PUSHING DAISIES let me count the ways in which I love you. The writing, the acting, the narration, the set design, the cinematography, the camp, the relationship, and more. Last week America fell in love with Ned The Pie Maker and a Girl Named Chuck, much like I had months earlier. This week, my love affair deepened and I found myself aching for more drama, more Ned and Chuck, more Olive, more Emerson, more angst, and just more Pushing Daisies.

The show opened with young Ned arriving at boarding school, Longburrow School for Boys in the town of North Rush. He said goodbye to his Father for the last time and embarked on a painful existence as a different boy unable to fit in. His gift of being able to touch dead things and bring them back to life proved difficult for young Ned in science class. Vivisection was not the easiest task when you’ve touch each dead frog, reanimating them and allowing them to run free. In the frog’s wake, a whole trees worth of birds died… dems the rules!

One of my favorite artistic aspects to Pushing Daisies is the fantastical storybook like world they’ve created for Ned’s backstory. The castle like school in which young Ned attends looked more like a pop-up book creation than a real school and in this case, it so works.

I also hearted how young Ned morphed into a smiling adult sized Ned who’s now happily sleeping in the same room with his childhood sweetheart Charlotte Charles. Lee Pace, I just want to kiss that damn face of yours… too cute. Again, the chemistry between Ned and Chuck/Lee and Anna is sickening. It’s so dead on, hopeful and romantic that it makes me want to vomit… in a good way! Did you notice how Lee’s eyes were all wet while he stared at her in the bed next to him? Simply breathtaking performances.

I laughed out loud with their directional warnings while in the same room. Calling out their next move to ensure no touching occurs was a nice touch, and so perfect for their quirky characters. Making dinner turns into a real chore when you can’t touch or even bump into the other person. There was so much dialogue in that kitchen scene that I think I might need to watch it a good 3 more times to really grasp all that was said. I remember Chuck calling Ned out for his eye twitching which as we all know means he was lying. In this case he was lying about not having a secret or not wanting to get to know more about her. I was dying that Chuck only knew of a fridge as a “Cheesebox” because of the Aunts obsession with fine cheeses.

Kristin Chenoweth hanging out her window with some makeshift mirror, spying on the two reunited lovebirds next door had me rolling. Slamming into the side of the building was expected but exactly what I wanted out of that moment. She’s a wonderful comedic actress and her timing is impeccable.

Emerson Cod’s little tidbit of backstory was to die for. I couldn’t believe that he knits in his spare time and that he made a sweater vest and two handgun cozies… such a fun character detail and a development that would prove helpful later in the episode.

The Coroner was back with his “um-hum”s and blank stare again. I hope they bother him each week and with different identities because I find it not only hilarious but down right essential. This week the case involved a dead auto worker named Bernard Sleighbeck who was supposedly run over. Yeah, his 60 second confession said otherwise, well when he had the chance to speak with Chuck all up in his last comments business. With only a second to spare, Bernard mentioned that a crash test dummy killed him. Funny yet surprisingly creepy.

After the coroners office, it was back to The Pie Hole where once again Olive got to get all extistential on Emerson’s ass and he once again was not having it! I love that she has a philosophy on pie, that they’re not just any multi-national pie corporation like Pies R Us, Pies City, or 1000 Pies in 1 Place. She prides herself on their product and her enjoyment of them. It’s a wonderful character trait for our lonely and sad Olive Snook. Could Emerson be more of a douche? He’s so mad about Chuck.

Raise your hand if you were so excited to see Professor Landry from Veronica Mars. Now raise your hands if you’re surprised he once again was a smarmy nincompoop? Why do I find Patrick Fabian so damn sexy though? God I love that man. Put me in a eco-car set to explode anyday sir! *anyhoooooo*

The whole Dandy Lion place was completely surreal and straight out of a scene from Tommy or something. It was crazy in there. Prof. Landry knew Japanese and was crazy animated. Chuck knew Japanese which blew my mind and Ned’s because he just stared at her with a curious awe. Say what you want Ned but you want to know everything about this girl, don’t play the fool. We met Jeanine (Bernard’s lover) who’s a bulimic nutcase who when given Pie, can’t control herself or her emotions. The shot of Jeanine crouched behind the Eco-car in her Dandy Lion outfit scarfing down that whole pie while sobbing and trying to move against the circular motion of the podium was both hysterical and heartbreaking. A great, scratch that, amazing visual.

When Ned and Chuck found all of the Dummies on the racks and they did their Dandylion Pom-Pom dap, my heart fluttered. Modernizing the dap once again… Bryan Fuller you amaze me.

