Pushing Daisies: Season 2

PUSHING DAISIES is no longer a part of the ABC schedule. [Update: There are now rumors that ABC is finally going to show the remaining DAISIES episodes in late May or early June. I have not heard whether the season finale will feature the original planned episode or the reedited one that will be included on the DVDs.]Even though Amazon often makes it possible to review shows before the season has ended, I make it a personal policy to never write a review until the season has ended. I'm making an exception for Season Two of PUSHING DAISIES simply because we don't know when or if ABC will air the final three episodes. There is talk that they might show the last three episodes in a single night, but possibly as late as sometime during the summer of 2009. Possibly not at all.Time was when ABC was one of my favorite networks. Along with NBC, I watched more of their series than any other network. CBS has not had any shows that have interested me in a couple of decades and has become the network most opposed to Quality Television (a technical term for shows with specific qualities, none of which are possessed by CBS's entire schedule). FOX has done some interesting shows, but such a huge percentage of them have been cancelled (though admittedly in the years before Kevin Reilly became head of programming -- so far in his two years FOX has a much better track record and it might even become my new favorite network, especially if they keep DOLLHOUSE and TERMINATOR: THE SARAH CONNOR CHRONICLES, my two favorite FOX series, going past this spring). The CW apart from GOSSIP GIRL has yet to develop a single show that even remotely interests me, though the old WB series SMALLVILLE is a decent show that I've watched for years (and which is experiencing an unexpected resurgence in its 8th season, which will hopefully carry over with its now confirmed 9th season). But ABC is not a station I look to with much hope. I will admit that this could change if they eventually greenlight the series FABLES, based on Bill Willingham's great comic series about fairy tale characters living in New York in a neighborhood called Fabletown (though ironically, the target audience for the show would probably be fans of PUSHING DAISIES). But even if FABLES turns out to be as great as it has the potential to be, I won't easily forget the anger I am feeling over PUSHING DAISIES. Even as FOX has developed (and then not cancelled) several new interesting shows, I still an angered over FIREFLY, WONDERFALLS, DARK ANGEL, as well as several other series.Canceling PUSHING DAISIES has almost overnight made me hate ABC more than I once did FOX. The ratings were not good and it was an expensive show to make, but it was one of the greatest glories in the history of television. It wasn't a show with universal appeal. Some people of good taste felt the pace was too intense (the only show ever made on TV with more words per minute was probably THE GILMORE GIRLS). Some didn't like the narrator (though Jim Dale's narration for me was one of the glories of the show). Some objected to the persistent fantastical tone, though for me it was one of the greatest TV fantasies ever. I delighted in the neverceasing wordplay, the show's love of the English language (the only two shows I know that evinced as much love of the language as PUSHING DAISIES were THE GILMORE GIRLS and BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER). And we had a group of characters I came to care about more and more. Although I'm a serious student of television and have an almost embarrassing shows that I follow, PUSHING DAISIES was different. I thought of Mondays as being only two days before the next PUSHING DAISIES. And when Wednesday came around I had this thrill of anticipation, not unlike a small kid looking forward to a birthday party. Something new and special was able to enter the landscape of my imagination.I'm not very worried about the future of the cast members. All of the performers have had success before and will again. Kristin Chenoweth has already landed one of the leads in a new David Kelly show dealing with (what else?) a law firm. Creator and executive producer Bryan Fuller has returned to HEROES, which NBC hopes he can breathe some life into the moribund and perhaps terminally ill series. Anna Friel has some movies in the can and will probably return to England where she'll find a string of projects to work on. Lee Pace will be in demand and Chi McBride is never going to be out of work for very long. Eileen Greene and Swoozie Kurtz will both find new jobs, either on TV or on the stage. But the extraordinary alchemy that resulted from their collaboration is gone. I know that ultimately TV is a bottom line business. But when a show is this extraordinary, doesn't any TV network have a moral responsibility to keep it alive.It would be nice if perhaps the federal government could help by providing tax breaks to each network for keeping a couple of ratings-challenged shows alive simply because they are too good to let die. Surely it isn't in the best interest of the American people or the human race to let a show like PUSHING DAISIES go away when it was producing television as good as we've ever seen in the history of the medium. DAISIES was not merely good TV; it was exemplary TV, stretching the possibilities of what you can do much as other series did like BUFFY, THE SOPRANOS, and BATTLESTAR GALACTICA, or as MAD MEN is right now. The only thing that benefits by this show going away is the ABC bottom line. But how to measure the intense bitterness that they have created? For PUSHING DAISIES was not a show that its fans took casually. It was appointment television, viewing around which fans designed their evening.Trying to look past my anger and my grief, I am profoundly grateful to Bryan Fuller and Barry Sonnenfeld (the latter was instrumental in not only directing several of the episodes, but creating the Shooting Bible that explained to other directors how to reproduce the unique PUSHING DAISIES look) for having created something so extraordinary. I'm delighted that we at least got 22 episodes that are among the most physically beautiful in the history of TV. While we did not get the conclusion of the stories, we did get a vivid introduction into their unique world. I've watched some episodes 7 or 8 times. I'm sure that I will watch both seasons again and again in the years to come.Bryan Fuller has pledged to continue the series in one way or another. He has hopes of a made for TV movie to bring the story to a close. If he is unable to make a movie, he has apparently been in talks with DC Comics to continue PUSHING DAISIES as a comic series. (Ever since Joss Whedon continued BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER by continuing Season 8 in a new form, other TV creators have followed form. Rob Thomas has hopes of continuing VERONICA MARS at some point when he isn't so busy creating multiple new shows. Rockne O'Bannon wrote a story for a new brief FARSCAPE comic series.) My hope is that by "DC" he really meant their highly distinguished imprint Vertigo, the most prestigious label in comics. I'm delighted that Bryan Fuller wants to keep faith with the show's fans and show us where he wanted to stories to go.And there is so much we want to know! Although some of this might be answered by the three unbroadcast episodes (which if ABC manages to get out of showing would certainly be contained in the DVD set), there are huge unanswered questions. First and foremost, will Chuck and Ned ever find a way to touch? Will Olive learn about Ned's secret gift and how will she respond? Will Lily and Vivian learn that Chuck is alive again? Will Emerson locate his long lost daughter (the wonderful Gina Torres was cast as Emerson's ex-wife, but I don't know if her episodes were ever filmed)? What was the secret of the three watches? What will happen with Chuck's dad? And what about Ned's Dad? And precisely where did Ned get his remarkable gift and what is its larger significance? A made for TV movie would answer some of these. But I hope that in addition to the movie Fuller will indeed create a comic. I want answers.But nothing is going to replace the huge loss the show creates. I am a huge collector of TV shows on DVD. I have a large and rich and very high quality collection. When I moved last August I arranged my TV DVD box sets on shelves, leaving room for future additions. Right between my box sets for THE PRISONER and SLINGS AND ARROWS I left a fair amount of empty space for what I was certain was going eventually be 4 or 5 or 6 seasons of PUSHING DAISIES. Now I'll need only a fraction of the space.

