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"Pushing Daisies" was created by Bryan Fuller (executive producer and writer on "Heroes", "Wonderfalls", "Dead Like Me") and has one of the strongest ensemble casts among all the new shows this season. Fuller has created the most unique parallel world with "Pushing Daisies"--Dr. Seuss meets Amelie. The story is a great twist on procedural-dramas, although the "forbidden touch" plot could easily be ruined.
The best things about "Pushing Daisies"
Kristin Chenoweth is the CUTEST actress on television. At the beginning of the season it was fun to see her play the jealous and snoopy Olive Snook, seducing Ned (Lee Pace, who towers above her in awkwardness), ignoring the adorable traveling salesman (selling homeopathic anti-depressants), and annoying Emerson ("I used to think that 'masturbation' meant chewing your food. I don't think that anymore.") Olive Snook could have remained this way and still be great, but out of the gossip and envy has emerged the most sympathetic character of the show. Her loneliness and unrequited love for Ned could have made an on going drama-fest, but instead the writers wisely chose to use Olive as a go-between for Chuck and Chucks two aunts, Lily and Vivian, as well as a friend for Chuck. Her loyalty to Ned, and her gradual acceptance of Chuck is endearing.
Wit. Sometimes it's in the dialogue, and sometimes it briefly appears on screen in a sign or on a t-shirt (a flashback memory of the Aunt's shows Chuck at a camp with a shirt saying "Jews for Cheeses!"), but it's there and it's genuine. The visuals of the show are often saccharine, and while the audience can see the self-irony the characters are nonplussed by towns called Coeur 'd Coeurs, endless fields of daisies, and bright, vivid colors. What makes the setting work is that when the dialogue is witty, it's just as natural to the characters as a shop called 'The Pie Hole' and a community of windmill houses.
The Visuals. I mentioned the bright colors and fields of daisies, but there is also the little props and costume effects that enhance the plot and still make sense: Aunt Lily's eye patch (it changes to match her outfit), Emerson knitting, little Chuck and Ned at their parent's respective funerals sharing their first (and last?) kiss, Olive Snook as a jockey, and Chuck and Ned dancing on the rooftop in beekeeper's outfits. The viewer is intrigued by the story, but transported by the details.
The Pained Expression on Ned's face when he tries to lie. The sweet expression on Ned's face when he tries to say what he feels. The placid expression on Ned's face every other time. Lee Pace is absolutely charming, but in the reverse case of Kristin Chenoweth and Olive Snook, you don't always feel sorry for him. He makes mistakes (number one: only recently telling Chuck that he was the one who accidently killed her father) and is almost as much of a fixer-upper as Chuck's aunts. Ned tells Chuck that he kept her alive even though he knew it would kill another (the robbing funeral director) because he thought that his life would be better with her in it, and that really is true. Isolated, nervous, and an emotional wreck, Ned needs Chuck to breathe a little life into him.
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I am moved by fancies that are curled
Around these images, and cling:
The notion of some infinitely gentle
Infinitely suffering thing.
T.S Eliot, "Preludes"
Last edited by allthatglitters; 12-31-07 at 05:54 PM.
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