DVD Review: Pushing Daisies: The Complete First Season

TV Show Info:
Creator: Bryan Fuller
Cast: Lee Pace, Anna Friel, Chi McBride, Jim Dale, Ellen Greene, Swoosie Kurtz, Kristin Chenoweth, Field Cate, Sy Richardson, Sammi Hanratty
Rating: Not Rated
Studio: Warner Home Video

Release Info:
Original Air Dates: October 3, 2007-Present
Season Air Dates: October 3, 2007-December 12, 2007
DVD Box Set Release Date: September 16, 2008
Online Availability: Amazon for $18.99
Episodes: All 9 episodes from Season One of Pushing Daisies

I’m not always a comedy fan, but I love anything quirky or unusual. I found the advertisements for Pushing Daisies to be irresistible. I just had to watch this show, and that’s exactly what I did, from the moment it first aired on ABC on October 3, 2007. While I found the show to be extremely excellent, I just didn’t have time to continue watching it. I knew I’d be getting the DVD, eventually, for review, so I pushed the series from my mind.

Now, I simply cannot miss season two of Pushing Daisies. Now that I’ve seen the entire first season, I’m so enamored with the series. I love the characters, the storylines, the song and dance numbers (a la Olive Snook), and just about everything else concerning this show. Seriously, tell me one thing that’s bad about Pushing Daisies. It won’t matter. I’ll call you a liar. The indisputable truth is that Pushing Daisies is the most innovative and original show on television currently.

I’m not exactly sure what it is about this show that makes it so appealing. It might be the script or the perfectly cast actors including Lee Pace, Anna Friel, Ellen Greene (who it’s nice to see is back on the radar publicly) and Kristin Chenoweth. It might be the unusual nature of the story, the romantically, fairytale, epic-ish score or perhaps it’s the whole package. Whatever it is, Pushing Daisies has most certainly made a major impression in my life, as well as the lives of others I’ve spoken to who seem to also like the show.

A show can’t be bad if it was nominated for 12 Emmys can it? I am sure stranger things have happened, but for once, I truly feel Pushing Daisies deserves all the recognition it is getting. It’s hard to explain this unusual show. I just know I like it and that I don’t want to miss any other episodes.

The Pushing Daisies: The Complete First Season Plot
There are only nine episodes in the Pushing Daisies: The Complete First Season Three-Disc Box Set. These episodes were supposed to be the first nine of a much longer (I think 22? episodes) first season. Then the writer’s strike happened and Pushing Daisies was one of the casualties. It’s ninth episode ended up being the season finale. For not being a true finale, it was actually pretty good.

Here is a list of the nine episodes included in this set. The episodes include a brief description.

“Pie-lette” – As you might notice from the name, this is the pilot episode. In it, we learn about Ned (Field Cate), a nine year old boy who learns he has an unusual gift. He can bring people back from the dead. When his mother suddenly dies, he brings her back, only to realize there is a price to pay. If she stays alive for one full minute, then someone else in the vicinity will die. This is something that Ned learns the hard way.

When his mom is alive for more than a minute, the next door neighbor girl’s dad, dies suddenly. This girl, Charlotte “Chuck” Charles (Sammi Hanratty), is Ned’s crush and his first kiss. He soon realizes something else. His touch (a second time) will cause the dead person to die forever. When his mother kisses him goodnight, she dies suddenly. Chuck is sent to live with her former performing, now reclusive and weird Aunts, Lily (Swoosie Kurtz) and Vivian (Ellen Greene). Ned is sent to a boys boarding school by his dad.

When we find Ned (Lee Pace), now nearly 30 years of age, he is a pie maker. He has discovered his power has bad side effects so he doesn’t touch anyone. This is much to the chagrin of his pie shop, The Pie Hole’s employee, Olive Snook (Kristin Chenoweth), who wants to be touched by him. He also works with a private investigator, Emerson Cod (Chi McBride), making money by solving murders. He wakes the dead people up, they say who killed them, Emerson solves the crime and they split the reward.

When Ned has to return to his hometown, several neighborhoods from where he is living, he realizes he is working on solving the death of Chuck. However, he is unable to make her dead again, causing a ripple effect for all the characters on the show!

“Dummy” – Chuck wants to help solve murders, so she’s pretty much a third partner. The team investigates a death by a man who actually claims he was killed by a crash test dummy. When Chuck asks if he has any last words, the man asks her to tell a woman he loved how sorry he was he never told her that. This leads them to a car manufacturer. The shady manufacturer does plenty of testing with crash test dummies, his lady love is a model for the company, and something isn’t right with their latest car release. It’s up to the three of them to solve the murder while they still can.

“The Fun in Funeral” – Emerson is on the case of the man Ned inadvertently killed when he kept Chuck alive. Emerson thinks there is something in it for him that will bring him beaucoup bucks, which is why he pursues the case, despite knowing that Ned killed the man unintentionally. When Chuck finds out about the death of the funeral director she’s quite upset though she gets over it after learning what a creep the guy is. Make sure to check out the Asian southerner. He’s priceless! Also, Olive finds out something about Chuck, which makes her realize Chuck isn’t a very good person (so she thinks).

