Pushing ABC's Wednesday Nights

Pushing Daisies - Pie-lette
Private Practice - In Which Sam Receives an Unexpected Visitor
Dirty Sexy Money - The Lions

I'm going to keep this short but what did you think? Wasn't Pushing Daisies delightfully whimsical? morbidly funny and sweetly odd? LOVE IT! (and really, if you didn't, I don't think we can be Internet friends anymore). (and seriously, ABC... hint hint hint...)

Maybe I'm still on a Lee Pace high but I didn't mind Private Practice tonight. It's far from perfect (and I have a beef with Exec Producer Marti Noxon, who may be talented, but her presence seems to bring down great shows like Brothers & Sisters (thank goodness she left after the third episode), or Greys Anatomy (which. hmmm... started sucking when she came aboard in the 3rd season after leaving Brothers and Sisters... how odd...)) but the was a more compelling case in the second episode (of a sick baby, which after some testing, is discovered was switched at birth) and that gathered most of the doctors (and thus the cast) together to solve a case together, and we got to see them gel a bit more. The females are still too flighty and I miss the strong hardass Addison and Amy Brenneman's Violet is an embarrassment to feminism but I adore Audra McDonald's Naomi if only for Audra, and while I miss Merrin Dungey, I guess i you had to be replaced, Audra's a worthy successor.

At this point in this episode, it's fallen into a nice rhythm. A decent show, not exceptional, but again, the quality cast carries it through the more meandering or weak character or plot points. I still can't stand Charlotte (KaDee Strickland) but I do love Paul Adelstein's Cooper and watching him interact with the rest of the cast is nice to see after being Kellerman.

And what Dirty Sexy Money...indeed. Also far from perfect and I'm already tired of the one note joke of the nasty priest but I like that they cast a real transgendered actor (Candis Cayne above with William Baldwin, as I revealed back in the early pilot review) to play someone transgendered, and I like that Peter Krause fixed his swoopy hair a bit. I like that look. Samaire Armstrong is hilarious as the Juliet as she continues to state her independence while on daddy's money.

Krause's Nick continues his search for his father's killer, zeroing on Tripp himself, and Letitia points him towards his diary which Nick steals but it reveals nothing. Instead, Tripp points out to Nick that he knew about Letitia's affair with Nick's father but points him to a file with Blair Underwood (who will be joining the cast). The rest of the plot strings are fluff but amusing fluff nonetheless.

Not a bad night for ABC, especially after a delightful start that keeps the endorphins high.