Pushing Daisies… oh, Pushing Daisies. I can honestly say that I was never more excited about a new show in my life. All summer long I watched and rewatched the pilot, went to public screenings and Q&As and never once thought that the rest of the series wouldn’t live up to my ridiculously high expectations. By some stroke of bizarro luck, it didn’t – which is even more awesome considering what stinkers 99% of the season’s other new offerings ended up being.
Forget, for a moment, the saturated colors and over the top visuals. The real wonder of Pushing Daisies is creator Brian Fuller’s fantastic take on love, life and death. It’s unlike anything else on television and adds astounding depth to an otherwise cartoonish show. This time next year, the charm of Pushing Daisies may very well have run its course. I already know more than a few people who’ve tired of the twee and über whimsy. It’s a different breed – far off from even Fuller’s previous offerings – so there’s no telling how it will work in the long run. But much like I did last summer, I’m choosing to not dwell on what might go wrong with Daisies. I’m content for now with how happy it’s made me.
The facts were these: Pushing Daisies was my favorite pilot of the new season. It was hyped to the point of near-saturation, but it never got annoying. When new episodes of the series finally aired, they did the impossible and maintained the high standards set by the debut. Most shocking of all was the fact that people actually watched. The ratings were nothing to write home about, but they were higher than most of the season’s other offerings and defied assumptions that the quirkiness would alienate mainstream America. Now, because of this increasingly frustrating writers strike, Pushing Daisies‘ 22-episode order cannot be filled. We are left with just nine, the last of which aired last night. Spoilers to follow…
Like many shows, the episode in question was slightly re-written to serve as a “season finale” should circumstances prevent the show from picking the season back up. Circumstances look likely to do just that, and we’re left with one whopper of a cliffhanger. In a homeopathic drug-addled daze, Lily revealed to Olive that she is Chuck’s biological mother. The lingering presence of aunts Lily and Vivian has been a source of confusion to me. They’re pivotal, exciting characters, but I wonder if that was always the plan or just an accommodation made when Ellen Greene and Swoosie Kurtz came on board and fit so well. Clearly, it was a plan. I feel like they were waiting to drop this bomb till the end of the season (or even later), so half of the shock was the interesting choice in timing.
The payoff of this new storyline will never be what we want it to be. Bryan Fuller is more likely to find a way for Ned and Chuck to touch than he is to reunite Chuck with her aunts. Rules here are the same as they were on Dead Like Me: you can’t go home – especially when you’re dead. Lily and Vivian will continue as a parallel storyline, with Olive as their unlikely ambassador, but I can’t imagine it will ever go much farther than that. Speaking of Olive, has there been a bigger surprise on this series? Or for that matter, this entire season? She was the most unnecessary and forced character in the pilot, and Kristen Chenoweth’s cutsie voice and fondness for breaking into song looked like a dark cloud ready to rain on the Daisies parade. Quite unexpectedly, she’s now one of the most engaging, hilarious and strangely complex aspects of the show. Every utterance and expression is pitch freaking perfect. Golden Globe nods for the show, Lee Pace and Anna Friel are exciting but eclipsed by the travesty of Chenoweth’s snub. She is everything that a supporting actress in a comedy should be.
One of the more interesting reviews I read of Pushing Daisies appeared in The New Yorker several weeks after the show premiered and said that it probably shouldn’t be on for more than one season before it “take[s] its place proudly beside other worthy efforts that lived fast, died young, and left behind a beautiful DVD.” In the time since I read that article, I have yet to decide whether I agree or not. While the idea of PD sustaining its whimsy over many seasons seems far-fetched, none of the short-lived shows I love make me think “Well, I sure am glad that’s all I got of this.” I’d happily give a kidney in exchange for a few more seasons of Wonderfalls - Brian Fuller’s previous (and, I have to say, far superior) series. I suppose it’s not even worth arguing, because at this point, Pushing Daisies has done enough to secure a renewal should the strike have actually ended this season. Today’s accolades are just delicious, delicious gravy.