“Pigeon” – While Emerson, Chuck and Ned are originally supposed to investigate whether a pilot committed suicide or was murdered, the investigation takes them to the sole survivor of the incident (the plane crashed into an apartment building). This leads them on the hunt for stolen jewelry and trust me when I say they get more than they bargained for in the first place. In the meantime, Olive bonds with the Aunts when she takes a hurt messenger pigeon to their home.

“Girth” – It’s Halloween and the ghosts are all out and about. We find out about Olive’s past as a former jockey. At the races where Olive used to jockey, Emerson and Olive try to find out about a ghost that is killing jockeys. It is up to to Ned, his gift, and Chuck to help find out what the ghost is doing and how these jockeys are dying in the first place!

“Bitches” – Joe McHale (from The Soup) guest stars as a polygamist who is murdered. When Ned wakes him from the dead, he doesn’t know this so, he thinks it’ll be open and shut when the man says his wife gave him a cup of coffee right before he died. While it’s clear he’s been poisoned, what isn’t immediately clear is that the man actually has four wives, any of whom could have poisoned him!

“Smell of Success” – Nobody ever said smells could kill. That’s exactly what happened to Anita Gray, who was known for her exceptional scent abilities. Gray just happened to die when her scratch and sniff exploded. It may sound weird, but that’s what happened. Paul Reubens guest stars as an olfactory expert.

“Bitter Sweets” – Things get crazy when a man is strangled. It looks like a woman did it, but he claims Burly Bruce Carter was channeled through the hands of his sex doll (a RealDoll who he claims is his girlfriend). As Olive continues her non-existent love affair with the pie maker, Alfredo is trying to become romantic with her. Of course, all this seems inconsequential when business at the Pie Hole drops off due to a new candy store opening nearby. This episode has Molly Shannon as a guest star.

“Corpsicle” – In the season finale, Olive learns a major secret about Lily when she accidentally puts too much anti-depressants into the pie Lily eats. Chuck is devastated to learn about Ned and her dad. As a result, she refuses to go back to his apartment. The olfactory expert, Oscar Vibenius, returns because he notices a peculiar smell coming from Chuck and Digby.

Storyline/Plot:
Replayability:
Acting:
Directing:

Audio/Visual:
All of the first season episodes for Pushing Daisies are presented at a 1.78, anamorphic widescreen ratio. This show is beautiful. The transfer is beautiful. The colors are vibrant and gorgeous. The contrast is sharp, yet you seem to remain almost in a dreamlike state while watching episode after episode of this show. Bryan Fuller and the rest of the folks behind Pushing Daisies wanted to allow the audience to experience the show not just aurally, but also visually. All the senses need to be stimulated, or at least as many as possible. Free from a single visible, visual error, Pushing Daisies does just that.

The audio for Pushing Daisies is exceptional. A Dolby Digital 5.1 surround track presented in English is the audio highlight of this box set. The sound comes through clearly with no exceptions. Volume toggling was unnecessary. The musical score made great use of the speakers, as the sound swelled. This dynamic show is perfect for this highly mystical yet engaging series. There is a Portuguese Dolby Digital 2.0 stereo track. Closed Captioning and subtitles are available n English.

Visual:
Audio:

Bonus Features:
Spread out across nine “pie-slices” are episodes with a total of 18 different, short featurettes. The entire bonus section is called “Pie Time – Time for Pie”. Amongst the pie slices are seven mini-commentaries. These are with Lee Pace and Bryan Fuller. There is a feature on the visual design of the show. The cast reveals various tidbits and some spoilers about the first season of Pushing Daisies. There are plenty of other secrets with the crew coming in to dish on the show, too.

While this selection of bonuses is actually quite fun to watch, getting to watch them is the hardest part. The setup for the menu isn’t exactly easy to navigate so some fans might give up if they don’t have long attention spans.

Bonus Features:

Bottom Line:
I cannot say enough good things about Pushing Daisies. This show is awesome. Don’t take my word for it. Go out and purchase the Pushing Daisies: The Complete First Season box set and see for yourself. If you like quirky shows, this is definitely worthy. I’d describe Pushing Daisies as a Tim Burton movie (perhaps his style for filming Charlie and the Chocolate Factory), meets every child’s favorite fairy tale, all rolled into one. And let’s be honest. What’s more beautiful than that?

Overall Rating:

Technorati Tags: Pushing Daisies, The Complete First Season, DVD Review, TV show, Warner Home Video, ABC, Lee Pace, Anna Friel, Comedy

If you like this site, Donate to help keep us going!

---------------------
Written by Dominick - Visit Website
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Dominick Evans is in his late 20's. He spends his days working as a full time writer/editor and a part time musician/composer. His passions in life include music, directing films, watching movies, reading books, watching sports, wheelchair football, politics and spending time with his family (fiancée Ashtyn, son Robert, and shih-tzu Oliver). Other interests include being an advocate for the disability and GLBT communities.