Now let’s talk about what will probably be the turning point in the series for many people…

THE CHENOWETH MUSICAL NUMBER

Watch Kristin Chenoweth Sing “Hopelessly Devoted To You”

While I thought it was wickedly funny and emotional, bordering on near perfection with it’s Ethel Merman style aerial sychronized dancing between Olive, Dibgy, and Manuel the Floor Polisher it may also be the moment that killed the show for a lot of non-gay, non-Grease loving, non-Chenoweth devotees.

Taking myself out of those 3 categories I can say that it may have gone a little too long but it only got better as it went on. Chenoweth got more into character and her comedic timing in that scene was genius! Digby joining in and singing along made me howl with him and then they reigned it in for the final heart clinching moment where Digby started licking Olive’s face.

Narrator: “While Olive considered how much she loved Digby for paying attention to her when The Pie Maker would not, Digby considered how much he liked salt.”

GENIUS! It makes me happy dance that Digby is such a big part of the show. Olive and Digby really are the other couple! Soulmates who use each other for the lost affections of Ned The Pie Maker.

Back at The Dandy Lion, Emerson, Chuck and Ned walk back into the Dummy room to find that they’ve all been replaced with real dead bodies. Dead bodies that will talk once Ned touches them. There’s not much notable here other than to say that the visual was Jeepers Creepers and the joint Dead Girl/Emerson scream was priceless!

Back at The Pie Hole, the gang questions Jeanine who turns into a raving lunatic when Emerson won’t give her the rest of his pie and I heart that he won’t give it to her out of premise. She’s a bulimic and he loves his damn pie!

Right about here is when Pushing Daisies hit me with my favorite quote of the night:

Chuck (to Ned): “You love secrets, you want to marry secrets and have little half secret, half human babies…”

Heart… and seriously who doesn’t want to have half any kind of babies with Lee Pace. Come on now!

Quickly, the mystery went something like this. While Ned, Chuck and Emerson followed Jeanine in her eco-car, it exploded. It didn’t kill her but it did eventually put the 3 in jeopardy. Ned, Chuck, and Emerson wrapped in big clear body bags strapped into the eco-car ready to take a quick trip towards a brick wall. Prof. Landry’s in a Dummy outfit with the Dummy head and it’s kinda freaky to look at.

Thinking they’re all dying, Ned and Chuck say yet another goodbye and tearfully lean in for a kiss. With the thick body bags between them, their lips meet, I melt, and the world falls in love with Ned and Chuck all over again! Meanwhile in the backseat, Emerson pulls out a knitting needle (knowing he doesn’t like to knit in public was a welcomed expositional tidbit courtesy of our trusty Narrator) and rips his bag open, pushes Ned and Chuck’s heads apart, unzips their bags and they take off in that little Dandy Lion eco-car… Prof. Landry, the President of the eco-company goes all hot pursuit in a very non-eco-friendly Hummer and I laugh laugh laugh.

Oh, I almost forgot my other favorite part of this scene. Prof. Landry in psycho-Dummy outfit takes that huge metal hook and scratches it down the glass of the eco-car while makes Ned squirm with the willies like a little girl and it make me almost wet myself. I think I rewound that part a couple times. Hysterical! It reminded me of Shawn and Gus screaming like little girls all the time on Psych! Heart…

Back to the chase. It’s green spaceship looking eco-car vs. Hummer and after a couple ramming sessions (dirty sounding), Ned gets that car into high gear and whoops, at 70mph the car will trigger it’s defect and explode. Lucky for them some off-roading slows them down enough to not run over Olive who’s out walking Digby in front of The Pie Hole.

Everyone’s safe and sound, Olive’s pleased to see Ned and to be of service and Prof. Landry’s been pulled over by the police. Case solved, Emerson can put his money into his crocheted socks and all is well in the world… until next week.

Wow, that was a lot of writing. There was just so much awesome in the episode that it was a mental meltdown by the end of the hour. Visual stimulation overload, incredible dialogue, great backstory on both Ned and Chuck, some wonderful Narration, fun quirky whodunit, and a musical interlude… what wasn’t to love. Seriously…

What did you guys think? Fingers crossed that the ratings come in and there’s not a huge drop off from last week. Don’t forget to head on over to ThePieMaker.com to chat about Pushing Daisies in our forums and to get the latest and greatest scoop on Ned and Chuck.

This entry was posted on Thursday, October 11th, 2007 at 4:17 am and is filed under ABC, Anna Friel, Bryan Fuller, Chi McBride, Ducky Does TV, Lee Pace, Pushing Daisies. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.