So, it’s not just a pie-lette; Pushing Daisies is an actual television show with multiple episodes! And judging by last night’s follow-up to the premiere, they’re actually going to be just as good as the first. Ned and Chuck’s romance cooled to a temperature where the sexual tension didn’t drive us all to drink and took a backseat (ha!) to the mystery du jour in “Dummy.”
When an engineer is killed by a hit and run, and a brief interview with his corpse reveals the cause of death to be incorrect, his vague clue (and parting wish) lead the gang to an automotive company that recently designed a dandelion-fueled car. The execution of sublime humor continues here and extends way beyond the writing and the actors’ mannerisms. Even the set design is hilarious. The secretly-flawed car is yellow and shaped like a lemon, for god’s sake!
In addition to solving the surprisingly morbid crime, we also get to know some of our secondary players a bit more. Lovesick waitress Olive Snook (Kirstin Chenoweth) proves she’s worth keeping around with some outstanding, if heartbreaking, physical comedy set to Jim Dale’s poetic narration. She even sings a wittle song. Emerson Cod (Chi McBride) still doesn’t have much of a backstory, but he is given some additional color. Frustration leads him to knitting, and his new three-way partnership is baring lots of gun cozies. The morgue attendant with the charming guttural noises also looks to be a welcome regular.
Any flaws in the episode are dwarfed by the ways in which the show continues to unexpectedly succeed. One issue worth addressing though is that the CGI leaves a little to be desired. The flashbacks to Ned’s youth, in particular, look less surreal comical than they do cheap comical. Everything else is still vivid and crisp, and much more than in the first episode, it gives Daisies a Technicolor noir quality. My only other beef? The complete lack of opening titles! I’m all about avoiding campy credits, but nothing hypes me up for an hour of television like the right tune set to perfectly edited clips. The tendency for programs to merely show a title page to maintain some sort of highbrow credibility is commendable, but it also shows a lack of imagination. And that is the last thing I expected from Pushing Daisies.
If you’re a frequent reader or even a remotely vigilant follower of television, you’ve heard about Pushing Daisies (ABC; 8PM). You’ve probably also heard that it’s the most amazing show of the new season. Well, after what seemed like an endless wait, it finally sees its premiere tonight.
The story of a man with the power to bring people back to life with a single touch (there are a few interesting conditions to that gift), Pushing Daisies is one part crime comedy, one part childlike romance and one part character study of the confused loner we’re all capable of being. You can read my full review of the first episode here, and for all things related to the show, check out The Pie Maker.
Pushing Daisies is not for everyone (people who hate puppies, sunshine and smiling or those with a low tolerance for whimsy and charm will probably be better off watching Deal or No Deal). But if you consider yourself a fan of television, film or just being happy, I urge you to give it a go. It’s the kind of show that only shows up once in a great while, and, unfortunately, doesn’t often get to stick around as long as it deserves. Let’s see if we can avoid that.
I made the trek uptown this weekend for the third annual New York Television Festival, and while I was happy to catch critics Matt Rouse, Alan Sepinwall and Tara Ariano speak at a panel on TV Criticism in the blogosphere, my primary impetus was Pushing Daisies. Having already watched the pilot too many times to admit without shame, I was there for the Q&A and a little time basking in the glory of super-brain Bryan Fuller. PD has already garnered so much coverage that the Q&A didn’t offer much in the way of news. What we did learn though is that Fuller & co are hard at work at writing other, non-Lee Pace, Wonderfalls veterans into the new series. This is exciting on so many levels – almost as exciting as the fact that the audience collectively creamed their pants for the show. You would have thought they’d just seen the perfect summer blockbuster from all of the applause. Worries that PD might not find an audience are dissolving quicker each day. Ever the intrepid journalist… I forgot my digi-recorder, and my camera batteries died en route, so I have no fun content to offer; others were thankfully vigilant.
NYTVF isn’t about big premieres though, so network presence was at a minimum. I only got a chance to see a few of the independent pilots – one of which, Redeeming Rainbow, was the funniest thing I can recall seeing in a long time. The story of two friends in Jersey City who sublet their apartment’s third bedroom to a rainbow, the show is filmed mockumentary style and features a CGI rainbow that loves rice cakes and reproduces asexually. If that doesn’t sound awesome to you, I don’t know what you’re doing here.
