"Pushing Daisies" Season Premier

[Robert Taylor]

Posted: 10/1/08 at 11:57pm

Because of its Broadway veterans, I'm posting it on the Broadway forums.

After one looong strike-induced break after and one almost-as-long recap to kick off its second season premier, “Pushing Daisies” has returned still in full bloom. The lengthy break has done nothing to dim this show’s spirit, creativity or individuality.

And what better way to return to a show with a flower in its title than to feature a bee-themed episode? The show kicked off with our beloved Chuck (Anna Friel, robbed of her rightful Emmy nomination this year) dumping dead bees over a nearly naked Ned. Kinky? No, Chuck just needed to bring her beloved hive back to life after some sort of bee poison had wiped it out.

Then, before you know it, the gang is investigating a bee-themed mystery. Coincidence! The facts were these: my much-loved Autumn Reeser (“the o.c.” fans represent!) guest-starred as a much-stung (in more ways than one) corpse who was involved in honey mergers and drones in plastic cases. At some point Chuck became an unwitting target, but because of her history as a bee keeper, she turned into the bee version of last season’s “Corpsicle,” but not as dead.

As much fun as the investigation of the week was (and in any other episode, it would have been excellent), the real star of the show was the sudden boiling of several long-gestating subplots—well, as long-gestating as nine episodes can possibly be.

Let’s begin with the Darling Mermaid Darlings, shall we? It was great to see Vivian and Lily finally (finally!) take the plunge (pardon the swimming metaphor) and leave their house. It turns out after Lily spilled the secret that she was Chuck’s mother to Olive (the Emmy-robbed Kristen Chenoweth), our favorite short stack stopped delivering hallucinogenic pies to the sisters. Vivian was honestly hurt her supposed friend suddenly abandoning her, and boarded a bus to track Olive down.

The confrontation between the sisters, Ned, Olive and Chuck (who was hidden under Emerson’s coat) that resulted in the Pie Hole was one of the best moments of the series so far, with Olive mounting a chair and almost spilling all the secrets that have been unwittedly stuffed into her brain. Ultimately, Olive decided to quit the Pie-Hole and become some sort of temporary nun instead of dishing the dirt along with lemon meringue.

Did anyone else catch Diana Scarwid, who played the mother in the much-missed “Wonderfalls” (also created by “Daisies” showrunner Bryan Fuller) as Mother Superior at the convent? The nunnery, set atop a cliff with many hills surrounding, gave the show ample opportunity to send up “The Sound of Music” with Olive twisting and singing, only to be frowned upon by her sister nuns.

Eventually Lily tracked Olive down to ensure that Olive would keep her own pie hole shut, and realized Olive was not responding well to the nunnery’s all-church-all-the-time mantra. Their confrontation resulted not only in the revelation that Lily was boinking Vivian’s betrothed, but also the best line of the night, courtesy of Olive: “All this praying—I’m having awkward silences with God!”

Elsewhere in Cur du Cur, Chuck and Ned were going through growing pains, specifically that Chuck wanted to grow out of Ned’s apartment and into Olive’s vacant one. Ned, always the adorable worrier/brooder, worried that Chuck wanted space from their relationship and brooded that he wasn’t doing enough to keep her interested, especially when Chuck took an undercover job as a bee girl.

Of course, Ned got it together and realized that Chuck just needed space to breathe and not be in constant worry of grazing Ned in his small apartment and find herself pushing daisies once more. In one of his grand romantic gestures, he procured all of Chuck’s belongings from Vivian and stuffed Olive’s apartment full of them. On a scale of Ned’s Grand Romantic Gestures, with one being the glove and plastic wall in his car and ten being bringing Chuck back to life, this was about a seven. Say it with me: Awwww…

While all this plot development was going on, Emerson had little to do except create his pretty pop-up book (can I buy one now? Please?) and twiddle his thumbs. But by the end of the episode, the narrator was none-too-subtly hinting that Emerson lost a daughter and desperately wanted her back. I’m looking forward to the reunion, if only to see Emerson’s maternal side emerge.