Bought as a gift, they liked it.

This is a show that doesn't look like it should work on paper. Ned (Lee Pace) is a pie maker who also happens to have a gift. With one touch, he can bring the dead back to life. But a second touch kills them forever. While he owns a pie restaurant that he runs with the help of Olive (Kristin Chenoweth), he moonlights helping private investigator Emerson Cod (Chi McBride) solve murders by interviewing the murder victims. In the first season, Ned kept one such victim alive. He just couldn't let childhood sweetheart Charlotte "Chuck" Charles (Anna Friel) stay dead. But she has to keep her life secret from Aunts Vivian and Lily (Ellen Green and Swoosie Kurtz).Yes, the set up takes a little bit to explain. But once you buy into the premise, it works. Every week, the crew takes on a new murder investigation in such locations as a circus or with magicians. Heck, they even get thee to a nunnery. They solve the murder of a modern day Robin Hood. And there's a synchronized swimmer killed by a shark.But each week also involves ongoing stories about the character's lives. As the season opens, Olive knows a secret about Chuck's mother. As things progress, Emerson hunts for his missing daughter, Ned finds some long lost relatives, and Chuck and Olive become roommates.All this leaves out my all time favorite episode of the show. "The Legend of Merle McQuoddy" makes so many references and jokes to the Disney film Pete's Dragon a fan of that movie must watch it. Adding to the fun, Jim Dale, one of the stars of that movie, is the narrator of this series.Honestly, I can't rave about this show enough. It is whimsical and fun. Each week's mystery plays perfectly into the on going storylines. The acting is perfect. The dialogue is fast and clever, leaving you hanging on every word. And it looks amazing. This show was made for HD. Trust me, this is the way to watch it.Unfortunately, the ratings for the show were poor, so the 13 episodes here represent the final episodes of the show. Because of how the show was canceled, the producers weren't given enough time to wrap everything up. Having said that, the final episode has a nice coda that left me very satisfied. Now, if only I knew how some of the dangling plots played out.If you missed this show, correct that now. Get both this and the first season. Before you know it, you'll be hooked on this quirky, intelligent, and fun show.

