Last week, I explained to you my fears about Pushing Daisies. I thought the sweetness was going to get overwhelming, I thought the plot would be too episodic, and I thought the characters would be too fairy-tale to catch on. And while I still have my doubts, last night’s episode put more than a few of them to rest. Can I get a breakdown?
1. Cutesiness — While we still had plenty of cute, sweet moments (Chuck and Ned kissing through body bags, The Scientist and Jeanine falling in love, Emerson knitting), they weren’t overpowering, as I had feared they might be. The connection between Ned and Chuck always bring a smile to my face, and as long as we don’t have something having to do with flowers every single episode (fields of yellow ones in the pilot, a dandelion powered car in this one), I should be able to tolerate the saccharine stuff.
2. Narration — Shut up, shut up, shut up. This narrator is terrible. Are we going to have everyone life in years, months, days, seconds, nanoseconds, every time someone appears on screen? Good God, that is so irritating. TV narration should exist to tell us things we don’t know: inner thoughts, info we don’t get on-screen, flashbacks maybe. But to narrate every single scene, even when the narration is being acted out before our eyes as its being narrated? Isn’t that overkill? I know it’s supposed to be like a fairy tale (hence the narrator, the odd names like Olive Snook, and the magic), but it’s too much. I will not be able to handle this intense narration for an entire series. Let’s hope they start to phase it out.
3. Kristin Chenoweth — I’m still not convinced she’s right for this role. She looks much older than Lee Pace and Anna Friel and isn’t as captivating, in my opinion. I appreciate her many comedic talents, and I appreciate her singing ability, but that song from Grease? Really? That’s the best song they could come up with? I was praying for an original song about the Piemaker (ooo, how annoying is it when the narrator refers to everyone by his or her profession? Enough with the fairy tale descriptions!), but I appreciated the whimsy of the song and I LOVED Digby’s participation. What a great dog. I think I’ll like Olive more when she really becomes involved in the narrative because so far, she’s been more of an observer than a participant.
4. Chuck/Ned — Love em. I love these two, and I think no matter what else happens on this show, as long as these two are on it, people will watch. Their chemistry is palpable, their personalities believable, and they are both flawless at being cute and sweet without being annoying or over-the-top. Great, great casting and a wonderful romantic duo for television.
5. Chi McBride — Last week, I complained that he was too one-note. This week, we got a lot more from Chi McBride as Emerson Cod. We’re really starting to get to know him in a way I was worried we wouldn’t. He’s not just one-liner comic relief that you find all over television these days, and I think he, Chuck and Ned form a terrific trifecta. I have a feeling there’s more to him than meets the eye and I look forward to seeing his inner secrets uncovered.
6. Procedural stuff — I was actually very entertained by the episodic mystery aspect of the episode. Always glad to see vets from my fav shows pop up, so I was happy to see the evil professor from V Mars as villain Mark Chase. And I loved Jeanine, especially when she was trying to secretly binge on pie while crouching and shuffling along on that turntable. Hilarious. However, I am still a bit worried about this aspect of the show– even really unique formulas can become formulaic after too long. Can this show keep these episodic mysteries interesting enough that they don’t all start to run together in three or four episodes? Will the serialized portion of this show, of which there still isn’t very much, be enough to carry it?
7. Serialized stuff- We’ve pretty much only got 2 serialized elements going here. One, the love triangle of Chuck, Ned and Olive. Two, Ned’s secret that he killed Chuck’s father. Once that secret is out, what else will we have but the romance? Some more important, more sweeping narrative arc needs to be introduced. What is this show moving towards? What journey are we on? Right now, I can’t say that I feel there is one, which is usually not a great sign for long life in a show. We need a destination– we can be entertained however Bryan Fuller and Friends want to entertain us along the way, but if the show isn’t moving towards something, we’re going to end up with stagnant, episodic, cream-filled fairy tales that have no resolution. I don’t have faith in Bryan Fuller’s ability to work in serialized tv (Dead Like Me or Wonderfalls anyone?), but since I enjoy this show, I truly hope he proves me wrong.
Pushing Daisies has shown that it can charm and captivate, no doubt about it. But for how long? Can they keep this up without every episode feeling the same? Or will we be stuck eating the same piece of cherry pie every week for the rest of the season?
Grade: B+
Great, thoughtful review! Totally agree that it’s still charming, and I also had serious doubts about that “Hopelessly Devoted” scene (seriously, what WAS that?!). But I do think the narrator works nicely with the overall fairy-tale tone as well as, I think, adding a hint of irony that might be missing otherwise.