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From SciFi Wire: "ABC Orders Full Daisies Season". ABC ordered an additional nine episodes, bringing the total to 22 for the show's first season. If you go to SciFi Wire and look at the ratings of network SF&F shows, Pushing Daisies is currently on top with a more-than-respectable 8.3!
For those of you who haven't caught it, start watching! It's sick humor (falling in my opinion somewhere between A Dog's Breakfast on the slightly tamer side and Shaun of the Dead on the even sicker side), but it has a real sweetness to it. It comes to us from Bryan Fuller, the genius behind the dear departed Wonderfalls (which we own on DVD, all thirteen or fourteen episodes) and stars Lee Pace (the neurotic religious-studies brother Aaron on Wonderfalls, though rather different in this role), Anna Friel (another Brit doing a flawless American accent), Chi McBride, and Kristen Chenoweth (who seems much skinnier than I remember her being in Music Man; assume my rant about Hollywood making actresses lose weight, and I'll post it another time. If I'm misremembering, forget the rant).
I loved Wonderfalls even more, but I still love Pushing Daisies.
The premise is that Ned ("The Piemaker," as the narrator almost always calls him) can bring dead beings back to life.
There are, of course, a couple of flies in the ointment:
1. If Ned touches the dead plant/animal/person again, it dies permanently.
2. If Ned allows the dead to live more than 60 seconds, something roughly equivalent that happens to be nearby will die. So if he lets a fly live, another fly will die; if he lets a person live, another person will die.
A slightly British accented narrator provides ironic detachment and background information. Apparently some people find this annoying. I'm not a huge fan of ironic detachment, but I have no problem with the narrator.
The palette of the show looks like those movies right after they invented Technicolor, or like something people watch when they're doing drugs (not that I'd know anything about that). It's mind-blowing. It really adds to the surreal tone.
And surreal it is. The characters have their own logic, and by their lights, they make sense. Of course, what looks to logic like one doesn't look like logic to another, or to us (much of the time), and leads to misunderstandings, complications, and general hilarity. There's some actual anguish without cheap angst; there's sweetness and love in the midst of chaos, confusion, greed, and stupidity; and there's a bizarre sort of optimism that love is stronger than death. And stronger than the inability to touch the one you love.
I'll catch you up just a little if you haven't seen it (if you really, really hate spoilers and intend to watch the premiere, flee now--and don't watch the episodes out of order, because there's recap at the start for those unfortunates who didn't think the premise sounded so brilliant that they watched from the start). If you have been watching, look to the end for my glee over specific scenes.
Okay, here we go!
Ned is an orphan, essentially; his father was never really in the picture (in fact, do we even see his father's face?). His mother died. He brought her back. The father of the girl next door dropped dead about a minute later (how he learned #2). His mother's good-night kiss killed her permanently (#1).
The girl next door, Charlotte Charles, is known as "Chuck"--now, only to Ned. Also orphaned, she was raised by her aunts. She was Ned's first kiss.
Emerson Cod is a PI who accidentally learned of Ned's gift/curse; they work together for reward money. Ned reanimates corpses, gets crucial clues, and touches them again so that no one else dies. Ned's day job is as a piemaker at The Pie Hole.
Until, of course, Chuck is the corpse, and he can't bring himself to do it. Now Chuck hides her identity because she's dead (can't see the aunts again) and lives in Ned's apartment, but they can't ever touch. Olive, the waitress at the Pie Hole, has suffered from unrequited love for the oblivious Ned for some time and is now jealous of Charlotte.
I think that's all you need to know to watch what looks like A Very Special Halloween Episode.
And now, unmitigated glee! I'll keep the most spoileryish bits for the very end so that you can skip if you haven't seen all the episodes.
Emerson gets the best lines! I don't have any transcripts, so pardon any errors (I'll correct them if you can give me the exact line!).
"Dead girl got to go." (Ned: "Dead girl's not going anywhere.")
"Now that's narcolepsy. Necrophilia's the other one, right?" (Ned: "Yeah.")
"Daddy needs a new ball of yarn."
"Present me isn't saying a word. Future me is going, 'I told you so' up one side and down the other."
