chimcbride

(S01E01) Chris Chance is The Mentalist's Patrick Jane, Lie to Me's Cal Lightman and Die Hard's John McClane rolled into one phenomenal package. It's ridiculous, but it works.

The same can be said for this show. Simply put, Human Target rocks. It's a lightning-paced, cocksure and surprisingly funny contempo version of an '80s action TV show. So rejoice, folks. The smart action-packed hour we've been waiting for has arrived.

If there's any justice in this world, Human Target will make Mark Valley a star. No -- a superstar. Three minutes into the pilot and I saw the makings of a classic witty TV hero in his performance. The veteran actor hits all the right notes and manages to make his implausibly awesome character feel like a real person.

Chi McBride is a man of many talents: he's a phenomenal actor (see 'Boston Public' and 'Pushing Daisies' if you need proof), an unfailingly energetic interview subject and -- who knew? -- a masterful theme song singer-songwriter.

When AOL TV visited the Vancouver set of his new show 'Human Target' (premieres Sun., Jan. 17, 8PM ET on Fox), McBride showed off all of the above, as well as his spot-on British accent, his penchant for dapper suits and accessories and, well, his ability to get any interview amazingly off course with a little playful game of footsie.

So what can we expect from McBride's character Winston when the cameras are rolling on the action-packed DC Comics adaptation? "I want him to be involved ... do some physical things, chase down some bad guys and, you know, crack a few heads." And, of course, most shows with this many shoot-'em-up scenes usually have some mystery, too. "Winston's got a past ... all of us have pasts with quite a bit of gray area."

Watch our full interview with McBride to hear more about Winston, his partners in fighting TV crime and, of course, McBride's musical take on the show, complete with air guitar. And don't forget to watch our interviews with Jackie Earle Haley and Mark Valley, too.

While it was a little odd that the "screener" of Glee we got was the exact same episode that FOX aired after American Idol in the spring, the rest of these shows were truly new. Dramatic offerings included FOX's loose adaptation of the DC Comics property Human Target and Past Life. On the comedy side they offered us screeners for The Cleveland Show, Brothers, Sons of Tucson and the aforementioned Glee.

After enduring the screener for Do Not Disturb last season on FOX, I could only hope that these offerings were at least better than that offense to the senses. And they were. Well, most of them. Unfortunately, it seems that FOX has at least one Do Not Disturb in them every season. Other than that, one of these shows was far better than I expected, another a bit worse, and a third one stands as one of the better pilots I've ever seen.

(S02E10) "Chuck's father is alive?" - Olive

I'm sad. Even if, contrary to what I reported a few weeks back, Pushing Daisies' final episode ever - episode 2.13 - will offer some closure to most characters thanks to last minute editing and retooling, I'm sad as "The Norwegians" could very well have been the last episode we will see of the series on a TV screen. ABC claims it plans to air the final three hours as a block sometime in the near future but fans know networks can change their mind rather quickly, especially when money talks. Will ABC live up to its promise? Will they put the episodes online? Or, worse, will we have to wait months and months to watch them on DVD?

No matter the answers to these questions, we should cherish "The Norwegians" as we don't know when we will see our favorite pie maker and his crew next. One thing is for sure, the episode gave us a lot of action and left us saying "WTF?" and "OMG!"

(S02E09) "We're so together electrons couldn't get between us." - Chuck to Ned on the roof

Is it all right for me to say right up front that I don't like Charles Charles? Bear in mind, I'm not one of the "I want Ned and Chuck to wind up together" crowd. I'm with Olive; I want Ned to realize that Olive is the girl for him, but I digress.

The point remains that my blood was really boiling as I watched Mr. Charles threatening Ned, warning him to never see Chuck again, and even going after Ned physically -- with a broom! For a dead guy, the swaddled Mr. Charles sure is a pushy S.O.B.