Rainbow’s life is hard. He doesn’t get along with one of his roommates, the mayor of Jersey City wants him deported and his babies keep dying. He sounds a lot like the talking towel from South Park, but the humor is much fresher. The busiest woman alive, Kirsten Schaal (seen above watching videos of “baby faces” with Rainbow), even makes a cameo as his creepy, nameless friend. There is no show Schaal can’t make funnier, no day she can’t brighten. The entire pilot is online, and all four parts are embedded on the series’ official blog. I suggest you head that way right now.
Redeeming Rainbow screened with Mild Mannered – a fun geek-comedy that could probably make a go of it if it wasn’t on the heels of similar, slicker and, well, much better network offerings like Reaper and Chuck. I also had time to see two dramas. Dear Harvard (the festival’s big winner) is an earnest high school drama (with a ridiculously young cast) that could easily make its way to The N or ABC Family. The Band, however, probably should never see the light of day again. A college drama about a Christian punk band balancing love, “volunteer work” and rocking out sounds like it would be ripe with parody, but it was painfully sincere. Pardon the blasphemy, but it was also poorly written, acted and executed.
Every once in a while, the stars align just so – giving us a television show that isn’t just innovative and entertaining, but well-received and wholeheartedly endorsed by the network that’s airing it. There hasn’t been a new program since Lost to accomplish this coveted quadfecta, and the only pilot that seems to be garnering similar buzz and promotion this season is ABC’s Pushing Daisies.
The brainchild of Bryan Fuller (creator of Dead Like Me and Wonderfalls), Daisies is the story of Ned (Wonderfalls’ Lee Pace), a pie maker who can bring people back to life with one touch and send them back to oblivion forever with a second. When his power is discovered by a private investigator (Boston Public’s Chi McBride), he and Ned go into business together interviewing murder victims to solve their deaths and collect the reward money. Things are complicated when one of their first jobs is Ned’s childhood crush, Chuck (Anna Friel), who he cannot bare to let go of. Whimsy and childlike romance ensue.
His work on Dead Like Me and (most recently) Heroes pushed Bryan Fuller up to silver medal status for my favorite living television screenwriter, so I went into the pilot with lofty hopes and fanboy adoration in tow. The 42 minutes that followed failed to disappoint and actually exceeded what I can acknowledge as unfairly high expectations (I’m tempted to gush but I’ll refrain). Directed by executive producer Barry Sonnenfeld, the first episode plays out like a brightly colored amalgam of Jean-Pierre Jeunet and Tim Burton’s more lighthearted fare. And with Jim Dale’s over-excited narration, there’s even a nice Seussian element at work.
Pushing Daisies is billed as a “forensic fairytale,” but it is such a long way off from a procedural drama that the mere mention of the f-word seems deeply unfair. Aloof loners and star-crossed love are the order of the day, and while the unique non-TV visuals and snappy writing will elicit the most attention, it’s the stellar ensemble cast that brings it together. Swoosie Kurtz and Ellen Greene, in particular, steal every scene as agoraphobic former synchronized-swimming stars, The Darling Mermaid Darlings, and are the most obvious of Fuller’s frequent homages to Jeunet. As for the leads, Ned and Chuck are a little reminiscent of Johnny Depp and Mary Stuart Masterson in Benny & Joon; instead of mental illness keeping them apart, it’s their long history as introverts that sees a physical manifestation in Ned’s touch of death. Pace and Friel push the line between endearing and saccharine farther than it’s normally willing to go, but every time it appears they could go overboard, they seem to retreat into their heads.
Two months off from an actual premiere, I’m just as worried for Pushing Daisies as I am excited for it. America can only handle so much quirky, and Fuller has an unfortunate track record of creating amazing shows that meet untimely cancellations. But if enough people tune in to the pilot (which is very likely, given its lead-in to Private Practice), I’d be surprised if this show doesn’t immediately click with the majority of viewers.
For now… there is the handsome promo below and a well-timed “leak” of the pilot making the rounds online if you’re up for a sneak peak.
