Skip to main content

Dead Clowns, Teenage Runaways, and Triple-Berry Pie on "Pushing Daisies"

While I saw the second episode of Pushing Daisies ("Circus Circus") a few weeks back, I can't help but want to discuss it some more now that everyone has seen the episode.

After all, there are few series as sweetly infectious as Pushing Daisies and I find, once I've watched an episode, that I can't get it out of my mind for days... or often weeks. So just a few more thoughts about "Circus Circus" that didn't make it into the original three-episode review I did.

Last night's episode, written by Peter Ocko (who wrote last season's "Dummy"), furthered some of the plots established in the season opener (Olive at the nunnery, Vivian reentering the world, Chuck moving into her own apartment, etc.) while also offering up a bizarro mystery of the week about a teenage runway named Sweet Nickie Heaps who literally ran off to join the circus... only to encounter murder and mayhem in the most unlikely of places. Hell, what other series could pull off sending an entire carload of clowns into a lake and then offer up a parade of the dozens of resulting corpses? Not bloody many, I'll hazard.

How utterly exquisite was the scene in which Aunt Vivian went to The Pie Hole for some triple-berry pie (or, really, comfort of some kind) and nearly saw her dead niece Chuck? The sight of Vivian closing her red umbrella (which luckily shielded her gaze) was one of the most beautiful things I've seen on television this year. Director Lawrence Trilling (Alias) deserves an Emmy just for that single shot alone. Artful, dazzling, and touching, the scene between Vivian and a guilty Chuck--hiding behind the counter--was one of the most heartbreaking and realistic portrayals of grief and hope that I've ever seen.

I'm really hoping that we eventually get to see Emerson's daughter... or at least see Emerson attempt to track down his wayward ex-wife and daughter. It's clear that Emerson has been suffering through some hard times on his own and looking for a way to express his sense of loss. "Lil' Gumshoe" was the first attempt that we've seen of him setting down some breadcrumbs for his daughter to find him. I only hope that she doesn't turn up dead in one of their many investigations and that there's an actual happy ending here.

As for Chuck and Ned, I am glad that Bryan Fuller and the writing team split them up physically, with Chuck getting her own space and a new lease on life by, well, taking over Olive's lease on the apartment. Yes, these two star-crossed lovers are meant to be together (well, somehow anyway, given the fact that they can't touch) but I am glad that we are seeing a Chuck with a new perspective about life after death. She spent so much of last season in hiding that she has only now realized that she needs to enjoy the rest of her life, given how tragically short it was cut the first time around. And I like seeing Ned all jealously squirmy. But how adorable were the would-be lovers as they pretended to be strangers? If it wouldn't kill Chuck, I would have pushed them together right then and there.

Will Chuck's new outlook about life and living push her and Ned further apart? Or closer together? I'm not sure but it's clear that the walls are closing in for our Charlotte Charles, with Lily and Vivian turning up everywhere from The Pie Hole to Olive's nunnery. Chuck's homeopathic medication may have worked a miracle in getting the former Darling Mermaid Darlings out of the house but no good deed, as they say, goes unpunished. And with her aunts newly mobile, there will come a time when Chuck can't hide from them any longer.

One can only imagine how Lily and Vivian will react when they learn that Chuck is alive (again). Until then, I'm absolutely hooked and can't wait to see just what happens next.

Best line of the evening: "I could throw up in my mouth a little and not even know the difference." - Olive, speaking of the convent's notoriously bad porridge.

Next week on Pushing Daisies ("Bad Habits"), Olive calls in Ned and Emerson to investigate the suspicious death of a nun whom she believes was murdered; Chuck adapts to her new life; Lily comes clean about a decades-old secret.

Comments

The clown car bit was fantastic!!!
I read on tvguide.com that the ratings were low again this week. Boo. I just hope that the 13 episodes that were ordered for this season won't be the last we'll get.

I missed Olive being at the Pie Hole in last night's episode. But I loved how Lily tried to convince her that she didn't actually have an affair with Chuck's father. I felt like that was a nice little wink to us Pieholes who were speculating about Chuck's parentage. Whether it was meant as that or not, I enjoyed it.

**Spoiler Alert**
Ask Ausiello on ew.com this week says that in an upcoming episode "Olive (Kristin Chenoweth) is going to sing "Eternal Flame" to Ned (Lee Pace)! Only, well, he won't be there. (That's so like Olive.)"
**Spoiler Over**
mB said…
This show is fantastic, and it always bewilders me how crazy its antics can be and yet how sweet and emotional it can get. I'm terribly excited for next week's nunnery episode since I have been missing my Olive-rest of the cast interaction.

Popular posts from this blog

What's Done is Done: The Eternal Struggle Between Good and Evil on the Season Finale of "Lost"

Every story begins with thread. It's up to the storyteller to determine just how much they need to parcel out, what pattern they're making, and when to cut it short and tie it off. With last night's penultimate season finale of Lost ("The Incident, Parts One and Two"), written by Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse, we began to see the pattern that Lindelof and Cuse have been designing towards the last five seasons of this serpentine series. And it was only fitting that the two-hour finale, which pushes us on the road to the final season of Lost , should begin with thread, a loom, and a tapestry. Would Jack follow through on his plan to detonate the island and therefore reset their lives aboard Oceanic Flight 815 ? Why did Locke want to kill Jacob? What caused The Incident? What was in the box and just what lies in the shadow of the statue? We got the answers to these in a two-hour season finale that didn't quite pack the same emotional wallop of previous season

The Daily Beast: "How The Killing Went Wrong"

While the uproar over the U.S. version of The Killing has quieted, the show is still a pale imitation of the Danish series on which it is based. Over at The Daily Beast, you can read my latest feature, "How The Killing Went Wrong," in which I look at how The Killing has handled itself during its second season, and compare it to the stunning and electrifying original Danish series, Forbrydelsen , on which it is based. (I recently watched all 20 episodes of Forbrydelsen over a few evenings.) The original is a mind-blowing and gut-wrenching work of genius. It’s not necessary to rehash the anger that followed in the wake of the conclusion last June of the first season of AMC’s mystery drama The Killing, based on Søren Sveistrup’s landmark Danish show Forbrydelsen, which follows the murder of a schoolgirl and its impact on the people whose lives the investigation touches upon. What followed were irate reviews, burnished with the “burning intensity of 10,000 white-hot suns

Pilot Inspektor: CBS' "Smith"

I may just have to change my original "What I'll Be Watching This Fall" post, as I sat down and finally watched CBS' new crime drama Smith this weekend. (What? It's taken me a long time to make my way through the stack of pilot DVDs.) While it's on following Gilmore Girls and Veronica Mars on Tuesday nights (10 pm ET/PT, to be exact), I'm going to be sure to leave enough room on my TiVo to make sure that I catch this compelling, amoral drama. While one can't help but be impressed by what might just be the most marquee-friendly cast in primetime--Ray Liotta, Virginia Madsen, Jonny Lee Miller, Amy Smart, Simon Baker, and Franky G all star and Shohreh Aghdashloo has a recurring role--the pilot's premise alone earned major points in my book: it's a crime drama from the point of view of the criminals, who engage in high-stakes heists. But don't be alarmed; it's nothing like NBC's short-lived Heist . Instead, think of it as The Italian