(S02E04) "Where are you living anyway?" - Ned to Emerson

Did you realize that this week's Pushing Daisies episode is actually only the 13th installment of the refreshing series? I forgot about it for a second or two when I told myself "About time!" after realizing that "Frescorts" was going to offer us some Emerson backstory. I guess the almost-nine-months hiatus, thanks to the writers' strike, made us long for more details about the show's characters. In any case, let me say this: Yay for some Emerson backstory!

Chi McBride made a name for himself playing incredibly serious, commanding, dramatic roles, which is probably why people love him so much as Emerson Cod, the cynic with perfect comedic timing on ABC's Pushing Daisies.

When Pushing Daisies returns for its second season (premiering Wednesday, Oct. 1 at 8PM EST), we'll find Emerson, Ned, Chuck and Olive solving murders in a particularly buzz-worthy cosmetics company, a killer circus, a magician's castle and a nunnery, just to name a few.

Chi talked to us about Emerson's softer side, his mission in life and how to become his best friend ever ... and it only requires a few million friends.

(S01E09) "There is an unpleasant chill in the air." - The Narrator

And we have arrived: this week's episode was the last completed-before-the-strike episode of ABC's Pushing Daisies. The quote I put under the picture may not have been the most important one said in the episode (the bombshell quote is a tad too shocking to put up front) but it does highlight the mood and tone of the episode: chilly. "Corpsicle" is not my favorite Pushing Daisies episode but it offered good reveals, some fantastic lines from Emerson and Olive, and it finally gave the aunts (at least one of them) a real purpose in the series.

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(S01E08) "Am I your boyfriend?" - Ned
"Yes." - Chuck

It was announced about two months ago that Molly Shannon would guest star on ABC's Pushing Daisies and the day, err... evening, has come. I've read a lot of comments from fans saying that they were somewhat scared after hearing she would guest star mostly because they thought her acting wasn't good enough for the show. In retrospect, her acting wasn't that great but it wasn't that bad either since Daisies is over the top at times.

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(S01E07) "The mere smell of it made him feel, if only for an hour, exactly like he wanted to feel: safe and warm and loved, which is why he became the pie maker." - Narrator

ABC lost a good and fun opportunity to offer Pushing Daisies viewers a chance to get up close and really personal with the show and maybe attract new people who would have been interested in a scratch 'n' sniff event! Yes, it would have been pretty much a copy of what NBC did last year with My Name Is Earl, but having a scratch 'n' sniff card to use throughout this olfactory episode would have been just as magical as the episode itself! Okay, maybe the smell of the sock and the sewer would have been terrible but it would have been interesting to smell Ned, Emerson, and "honey and death" (aka Chuck). Okay, maybe that would have been a bad idea. Let's move on to the episode instead.
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(S01E05) "Tell Ned I love... his pies." - Olive

This Halloween-themed Pushing Daisies episode has been one of my favorites so far this season. We learned more about Ned's past and we discovered who Olive used to be while being entertained by a magical and mysterious storyline that was reminiscent of stories and movies such as Sleepy Hollow.

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(S01E03) "You killed someone for me?" - Chuck

After watching last week's episode, I was as worried as Joel was/is about Pushing Daisies's future. With such a stellar pilot, it was a given that the subsequent episodes wouldn't be as great but that second episode was a letdown. Narration aside (I'll get to this later on), this week's episode reassured me that PD can survive in its current format.

(S01E02) OK, I am now ever so slightly worried about Pushing Daisies.

Oh, don't get me wrong: there was plenty to like about the second episode of the most praised new show of the season. But there were two things that got me and every person concerned about this show's long-term future: a) Would the show get too cute (or twee, if closet Brit Anna Friel was discussing it. Alan Sepinwall was the first critic to use the term for the show, and I think it fits perfectly) for its own good, and b) would Barry Sonnenfeld's rumored budget overruns sink the show in its later episodes?

After watching "Dummy," my answers right now are a) it might if it's not careful, and b) it's starting to look that way.