Mon 1 Aug 2011
A TV Series Review by Michael Shonk: PUSHING DAISIES (2007-2009).
Posted by Steve under Reviews , TV mysteries[16] Comments
PUSHING DAISIES. ABC-TV/Warner Brothers. October 3, 2007 through June 13, 2009. 22 episodes @60 minutes. Created and Showrunner : Bryan Fuller. Cast: Lee Pace (Ned), Anna Friel (Chuck), Chi McBride (Emerson Cod), Jim Dale (Narrator), Kristin Chenoweth (Olive Snook), Ellen Greene (Vivian), Swoosie Kurtz (Lily)
One of the most redeeming qualities of television is no matter how mundane mainstream television gets, there are always the unusual and delightful series on the air we will remember forever. Sadly, most of these series last only long enough to find a small enthusiastic following.
One such series was Pushing Daisies, a screwball comedy mystery fantasy featuring a pie maker who can raise the dead with a touch and uses that talent to help a PI solve murder mysteries.
Ned’s secret magical finger was not without rules. The first touch woke the dead, but a second touch killed them forever. And if Ned did not touch them a second time within one minute the formerly dead would stay alive and someone near by would die.
Enter cynical PI Emerson Cod, who saw a way to profit off Ned’s special talent. Ned would revive murder victims, ask them who killed them, solve the murder, and they would collect the reward. But it was never that easy and sixty seconds were never long enough. In the episode “Bitches,” the victim told them he was killed by his wife, but then they learned he had four wives.
The mystery shared the story with the personal comedy drama of the strong well-developed characters, all with their own secrets and story lines. Because the series is told in fairy tale serial form, it is wise to watch the episodes in order.
When Ned and Emerson decided to solve the murder of Ned’s childhood crush, Chuck, Ned decided to let her live at the cost of an evil funeral director’s life. Chuck and Ned fall in love but can never touch, the tragedy of two lovers who can never touch lightened by the funny ways Ned and Chuck find to express their love.
Jim Dale’s narration and Jim Dooley’s music were perfect in setting the mood in this fantasy world of bright colors and odd locales. The camera with its angles and symmetrically frames shots also added to the series special look.
Each story began with an absurd death such as an exploding scratch ‘n’ sniff book. After talking to the victim and getting little to go on, they would meet the suspects, find clues and twists until the killer was revealed. Meanwhile, a story arc featuring the relationships and secrets of the characters formed the subplot of each episode.
Mystery fans found much to enjoy in the series, especially episodes such as “The Norwegians,” featuring the brilliant Norwegian forensic team and their crime solving bus, “Mother.”
The oddness of characters, stories, look, sound, and fast paced lyrical dialog drew us happily into Pushing Daisies’ whimsical world of mystery, romance, and pie.
The television series ended with closure for the characters, but there were still some loose ends involving Chuck and Ned’s fathers. After the series was canceled, Bryan Fuller promised Pushing Daisies would continue as a comic book much as Buffy the Vampire Slayer and others had.
The comic book written by Bryan Fuller and drawn by Jonathan Wayshak continues in search of a publisher. In April 2011, Fuller posted at various websites the first two pages of the comic book. Here is a link to one site where you can read the two page sample of what is called “Season Three.”
The complete TV series is available on DVD or for download. You can watch the first season of nine episodes for free here.
August 1st, 2011 at 7:36 pm
I barely remember this show from when it was on, and it was for two seasons?
Well, nine episodes the first season, and 13 the next.
As I recall, though, the premise sounded silly, and there were a number of shows with somewhat similar premises that were on around the same time (talking to the dead and so on).
I ended up ignoring them all, which is why I can’t tell you what the titles were of any of them, and probably unfairly.
And maybe more so for PUSHING DAISIES. If this is on DVD, I think you’ve convinced me, Michael, that I really ought to have it. After sneaking a peek at one of the free episodes, perhaps, just to be sure.
