Pushing Daisies: The Complete Second Season

Review By: Andrea Tuccillo
AndreaTuccillo@TheCinemaSource.com

Season Grade: B
DVD Features Grade: B+
Overall Grade: B

Since Pushing Daisies is now pushing daisies itself (read: canned by ABC), reviewing the abbreviated season 2 of this whimsical dramedy is bittersweet. Admittedly, the final season of Pushing Daisies proved to be more a DVR staple for me, rather than must-watch TV. This year, my attentions turned to the much funnier, faster-paced charms of NBC’s Chuck (which fared much better in avoiding the dreaded sophomore slump). The writer’s strike may have stunted Daisies’ momentum – creatively and popularity-wise. While Daisies’ debut was an unexpected delight, the second season at times gets a bit bogged down in all of its cutesy, candy-colored splendor. The simple truth is, Daisies just couldn’t keep up with primetime (I tend to think it almost wasn’t “big” enough for TV) – but it certainly lends itself to a fun DVD watch.

The basic story in a pie-crust is this: Ned’s (Lee Pace) a lonely piemaker who has the power to bring dead things back to life with the touch of his finger. A second touch turns them back to dead for good. If he keeps a thing alive for more than a minute, something else has to die. In the first season he keeps a thing alive longer than a minute – his childhood sweetheart named Chuck (Anna Friel). The two are in love, but in a tragic irony, they can never touch otherwise it’s back in the coffin she goes. Ned also uses his “powers” to make some cash on the side by helping sarcastic private investigator Emerson Cod (Chi McBride, who gets all the show’s best lines and nails them with his delivery) solve murders.

Each episode’s set up like a zany mystery. These aren’t your average murders. This season alone features a girl that’s killed by a swarm of bees, a chef that gets fried in his own chicken grease and a clown-car full of dead clowns. This season also brings up familial issues that the characters thought were long dead and buried. Chuck finds out the identity of her real mother and reconnects with her father from beyond the grave, Ned finds out more about his own absentee dad and some family he never knew he had, and Emerson continues to search for his long-lost daughter and even gets a visit from his feisty mom (which is funny, ‘cause his mom’s white). Plus, spunky Olive Snook (Emmy-nominated Kristin Chenoweth) continues to pine away for Ned this season but not without trying to escape her feelings by joining a nunnery.

Pushing Daisies is still a creative marvel to look at – what with its Willy Wonka-esque set dressings, kooky costumes and head-spinning whodunits. In particular my favorite episodes included Dim Sum Lose Some and Window Dressed to Kill. The latter begins to explore some real conflict in the Ned/Chuck relationship that would have been cool to have seen play out more. You ...