see more of Leighton Meester as apple-cheeked Bad Girl, which she does very very well. But maybe it's also time for Blake Lively's Serena to get to fight back? After stammering and attempting to be funny like the male leads in several different Josh Schwartz shows, Penn Badgley was ultra-serious this week, which comes across as ultra-ultra-serious, because his cheekbones are scary-defined. For the future, I'd like to request more of Ed Westwick's Chuck and less of Chace Crawford's Nate, since I forget about him whenever he's not on the screen.

OK. That "Criminal Minds" episode won't watch itself (nor will the story about Frankie Muniz guesting on "Criminal Minds" write itself).

Til later, America...

Love Daniel

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