Doctor Who etcetera.

Firstly, apologies (again) for later-than-promised updates. Keeping up with all of Euro 2008 for the CDB Pod means about five hours of my day have to be devoted to that (it’s such a hard life, eh?), which has cut into time for the CDB Desk. Fear not, however, as I’m here to cover some things I’d been wanting to, but for the rest of the championships I’ll probably only have time to review Doctor Who each week. So, in about two and a half weeks, I should be able to settle in to a decent steady rhythm on both blogs. Go me.

So, better start with the Silence in the Library/Forest of the Dead two-parter that aired over the last two Saturdays. And wasn’t it bloody brilliant! Coming just after the news that writer Steven Moffat is replacing Russell T. Davies as showrunner from season five onwards was released couldn’t have been a better time – we’ve been reassured completely with these two episodes that the show is in safe hands.

Where to start? The shadow monsters, the Vashta Nerada, were genius, playing tricks with lighting rather than huge special effects for maximum scare value. That throwaway line about being able to see the Vashta Nerada as the specks in sunlight was typical Moffat, finding little ways to terrify small children, like he did with statues in last season’s stunning Blink.

I guess we’ve also been successfully hoodwinked, myself included, by the line in Planet of the Ood warning that “the Doctor’s song must end soon”. Originally, as documented here, I’d thought that meant imminent regeneration for the Doctor, but no – clearly, the word song had a capital S, and I’m hugely looking forward to seeing River Song’s next (or technically first?) appearance sometime in the future. Is she a future companion, or, seemingly more likely, a future wife? Brilliantly played by Alex Kingston, her death scene in particular was heart-wrenching.

My favourite episode of the relaunched series ever? Probably.

A quick word on the Britain’s Got Talent and Pushing Daisies finales – I might have done more if I’d had time closer to their broadcasting, but such is life – rather good. I’d been rooting for dance group Signature in BGT since their audition (if you haven’t seen their first audition, YouTube it. It’s hilarious), but considering some of the dross that was in the final (Cheeky Monkeys anyone?), George Sampson was a worthy winner. I may now tune in for 2 minutes of the Royal Variety Show later this year (OK, no I won’t). Pushing Daisies has flown by, though, and I will be tuning in to season two (that’s assuming ITV don’t drop even more episodes). I’d like to see them pushing the format as much as they can, though, as I suspect more of the same may grow tiresome very quickly – mind you, I said that about the series as a whole after watching the pilot, so…we’ll see. I’m still, of course, in love with Anna Friel.

Notice: The CDB Pod

Just a quick notice that The CDB Desk’s sister blog, The CDB Pod, (http://cdbpod.wordpress.com) which focuses entirely on sport, will be opening for business tomorrow with a preview of the 16 teams heading to football’s Euro 2008 in just over a week’s time. That’ll be the main focus of the blog in its first weeks, with occasional comment on the cricket and any other sport story that catches my eye. See you there.

Thank God for Emerson Cod

The thing about Pushing Daisies is that you really do have to watch it to fully comprehend just how unrelentingly sweet it is. It’s so stylistically different to literally every other show on TV right now that it makes for quite a large pill to swallow, but I am soldiering on with it, despite ITV’s attempts to make me do otherwise.

“But, ITV? Aren’t they the channel broadcasting Daisies?”, I hear you ask. And yes, you’re right. However, in a move not unsurpising considering its track record, ITV recently had a really good go at completely shafting its prime-time Saturday night show – by not broadcasting the second episode. You see, after whatever crappy programme they were previously showing in the 9 PM Saturday slot finished, there was only 8 weeks until the start of Euro 2008, which ITV has shared coverage rights for in tandem with the BBC. Pushing Daisies’ first season is 9 episodes long. Which, obviously, means that they couldn’t broadcast the whole season in a one-per-week format without damaging the football scheduling, which takes precedence because of its inevitably higher ratings.

Now, the sensible thing to do, which most broadcasters tend to do with such things, would be to show either the first or the last two episodes back-to-back to fit in the slot. But no. ITV decided that repeating American Pie 2 yet again was a better idea than showing episodes one and two consecutively. So, they got rid of episode two because “it was the best candidate to cut without damaging the continuing story”. To put this into context, the second episode of Pushing Daisies is widely acknowledged as being the first season’s very best offering.

Man, I’d really love to see American Pie 2’s viewing figures that night compared to the first episode of Pushing Daisies. Now, ITV assures us that the episode will be broadcast when the show is rerun, but as far as I’m concerned that’s nowhere near an acceptable compromise. Frankly, if ITV didn’t think it would be able to show the entire season, they shouldn’t have bid for it in the first place. Ridiculous.

But I don’t want to go on and on about that act of insanity, really I don’t. I want to say good things about Pushing Daisies. You see, wrapped in several layers of faintly nauseating sugar is a charming and quietly involving story, with visual and linguistic gags aplenty and one of my favourite new characters of recent times – private investigator Emerson Cod, played by Chi McBride.

Emerson is the one guy in the whole series who doesn’t bleed caramel. His deadpan cynicism, at times laugh-out-loud funny, is complemented by occasions of vulnerability and tranquility. (One of the things I missed when the second episode was cut was the revelation that Emerson knits – I really, really wish I’d seen that scene.) He always gets the best lines of the show, and McBride milks it for all it’s worth. I was doubly impressed considering that the last, and only, time I saw his work was when he played nasty corporate slimeball Adam Vogler in House, the complete polar opposite to Emerson Cod.

For completely different reasons, I love Anna Friel. Dammit, if Chuck isn’t the single cutest character I’ve ever seen on TV, I’ll eat my hat – and for her to stand out so much for that reason on a show like this is quite an achievement.