Writer: Bryan Fuller
Director: Paul Edwards
Cast: Lee Pace (Ned), Anna Friel (Charlotte "Chuck" Charles), Chi McBride (Emerson Cod), Ellen Greene (Vivan), Jim Dale (Narrator), Swoosie Kurtz (Lily), Kristin Chenoweth (Olive Snook), Sy Richardson (The Coroner), Raul Esparza (Alfredo Aldarisio), Field Cate (Young Ned), Victor Z. Isaac (The Delivery Boy), Brad Grunberg (Louis/Lawrence Schatz), Kristin Veitch (The 30s Woman), Howard Mann (The Elderly Man), Eddie Shin (Wilfred Woodruff), Albert Wong (Fambing Woo) & Leyna Nguyen (Newscaster)
Director: Paul Edwards
Cast: Lee Pace (Ned), Anna Friel (Charlotte "Chuck" Charles), Chi McBride (Emerson Cod), Ellen Greene (Vivan), Jim Dale (Narrator), Swoosie Kurtz (Lily), Kristin Chenoweth (Olive Snook), Sy Richardson (The Coroner), Raul Esparza (Alfredo Aldarisio), Field Cate (Young Ned), Victor Z. Isaac (The Delivery Boy), Brad Grunberg (Louis/Lawrence Schatz), Kristin Veitch (The 30s Woman), Howard Mann (The Elderly Man), Eddie Shin (Wilfred Woodruff), Albert Wong (Fambing Woo) & Leyna Nguyen (Newscaster)
A death at a funeral home sends Ned back to Couers d' Couers, to face his own part in a "murder". Later, Chuck bakes anti-depressants into a pie meant for her grieving aunts, which Olive decides to deliver..."At that very moment Chuck saw the pie maker, perhaps not as he really was, but as he would always appear to her: her Prince Charming."
-- Narrator (Jim Dale)
Pushing Daisies is still convinced nobody knows the concept behind the show, so we begin with another regaling of the rules by narrator Jim Dale and some whimsical flashbacks to Young Ned (Field Cate) in a classroom with two jars of fireflies, which he uses to test his life-giving power.
Creator Bryan Fuller returns to write episode 3, The Fun In Funeral, which also acts as a direct continuation of the Pie-lette, because undertaker Lawrence Schatz (who randomly had to die as a result of Ned resurrecting Chuck for longer than 1 minute) returns as this episode's macguffin.
It transpires that Lawrence (Brad Grunberg) used to rob dead bodies of their jewelery, and has stashed the loot somewhere. His twin brother Louis (Brad Grunberg again) promptly arrives and the plot thickens when Ned (Lee Pace), Chuck (Anna Friel) and Emerson (Chi McBride) later discover Louis dead in the Piehole's freezer and unearth some hate-mail directed towards the Schatz brothers...
The production design retains its high quality, the budget even being stretches for throwaway gags (a salesman imagines being sucked out of a room along with all the oxygen). It’s wonderful to have a show that transports you to a modern fairytale world every week, although sometimes the vibrancy and bright designs can be a little distracting. Most off-putting at the moment is the repetitive musical cues, often intrusive and overused narrations by Jim Dale, and the central relationship between Ned and Chuck.
Ned and Chuck have been immediately stuck making doe-eyes at each other, lost in their own personal world of sickly romance that, narratively, seems to offer a dead-end. Of course, Ned has a secret that could ruin everything (he was responsible for killing her father to save his mother), but beyond that undercurrent of potential heartache, it's a relationship that's solid and irritatingly cutesy.
It might have been better to have Chuck politely spurn Ned's romantic advances after he brought her back to life. I know that's perhaps too predictable for boy/girl relationships on TV shows, but without an element of drama, you're just watching two people soppily in love – floating around in a day-glo world of happiness and charm, where even death is little more than an enjoyable lark.
Perhaps I'm being too unfair. Pushing Daisies is at least different to everything else on TV and that should be applauded. Visually and conceptually, it's head and shoulders above most other shows. The actors are all charming, although Lee Pace is still too ineffectual for my taste. In this episode's finale, when he's engaged in a sword fight with this week's villain, he still doesn't register as anything other than a likable goofball.
Bryan Fuller's script is pretty good, although the plot becomes quite hazy and desperate in its later moments. I'm finding it difficult to really care about murder mysteries where the dead are brought back to life and never seem particularly bothered about what happened to them! If victims don't seem to care, why should we?
On the plus side, Fuller has a great deal of fun playing around with the concept (kisses through cling-film for Chuck and Ned), a moment when Ned can't retouch a resurrected man when his coffin lid slams shut, and a revived body's first words being "honey, did you turn off the gas?"
Piehole waitress Olive Snook (Kristin Chenoweth) is also given a greater part to play, as she hand delivers a pie to Chuck's aunts – Lily (Swoosie Kurtz) and Vivian (Ellen Greene) – who are grieving over Chuck's death. After being invited in, Olive soon realizes the big secret surrounding Chuck's appearance on the scene as her rival for Ned's affections. It's great to see early development on this issue of Chuck's secret life (pre-death?), and Chenoweth is a perfect match for the show; with squeaky voice, stilted mannerisms, smooth complexion and flawless hair. Never mind the production budget, she's by far the best "effect" on show.
The Fun In Funeral is entertaining, but it's becoming clear to me that Pushing Daisies has plenty of charm, but little bite. I'm yet to be convinced the Ned/Chuck relationship won't just become incredibly annoying, while the music and narration is already beginning to grate on me. I admire the show's ambition and applaud its style, but it’s emotionally leaving me as cold as that dead undertaker...
17 October 2007
NBC, 8/7c pm