Emerson's knitting. Oh, my gosh!
Emerson's shirts, especially combined with his jackets. Oh, my gosh!
The increasingly suspicious looks on the coroner's face, though each time I think he couldn't possibly look more suspicious than he already has.
The sisters, Lily and Vivian. Just . . . everything.
Okay, possible spoilers:
In the car episode, "Dummy," I love the scene where the (very white) executive is addressing all the Japanese people touring the plant in Japanese--so Chuck automatically starts her conversation with him in Japanese, and the two honkies go to town. The flashbacks of Chuck learning languages with tapes that revolve around cheese are icing on the cake.
Wilfrid Woodruff. "Are you by any chance adopted?" The episode was already completely cracked. The backstory on the Woodruff family is what makes it absolutely perfect. There's absolutely no reason for this nonsense whatsoever. Oh, and "I always wanted to be a Jedi."
"Kick, Pooh, kick!"
The SUV running out of gas in "Dummy" was really too much. So was the whole body-bag thing. And the knitting needles. And it's my very favorite episode so far.
I cannot believe they made an eating disorder so funny, while still being so gross (and yet never showing anything). Yet somehow, they pulled it out in the end. I really think she'll be okay. (Minus points if my recall about Kristen Chenoweth is right, though!)
I could go on, and on, but I probably ought to get back to work. I just leave you with these parting thoughts:
Only this show could have worked They Might Be Giants into the dialogue.
Blue canary in the outlet by the light switch
Who watches over you
Make a little birdhouse in your soul
Not to put too fine a point on it
Say I'm the only bee in your bonnet
Make a little birdhouse in your soul
I'm your only friend
I'm not your only friend
But I'm a little glowing friend
But really I'm not actually your friend
But I am....
(Though they did leave out my favorite bit:
There's a picture opposite me
Of my primitive ancestry
Which stood on rocky shores and kept the beaches shipwreck free
Though I respect that a lot
I'd be fired if that were my job
After killing Jason off and countless screaming Argonauts....)
For those of you who haven't caught it, start watching! It's sick humor (falling in my opinion somewhere between A Dog's Breakfast on the slightly tamer side and Shaun of the Dead on the even sicker side), but it has a real sweetness to it. It comes to us from Bryan Fuller, the genius behind the dear departed Wonderfalls (which we own on DVD, all thirteen or fourteen episodes) and stars Lee Pace (the neurotic religious-studies brother Aaron on Wonderfalls, though rather different in this role), Anna Friel (another Brit doing a flawless American accent), Chi McBride, and Kristen Chenoweth (who seems much skinnier than I remember her being in Music Man; assume my rant about Hollywood making actresses lose weight, and I'll post it another time. If I'm misremembering, forget the rant).
I loved Wonderfalls even more, but I still love Pushing Daisies.
The premise is that Ned ("The Piemaker," as the narrator almost always calls him) can bring dead beings back to life.
There are, of course, a couple of flies in the ointment:
1. If Ned touches the dead plant/animal/person again, it dies permanently.
2. If Ned allows the dead to live more than 60 seconds, something roughly equivalent that happens to be nearby will die. So if he lets a fly live, another fly will die; if he lets a person live, another person will die.
A slightly British accented narrator provides ironic detachment and background information. Apparently some people find this annoying. I'm not a huge fan of ironic detachment, but I have no problem with the narrator.
The palette of the show looks like those movies right after they invented Technicolor, or like something people watch when they're doing drugs (not that I'd know anything about that). It's mind-blowing. It really adds to the surreal tone.
And surreal it is. The characters have their own logic, and by their lights, they make sense. Of course, what looks to logic like one doesn't look like logic to another, or to us (much of the time), and leads to misunderstandings, complications, and general hilarity. There's some actual anguish without cheap angst; there's sweetness and love in the midst of chaos, confusion, greed, and stupidity; and there's a bizarre sort of optimism that love is stronger than death. And stronger than the inability to touch the one you love.