August 1st, 2011 at 8:34 pm
The series had a full 22 episode order for the 2007 season. Then the Writers strike hit. Fuller quickly finished and shot episode nine as a season finale. The ratings were good, but disappearing off the air from December 07 until October 08 cost them much of their audience. ABC yanked them off the air again in December 08 before the audience had a chance to find them again. ABC then burned off the final three episodes in the summer.
Fuller knew the series was cancelled in time to add closure to the final episode.
Steve, this was not GHOST WHISPERER nor what I call a series that deals with the paranormal. While the romance between Ned and Chuck may not appeal to the mystery fans, Emerson Cod is a PI most mystery fans will love.
August 1st, 2011 at 9:59 pm
Maybe your definition of paranormal is different from mine, Michael, but if it makes for a series that’s entertaining and fun to watch, it’s fine with me. I just lumped this one in with all the others, and maybe a few of those were good, too.
That the writers’ strike was to blame for the strange scheduling break had occurred to me. It was a disastrous turning point event in the history of television, not only at the time and all of the shows it killed off, but tell me if I’m wrong or not — didn’t it help bring in the era of “reality ” TV, 99% of it garbage?
August 2nd, 2011 at 8:43 am
Bill Crider was a big fan of this one but after a few episodes I got tired of it. It clearly was not going anywhere (the two “lovers” could never touch) and what the British call the “twee” elements was ultimately too cloying for my taste.
I did like Emerson’s never-ending cynicism, however, and liked McBride playing a similar role in HUMAN TARGET, a fun show I wish Fox hadn’t cancelled.
August 2nd, 2011 at 8:46 am
Synonyms for twee:
precious
saccharine
syrupy
August 2nd, 2011 at 8:56 am
It was twee or goofy or a bit sweet, but I liked it. My husband did not.
August 2nd, 2011 at 12:18 pm
Steve, the talking to the dead was a minor gimmick. And it was hard to think paranormal when they are talking to a dead victim that looks like a fried egg or a fast food chicken Colonel who has been fried extra crispy.
Jeff, the romance was twee, but this was supposed to be a fairy tale, so that was kind of unavoidable. But the mysteries and strange comedy were why I watched. The second season got more interesting and darker with the story arc (still unsolved) of the mysteries of the Dads and their watches.
Patti, PUSHING DAISIES was the perfect example of a cult favorite series. Not everyone would buy into this fairy tale world. I think you and I were among the lucky ones.
August 2nd, 2011 at 12:53 pm
Steve, as far as the writer strike leading to the reality series plague we suffer from now, I don’t think it was the major reason.
The success of CBS’ “Amazing Race” and Fox’s “American Idol” began the trend. But reality programming has existed since TV began. Two things, I believe, are responsible for the amount of reality TV today.
The cable networks are turning to original programming. Because reality programs cost much less than scripted and thus less risk, most cable networks rely on reality programs.
People watch them. The History Channel was a minor channel until it discovered Alaska and Ice Truckers, now it is among the top five most watched cable networks. Lifetime has turned to scripted programs and is struggling. Even the networks have found during the summer original scripted series bomb and reality programs succeed.
Pogo is right. Reality programs fill the schedule because we watch them.
August 2nd, 2011 at 4:13 pm
I liked the show. The Jim Dale voiceover was especially winning. As was Lee Pace. I most especially liked the bright flat colors used in the filming. Loved the whole fey idea of the thing and needless to say, loved the idea of a restaurant devoted to pies. 🙂
I was surprised when the show was cancelled.
August 2nd, 2011 at 4:38 pm
It was too cute, but usually tolerably so, and generally clever. I watched it when I remembered to do so. SURVIVOR really kicked off the “reality” jag in the US, though AM IDOL and TAR certainly helped, as did more formal game shows as WHO WANTS TO BE A MILLIONAIRE and stunt shows as FEAR FACTOR.
