RON TOM / ABC
OK, I can tell this improbable petit-four of a show is going to walk that fine line between winning my heart every week and annoying the crap out of me. For instance, the lime-green Dandy Lion SX. Pro: A car that runs on dandelions! That’s too cute! Con: A car that runs on dandelions. No, seriously–that is too cute.
I kid Pushing Daisies, but this was a better second episode than I expected, even if its Seuss-for-grownups vibe will require me to find it in my two-sizes-too-small heart to repress my natural snark reflex. First, there was some development from the pilot. Like The CW’s Reaper, Pushing Daisies is shaping up to be a procedural, albeit a weird one, but at least we did learn something further about the characters this go-round. Emerson knits and went to art school! Chuck hates secrets and speaks languages! A refrigerator is a “cheesebox”!
The production values and art direction weren’t quite as stunning as in the pilot. But with the exception of the first scene, of Young Ned standing under the tree at boarding school–which looked like it was shot at the Sears Portrait Studio–they were good enough, which is to say, any sparing of expense wasn’t noticable enough to be distracting. Although, gauging by the trade press reports, this episode would have been made before Warner Bros. seriously started closing the money spigot and reining in Barry Sonnenfeld.
More important, the writing stayed at the same scintillating level–my notes are mainly one arresting turn of phrase or oddly moving quote after another. “We’re from the government safety place.” “The fun part is counting my money in the bubble bath.” And: “Olive Snook definitely did not want the truth. But her heart was so full, it reached up and pulled her head.” That last one reached down and poked my heart. (That said, still not sure where Olive fits in the story, though her Hopelessly Devoted to You number was inspired–you’ve cast Kristin Chenoweth, so waste not, want not.)
[Update: this essay, referred via new fan site The Piemaker, reminds me of something I meant to ask: Is anyone else distracted by the possibility that Ned might, um, kill Chuck at any second? “We know damn well the characters won’t actually touch, because the female lead would die and the show would be over, but we’re still watching for it. Instead of listening to the sometimes-witty dialogue or following the clever plot or admiring the solid acting or falling in love with the characters, we are nervously wondering if… maybe… this… time… they… might… actually… Phew! Scene over. She’s still alive.”]
But plot, character, writing, even–are any of them really the main point of this show? What struck me about this episode is how much of the story seemed to grow from the concept of individual, cool images: an evil crash-test dummy; a model dressed up like a dandelion, walking against the rotation of a car platform to surreptitiously eat pie; a singing woman and floor waxer moving against a green checkered floor.
Two episodes in, there’s an art-for-art’s sake element to this show that’s unusual for TV and may make Pushing Daisies worth it in itself. A lot of people (myself included) have compared it with Tim Burton, but maybe the better comparison is to the movies of Wes Anderson. Like Anderson’s films, this show may be less about any story than about the creation of a private world, the display of gorgeous esoteric jewels, the evocation of emotion through image.
I don’t know if I’ll do a weekly Watch on Pushing Daisies, because I could see this becoming like reviewing a sitcom every week: Wasn’t this line great! And wasn’t that line great! And didn’t they find a clever latex-y thingy for Chuck and Ned to kiss through this time! But we’ll see where it goes. Some people will consider Pushing Daisies priceless and others precious, but for now I want to keep seeing what it wants to show me.