Television Review - Pushing Daisies Season 2

ABC, 8 PM EST, Wednesdays

Rating (after five episodes): 4.5 out of 5 Stars

The facts are these: Every once in a while a show comes around that is so much unlike anything else on television that it feels like a breath of fresh air across the Prime Time landscape. Pushing Daisies is a show like that. Also, every once in a while a show comes around that just makes you feel so comfortable with the characters and surroundings that it seems like part of your life, perhaps an extended family, and it puts you completely at ease. Pushing Daisies is a show like that.

Its basic premise seems simple and even somewhat contrived: a man can revive the dead for sixty seconds and he uses this ability while working with his private investigator friend to solve crimes. But this short description does not tell you what Pushing Daisies is really about (you can read more on the details of the premise in my review from Season 1). It is not a crime drama, in fact it is not a drama at all. It is more of a romantic comedy and its main strengths are its characters, their interactions, and their droll, rapid-fire dialogue. Its other strength is the stunning visual world that it creates, a story-book adult fairytale brought to life with vivid colors and the reassuring voice of the ever-present narrator. It’s like something out of a Tim Burton movie as it celebrates both eccentricity and an inner need to strive for normalcy at the same time.

Though I delighted in this series from the beginning, early on I worried that it would quickly growth stale and fall victim to formula (much like what Reaper experienced during its first season). And while the series definitely has remained hand-cuffed to its basic formula, it does so on purpose. In fact, Pushing Daisies revels in it. The mystery stories that act as a backbone to each episode and provide little more than contrived, and at times ridiculous, tales that serve the purpose of carrying forward the action (peppered with a healthy dose of dark humor). What’s more, I don’t even believe that they provide enough clues for the viewer to figure things out on their own (I’ve never been much of a mystery fan, so I haven’t even tried). They don’t care about this, because sometime during the last fifteen minutes of each episode the narrator will step in with his expected summary of events prefaced by his trademark “The facts are these” statement. I wait for this moment each episode because I know it is coming and it provides a comforting, tidy wrap up to all the loose ends of the mystery. Every crime drama on television has this overly-contrived moment when some character at some point sums everything up for the audience. Pushing Daisies just openly acknowledges the need for the device and carries it off with a smirk and tongue firmly planted in cheek (and a reassuring British accent).

The reason that the basic formula of Pushing Daisies has not grown stale, comes from the fact that it simply provides the springboard for the larger story the series wants to tell. Oh, we’re not talking about Lost-type, intricate, multi-story arcs here. We are talking about the story of the grand, eccentric characters that populate the world of Pushing Daisies, who, despite their idiosyncrasies and peculiarities, only want the most basic things that anybody wants: to love, be loved, and to live happy. It is the standard theme that runs throughout most Tim Burton movies (I can’t believe he did not have any hand in creating this series), celebration of eccentricity, normalcy, and basic happiness at the same time.

Of course this series would be nowhere without the exceptional actors who bring these characters to life. Lee Pace plays Ned the Piemaker with the puppy dog sadness of a man who can never touch his true love. Anna Friel plays Chuck as an inquisitive optimist who wants to revel in every minute of the second chance at life she has received. Kristin Chenowith plays Olive as a bitter, yet kind-hearted, woman scorned by the man she loves. Then there is Chi McBride in his penultimate role as the laconic, acid-tongued, me-first private investigator with a much softer side we would prefer to remain hidden. I still find it a great injustice that he did not even receive a nomination for best supporting actor in the last Emmy Awards. These four alone make the series soar, but they are complemented by even more talent from Swoosie Kurtz and Ellen Greene as Chuck’s aunts (though we later find out that Aunt Lily is really Chuck’s mother) as well as the outstanding guest appearances that have included such talents as Paul Reubens, Molly Shannon, Raul Esparza, and David Arquette.

Ratings wise, Pushing Daisies has seen a huge drop-off in numbers from its first season and is actually currently one of ABC’s lowest rated shows. The threat of cancellation looms as the series has yet to receive an additional order of episodes beyond the first thirteen for Season 2. Fans are currently mobilizing a campaign to save the show, but its sinking numbers could spell an early doom. Ultimately the show may be just too off-the-wall for the Prime Time television audience (as an example, the low-brow, mind-numbing Knight Rider on NBC regularly tops Pushing Daisies in its timeslot). And it may be a poetic fate that a series about eccentric yet endearing people who only want to find love can find no love from Prime Time television audiences.

-John J. Joex

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