What do you think? Was it great to see Diana Scarwid stop by “Pushing Daisies,” and what other “Wonderfalls” vets would you like to see in Cur du cur. Where is Emerson’s daughter, and how old is she? And would you buy that pop up book?

[SporkGoddess]

Posted: 10/2/08 at 9:15am

I have to read a synopsis because I watched it but still don't quite get what happened with Betty Bee, Kentucky, and the guy French Stewart played whose name I can't spell.

And, it was a fantastic episode, as usual. Yes, I would buy that book!

[Steve2]

Posted: 10/2/08 at 9:17am

"I have to read a synopsis because I watched it but still don't quite get what happened with Betty Bee, Kentucky, and the guy French Stewart played whose name I can't spell."

I had the exact same problem and I am reasonably intelligent.

[Jon]

Posted: 10/2/08 at 11:28am

And speakingof spelling,it's "Coeur de Coeur" (French for "Heart of Heart".)

"Cur de Cur" would be "dog of dog" in some language,I suppose.

[wickedfan]

Posted: 10/2/08 at 11:47am

French Stewart purchased Betty's Bees, making the products of a lesser quality (by putting in less honey). He made Kentucky the mascot of Betty's Bees because he was in love with her and wanted her to love him, too. He realized though that Kentucky and Betty were poisoning the bees because they didn't like the direction that French Stewart was going with the company and the products. They probably did it so that Betty's Bees would shut down and then they could start a new company. Stewart discovered this and killed Kentucky. Weird, but that's it in a nutshell.

[Chrysanthemum62001]

Posted: 10/2/08 at 11:54am

onTHAT'S who the nun was! I had just watched a few episodes of Wonderfalls and it was driving me crazy cause I couldn't place her.

Wonderfalls was such a fun show, too. I hate it got cancelled so early on.

[jpbran]

Posted: 10/2/08 at 12:46pm

Um, I think Scarwid is actually most known for playing Christina in Mommie Dearest...

(And that synopsis was amusing, but reads waaaay too much like a breathless,fawning press release. Sorry... I'm a HUGE P.D. fan, and this recap makes it sound more "cutesy" than "whimsical.")

[winter_sky]

Posted: 10/2/08 at 1:07pm

jpbran, i only perused but did the OP's post say that she was most well known from Wonderfalls? The reason it is notable that she was on Wonderfalls is because it's by the same creator and she played Lee Pace's mother on the series.

[pli1018]

Posted: 10/2/08 at 2:09pm

Diana Scarwid also had a one episode cameo on LOST season 3 as Isabel, an Other.

[susanlynn]

Posted: 10/2/08 at 2:13pm

I love this show and can't wait for it to start..

[BrodyFosse123]

Posted: 10/4/08 at 11:23am

I'm sure I'm not the only one who felt this but the entire sequence of Olive (Chenoweth) at the abbey and her dialogue and scenes with Mother Superior (Diana Scarwid) oozed of her Glinda and Madame Morrible from WICKED.

I can clearly see La Chenoweth recreating her Glinda for the film-version of WICKED when that finally comes to be. Hopefully it happens soon before she starts showing her age.

Here's La Chenoweth recreating the opening shot from the 1965 film-version of THE SOUND OF MUSIC: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CiJhKfGKwFI&feature=related

[Chrysanthemum62001]

Posted: 10/4/08 at 1:07pm

Oh I can't wait till next weeks episode. And the "Dim Sum, Loose Sum" episode looks HYSTERICAL. Well...what I mean to say is Chi McBride and Lee Pace look rediculous!

[Weez]

Posted: 10/4/08 at 1:36pm

jpbran - perhaps it's not that far off the mark then. I really enjoyed the first season of 'Pushing Daisies', despite many people claiming it was too whimsical, but I just didn't click with this episode at all. Maybe that's because it's overstepped from just-this-side of whimsical and it has become too whimsical, or cutesy, or whatever you want to call it.

Or perhaps it's as simple as my brain TOTALLY not being in the right place for bright colours, romance, whimsy, and a fairytale-style narration. I can't tell.