I'll catch you up just a little if you haven't seen it (if you really, really hate spoilers and intend to watch the premiere, flee now--and don't watch the episodes out of order, because there's recap at the start for those unfortunates who didn't think the premise sounded so brilliant that they watched from the start). If you have been watching, look to the end for my glee over specific scenes.
Okay, here we go!
Ned is an orphan, essentially; his father was never really in the picture (in fact, do we even see his father's face?). His mother died. He brought her back. The father of the girl next door dropped dead about a minute later (how he learned #2). His mother's good-night kiss killed her permanently (#1).
The girl next door, Charlotte Charles, is known as "Chuck"--now, only to Ned. Also orphaned, she was raised by her aunts. She was Ned's first kiss.
Emerson Cod is a PI who accidentally learned of Ned's gift/curse; they work together for reward money. Ned reanimates corpses, gets crucial clues, and touches them again so that no one else dies. Ned's day job is as a piemaker at The Pie Hole.
Until, of course, Chuck is the corpse, and he can't bring himself to do it. Now Chuck hides her identity because she's dead (can't see the aunts again) and lives in Ned's apartment, but they can't ever touch. Olive, the waitress at the Pie Hole, has suffered from unrequited love for the oblivious Ned for some time and is now jealous of Charlotte.
I think that's all you need to know to watch what looks like A Very Special Halloween Episode.
And now, unmitigated glee! I'll keep the most spoileryish bits for the very end so that you can skip if you haven't seen all the episodes.
Emerson gets the best lines! I don't have any transcripts, so pardon any errors (I'll correct them if you can give me the exact line!).
"Dead girl got to go." (Ned: "Dead girl's not going anywhere.")
"Now that's narcolepsy. Necrophilia's the other one, right?" (Ned: "Yeah.")
"Daddy needs a new ball of yarn."
"Present me isn't saying a word. Future me is going, 'I told you so' up one side and down the other."
Emerson's knitting. Oh, my gosh!
Emerson's shirts, especially combined with his jackets. Oh, my gosh!
The increasingly suspicious looks on the coroner's face, though each time I think he couldn't possibly look more suspicious than he already has.
The sisters, Lily and Vivian. Just . . . everything.
Okay, possible spoilers:
In the car episode, "Dummy," I love the scene where the (very white) executive is addressing all the Japanese people touring the plant in Japanese--so Chuck automatically starts her conversation with him in Japanese, and the two honkies go to town. The flashbacks of Chuck learning languages with tapes that revolve around cheese are icing on the cake.
Wilfrid Woodruff. "Are you by any chance adopted?" The episode was already completely cracked. The backstory on the Woodruff family is what makes it absolutely perfect. There's absolutely no reason for this nonsense whatsoever. Oh, and "I always wanted to be a Jedi."
"Kick, Pooh, kick!"
The SUV running out of gas in "Dummy" was really too much. So was the whole body-bag thing. And the knitting needles. And it's my very favorite episode so far.
I cannot believe they made an eating disorder so funny, while still being so gross (and yet never showing anything). Yet somehow, they pulled it out in the end. I really think she'll be okay. (Minus points if my recall about Kristen Chenoweth is right, though!)
I could go on, and on, but I probably ought to get back to work. I just leave you with these parting thoughts:
Only this show could have worked They Might Be Giants into the dialogue.
Blue canary in the outlet by the light switch
Who watches over you
Make a little birdhouse in your soul
Not to put too fine a point on it
Say I'm the only bee in your bonnet
Make a little birdhouse in your soul
I'm your only friend
I'm not your only friend
But I'm a little glowing friend
But really I'm not actually your friend
But I am....
(Though they did leave out my favorite bit:
There's a picture opposite me
Of my primitive ancestry
Which stood on rocky shores and kept the beaches shipwreck free
Though I respect that a lot
I'd be fired if that were my job
After killing Jason off and countless screaming Argonauts....)
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That's my favorite part of the song too! *sings some more*
What's bad is I have an album I've been listening to on repeat that has a song called "Push the Little Daisies". I'm not sure how well its style would fit, but I'm curious about making a music vid. And now they've given me another song to work with. :-)
Oh, another comparison to help explain the palette of the show might be Edward Scissorhands.
I must get more pie iconss...
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