The welcome return to a world of fantasy, everything delightfully over the top. Private Investigator Emerson Cod has every reason to be grateful to Ned the pie maker. He can raise people from the dead. Corpses tell exactly how they met their end, cases thus solved most lucratively.There are drawbacks. If those revived live for more than a minute, it means instant death for someone close by. If those selected for long term survival are touched by Ned again, they are at once dead for ever. Chuck, Ned's girlfriend since childhood, lives on thanks to him - the two, deeply in love, thus fated to be untouchables.The series remains as weird as can be - Ned, Chuck and Emerson all with family secrets that need resolving. Meanwhile thirteen episodes abound with bizarre killings, some extremely amusing. Diminutive waitress Olive adds to the fun, especially when in a nunnery. Enjoy, too, those flashbacks of the four when very young - wittily indicating how they now came to be. Jim Dale narrates, his timing precise - this appropriate in a show where an extra second can make such a difference.Everything is just great: scripts, performances, the look of it all, mischievous music, awesome special effects. Creators and cast are clearly having a ball, ensuring most viewers will do so too.Almost thirty minutes of "Extra Helpings" interestingly explain how various stunts were achieved.No Season 3, alas. At least everything here ends on a high, key storylines receiving closure of sorts.A big thank you to all responsible for one of television's most refreshingly different shows!

Then first season was a joyously coloured, silly romantic comedy, with an array of murders. This season carries on where season 1 left off. The crimes are a range of ludicrous, sinister and clowny, the team carries on where the last season left off with the variety of they should just tell each other the truths hanging over the relationships. It's an utter delight, don't try to make the crimes make sense, they're just the backdrop for the family relationships to play out in front of. It still looks like something and early Tim Burton would have made and it's still a delight. The ridiculous thing is that it ends here. There was still some room for another season, to round out the series properly, unfortunately that won't happen, which is a great, great pity.

...let us sit upon the groundAnd tell sad stories of the death of shows;How some have been erased; some slain in rating wars,Some haunted by the ghosts they have deposed;Some poison'd by producers: some sleeping kill'd;All murder'd...There are many ways to tell an eloquent tale of that faithful companion of life. Shakespeare did it, as well as a host of poets, writers and other artists. But no network executives. They can't write, but they do have the powers to cancel. They should never be allowed to be revived, not even for one minute, but this will only be made clear to you if you take the delightful trouble to visit the realms of a pie-maker and his troupe.What Bryan Fuller and this amazing troupe of cast & crew has accomplished is an absolute joy. Yes, it may look like a fairytale, but for once the almost disneyfied sets and props succeed where not many dared to go (Fuller has also been in the thick of Star Trek scriptwriting). This is no science fiction show, but a beautiful story, and as with many a Hans Anderson tale, it is bittersweet indeed. The 22 episodes do not only let you smile, or outright laugh, but it also shows you that death becomes us all, and that it should be accepted without too much regret.The whole thing does remind you of "Rashomon" - a story told from many points of view - and the continuity is amazing, talked together by the redoubtable Jim Dale. This superior pie-making does also remind you of "The 10th Kingdom", or "Wonderfalls", another one of Fuller's gems, also cut short, or "Dead Like Me", yet again originated by Fuller and, o my, axed as well. Do we detect a pattern here?While the cast is wonderful, special kudos must go to the petite Kristin Chenoweth, who also lighted the Leo character in "The West Wing", and won a deserved Emmy for her role in "Pushing Daisies", reminding us that she is also a very accomplished opera singer, an unsusual but delightful combination of talents, and it shows, with the glorious over-the -top parafrase of "The Sound of Music" in the "Bad Habits" episode. The whole show, by the way, is brimming with a fantastic number of references to a slew of great movies, and so does the music.Buy this set and enjoy this great fantasy of almost 17 hours of life, death and mayhem. Your only regret will be that the only way to revive this experience is to watch the series again. And you will do that, I guarantee you. Only network executives will stay dead.

I was a fan of this magical, eccentric series when it was first shown on TV and am so glad it has been released on DVD. This particular set of discs is very good value for money. It is obviously recorded by the studio as shown by the quality of the sound and vision. Very pleased with it. I already have Season 1, which of course is just as good. I just wish that there had been a Season 3, which would have rounded off some of the stories. Instead of which, the series was sadly cancelled. Evidently it was too eccentric for US tastes.

This first class 'fantastical' series was definitely cancelled too soon! Lee Pace, Anna Friel, Chi McBride and the cast made all the characters superb. The quirky, fast paced scripts just divine. You'd think a story about a 'pie man' bringing people back from the dead would be ghastly and uninteresting- but no it wasn't. The way this was interwoven into the 'who dunnit' stories each episode was outstandingly refreshing. Kristen Chenoweth as the lovely Olive has a singing voice to die for. The only downside was not extending the series. Oh and hankering after fruit pie afterwards!