I'm going to give it some more episodes before I start complaining, but I do not consider 'Pushing Daisies' to have had a strong start to season 2.

[BrodyFosse123]

Posted: 10/4/08 at 2:13pm

I have to agree with Weez on this one. I found myself fazing in and out mentally during portions of the episode. I guess since it was the 2nd season opener, it felt like they were covering elements from 1st season for those who never saw it. How many times do we need a montage of how things came to be (Ned; The Pie Hole; Charlie, the aunts, the dog, Olive, etc.)? In all fairness... everyone who saw the 1st season KNOWS all this already. Those who didn't watch it can easily rent the Complete Season 1 on DVD to catch-up, seriously.

THE OFFICE nor any other television show repeatedly montages things that happened in earlier episodes.

This element about the series somewhat annoyed me when they did it in the first season. Its starting to turn me off from what was one of my favorite television shows last season.

[Weez]

Posted: 10/4/08 at 3:10pm

Well, 'Oz' constantly flashbacks to scenes that happened, like, one episode before. It works in the context though; they manage to squeeze so much into every hour that's it's perfectly feasible you may need a reminder of the events of last week. XD

I didn't really mind having so much recap in this episode; they do similar excessive recapping at the top of each 'Harry Potter' book, which gets repetitive when you're reading them all one after the other, but as long as they, like, TONE IT THE HECK DOWN in future episodes, it doesn't matter.

But yes with the mental fazing! Good lord... XP

[ray-andallthatjazz86]

Posted: 10/4/08 at 3:42pm

The main reason they had to do that montage at the beginning of the episode was because ABC told Bryan Fuller that they were not giving the show a "previously on" segment, so he felt he needed to write that montage into the episode in order to help newcomers catch up. I mean, the show has been off the air for so long.
I kinda liked the episode but I have to agree that it tried a bit too hard to be whimsical. Lee Pace's overt cuteness kinda annoyed me in that episode... I think the women steal the show in PUSHING DAISIES. Anna Friel is wonderful and must have one of the most beautiful faces on TV, Kristin Chenoweth stole every scene she was in, and Swoozie Kurtz and Ellen Greene are fantastic (and I love their costumes).
I do have one question that I hope gets resolved at some point. Who does Vivian think Chuck's mother is? Was there a third sister? And if so, did Vivian steal Chuck's father away from her? I'm a bit confused regarding that plot.

[CockeyedOptimist]

Posted: 10/5/08 at 1:17am

I was also a little frustrated with the beginning recap of the past season--I understand going over the basics since they're trying to build an audience, but it went too long in my opinion. And I'm glad to hear I wasn't the only one completely confused by what exactly went down at Betty's Bees! I thought I was missing something or had severely overestimated my ability to...watch TV? haha

Who else desperately wants to see Raul back as Alfredo?

[Chrysanthemum62001]

Posted: 10/5/08 at 1:30am

I DESPERATELY want to see Raul back as Alfredo. Hopefully it'll happen. His speech about loving someone if he couldn't touch them was beautiful!

[BrodyFosse123]

Posted: 10/5/08 at 9:07am

A recap of the previous season is definitely justifiable for the first episode of Season 2, but this recap montage of the entire 'how things came to be' was on literally EVERY episode last season. It started annoying me when each 'new' episode last season devoted several minutes EXPLAINING to us how Ned got to be, etc. If you rewatch last season, you'll see what I'm talking about. How many times do we need to see Ned's mom baking the pies, dying, Ned touching her, bringing her back to life, mom staying 'alive' for more than 1 minute, Charlie's father dying due to this, Ned's mom kissing him to sleep thus dying again, Ned's dog getting hit by the semi-truck, Ned bringing him back to life, Charlie getting murdered on the Tahiti cruise, Ned bringing her back to life, etc., etc. etc. They literally did this on every episode last season.

I hope they don't repeat this 'how things came to be' montage on every other episode this season. A 'previously on PUSHING DAISIES' montage is one thing. Showing us 'how things came to be' is another.