"This ain't no circus. A circus is supposed to smell like popcornand cotton candy, not wet saw dust and underarm."
-- Emerson (Chi McBride)
It was only a matter of time before Pushing Daisies circled a circus. The show already resembles a sideshow in many ways, with its vibrant colours and crazy goings-on, so seeing Ned (Lee Pace), Emerson (Chi McBride) and Chuck (Anna Friel) investigate a missing person's case around a Big Top was a perfect stylistic fit for this show. Sadly, like last week, peel away the assortment of sparkling visuals and a few amusing flourishes, and you're left with a rather drab storyline...
Emerson agrees to help Georgeann Heaps (Rachael Harris) find her missing daughter Nikki (Hayley McFarland), who has run away from home. They eventually discover that Nikki was shacked up with a mime artist called Rocky Basselli (Artie O'Daly), who is found dead inside his van. After being revived by Ned's life-restoring touch, Rocky reveals that Nikki left him for a clown at the Circus Of Fun. They speak to the circus ringmaster, Arnaud Bailey (Lee Arenberg), who isn't particularly helpful, but his assistant later admits that Nikki wasn't liked by the circus community and was seen leaving with head clown Jackie Johnny (Loren Lazerine), whose car is later found in a nearby lake – filled with fifteen other clowns...
Meanwhile, Olive (Kristin Chenoweth) is still at the nunnery, trying to get her life into perspective, but hindered by the arrival of Lilly (Swoosie Kurtz), whom she accidentally confides in about secretly loving piemaker Ned. Lilly herself is still guilt-ridden about lying to her sister Vivian (Ellen Greene) all these years, regarding the fact she's actually Chuck's mother, not her aunt.
"Circus Circus" was another episode that generally washed over me. It sometimes feels that Pushing Daisies places too much faith in its effervescent design, quirkiness and fairy tale pretensions. The circus was a great backdrop, but even that didn't feel particularly well-utilized, which ultimately wasted possibly the best setting for any Pushing Daisies mystery so far. As usual, the mystery is on the level of a Scooby Doo mystery, but it's very difficult to care about anyone who dies or goes missing on this show. The dead are routinely brought back to life (and never sound annoyed they've just been killed), and missing people are ciphers until the last few minutes of any plot.
As ever, it's the small details and moment of wit that helps draw you through: the mass drowning of clowns, the cannonball midget, the clown on stilts being taken away on a long stretcher, Olive's line about the nunnery's porridge ("I could throw up in my mouth a little and not even know the difference") and the mime artist explaining the circumstances of his death in silence. As for the ongoing subplot for Olive in the nunnery: I don't believe in why she's decided to go there, I don't find it plausible that Lilly would follow her there, and the pair's conversations regarding their respective secrets just gets reiterated.
Likewise, the amount of times the show has to re-explain its premise and storylines is becoming a real drag. Sometimes the exposition is handled brilliantly by the Narrator (Jim Dale) in a throwaway comment mid-scene, but too often we're "brought up to speed" on Ned's abilities, Olive's situation and the Ned/Chuck love-story in quite awkward, deadening ways. I wish the show would give us some weekly mysteries and whimsy without laboriously raking over old ground, or thinking anyone's particularly interested in the likes of Lilly and Vivian.
Ned and Chuck's romance continues to be extremely cloying; too cutesy and immature to be as magical and heart-warming as it's intended. Emerson usually takes the edge off that sickliness, but he's not been present in too many of their scenes when his cynical jabs are most needed. The strange thing is how season 1 wasn't radically different to anything here, but sweet and savoury was balanced better, and the mysteries were a cut above any we've had so far.
Overall, "Circus Circus" floundered quite badly for me, and my attention began to wander after thirty minutes. Again, things come together quite well in the end, but it's becoming a struggle to get to that point without being irritated, bored or distracted by everything else on the sidelines.
Writer: Peter Ocko
Director: Lawrence Trilling
Cast: Lee Pace (Ned), Anna Friel (Chuck), Chi McBride (Emerson), Jim Dale (Narrator), Field Cate (Young Ned), Ellen Greene (Vivian), Swoosie Kurtz (Lily), Kristin Chenoweth (Olive), Sy Richardson (Coroner), Rachael Harris (Georgeann Heaps), Lee Arenberg (Arnaud Bailey), Diana Scarwid (Mother Superior), Googy Gress (Bryce Von Deenis), Theodore Zoumpoulidis (Pierre), Michael C. Alexander (Customer #1), Artie O'Daly (Rocky Milano), Nicole Greenwood (Ms. Moss), Loren Lazerine (Jackie Johnny), Hayley McFarland (Nikki Heaps), Mark Povinelli (Small Person), Casey Weiant (Randi Jean) & Jackie Harris (Bailey's Assistant/De Jong)
