Fall Lineup

A friend of mine is in advertising and thus gets all of the pilot episodes for each non-cable TV station. I've begun the process of watching them and wanted to give everyone a heads up on several of the shows. I know we have months until they air, but keep this in the back of your mind.

First up is hands down the best pilot I've seen so far. It's called Pushing Daisies and excels on nearly every level: casting, cinematography, directing, writing. This is a quirky dark comedy centered around a pie maker who can bring the dead back to life - but there are tradeoffs. You can see the trailer for the pilot on the ABC website now. Definitely catch this show when it airs in the fall. If they maintain the rest of the season like the pilot, it will be a great watch.

Also, quite good is Sam I Am starring Christina Applegate. I love Christina and she really carries this show. The show is an interesting twist on the standard "in a coma for a while and wake up with amnesia" plotline. I worry about their being able to maintain novelty for an entire season (or more), but the pilot is good enough to warrant watching to see where it goes.

In the category of not so good we have Reaper about a kid who becomes Satan's lackey. The pilot had some hilarious scenes, but overall it was quite boring and I have no idea what the target audience is for this. In the category of incredibly bad we have Cavemen. This is a show starring the GEICO Cavemen (from the commercials). The pilot episode was one of the most painful 40 minutes of TV I have ever seen. Why in the name of all that is good would you decide to make a show based on commercial characters that are cavemen? So, I'm giving you all the warning now - stay away from this one!