August 2nd, 2011 at 5:21 pm
There is no such thing as reality television.
Lazy TV critics adopted this umbrella term to refer to two separate forms: the game show and the cinema-verite pseudo-documentary.
Survivor is just Beat The Clock on location.
Dancing With The Stars is the old Arthur Murray Party without Arthur and Kathryn.
American Idol – the Ted Mack Amateur Hour on steroids.
And all the copycats that have come in their wake.
As for the pseudo-docs – The Real Housewives of here or there, the celebrity keyhole peeping shows, the bought-and-paid-for tourist trap infomercials – all of them have ancestors as far back as the earliest days of the tube.
Personally, you couldn’t pay me to watch crap like this; I’ve seen it all before, and it was a goddamn bore back then.
(Can you tell that I’m 60?)
These shows proliferate for one irreducible reason –
THEY’RE CHEAP!
Scripts, sets, actors, technicians – they cost, and an ill-timed strike can knock everything galley-west.
Pushing Daisies was a favorite of mine, as was its indirect ancestor, Wonderfalls. I have the DVDs of both; cold comfort indeed.
August 2nd, 2011 at 7:01 pm
Yvette, much effort went into the look of the world the series was set in. Not only the colors, narration and music, but look at most shots and notice how symmetrical everything is, everything is in balance. It is a world where professional synchronized swimmers are famous.
Todd, you were right “Survivor”. It was the first of the current cycle.
Mike, Fuller did put some of his “Wonderfalls” into this series, but the beginning of the idea for this series began from Fuller’s “Dead Like Me” (03).
Mike, there are many forms of cheap programs but they don’t get the huge ratings “American Idol” and “Dance With the Stars” get. Three of the four networks top rated show is a reality series (CBS is the exception).
People, want to hear the funny thing. The networks and studios (today the two are often sister companies in a bigger corporation) want scripted TV to succeed. Reality programs have no resale value. Scripted hit TV series such as CSI and NCIS are long term goldmines for the studios. There is no television profit to be made today for last year’s “Idol”.
August 3rd, 2011 at 6:52 am
Mike Doran: I always call it “so-called reality television”; you’d be amazed at how many people don’t get it that most of it is scripted, more or less.
August 3rd, 2011 at 3:22 pm
13. If not exactly scripted, the contestants know what part they need to play to get on TV. Some of the “best” acting is on reality TV. It can be like improv night at the local Comedy club. Only much much more predictable and boring.
August 4th, 2011 at 10:48 pm
I liked this show a lot. It provided work for some of America’s best comic character actors and that is primarily what kept me watching. The show was derided for the extensive use of voice-over narration prompting one TV critic to call it a radio show with pictures. Sour grapes. Why do fantasy shows never work on TV? If PUSHING DAISIES had been a series of paperback books it would’ve been far more successful for its authors. I am always drawn to the quirky and the odd and have enjoyed all of Bryan Fuller’s shows especially DEAD LIKE ME featuring a motley crew of dead people whose job it is to collect the souls of dying characters at the last minute of life. It was a brilliant satire that eventually lost its bite when the story focussed on the lead character’s surviving family troubles. And then there was WONDERFALLS — a very strange show about a young woman employed at the Niagara Falls gift shop where the tacky souvenirs talked to her and gave her advice about her messed up love life and taunted her with cryptic phrases prompting her to intervene in the lives of strangers and tourists who passed through the shop.
August 4th, 2011 at 11:05 pm
J.F. you can see why people are still waiting for the comic books. They actually had a publisher, Wildside (of DC), until the Wildside imprint bit the dust. If only Ned’s finger could have worked.
That TV critic was an idiot, it was not radio with pictures. It was a fairy tale and the narrator was vital for the mood. Much like in PRINCESS BRIDE.
Steve, I have been thinking about why I don’t consider this series paranormal. It is as paranormal as WIZARD OF OZ with its witches. Now, DEAD LIKE ME, that was paranormal.