Pushing Daisies. The short-lived series (just 22 episodes exist) only lasted a pair of seasons, but I loved every single episode. Bringing together a lovesick piemaker named Ned with supernatural powers, his formerly dead girlfriend whom he cannot touch, a spunky waitress who is not-so-secretly in love with Ned, and a cantankerous private investigator who loves pop-up books and gets the world's greatest moniker, Emerson Cod. I was so bummed when this show went off the air that I refused to fall in love with a first season show for years afterwards (until this past year's Looking I stuck to that promise). Here's a rundown of my ten favorite episodes:In my world, there is no better way to bring both quick joy and then melancholy followed by a need to eat pie than bringing up
10. "Smell of Success" (#1.7)
One of the great losses of the first season was the fact that, due to the writer's strike, only nine episodes existed and the show's ratings never properly recovered. However, there were still a couple of plotlines that managed to last multiple episodes, one of which was introduced in this episode. I hated the Chuck-betrayal of the second season with her father (a story you could just tell would have reared its ugly head in a hypothetical third season), but I was far more fond of the Oscar Vibenius man-of-the-sewers routine (Paul Reubens is so wonderfully odd). Add in a series of bibliographical jokes, and this was a delight.
9. "Water and Power" (#2.12)
I sometimes fantasize that I have a group of friends who obsess over Pushing Daisies (after attending the Veronica Mars movie recently, I realized that these probably exist out there), if only so that we can randomly keep saying, "the dam ruby" to each other over-and-over. This episode always feels a bit bittersweet, as it was one of the three episodes that got burned off when the show got cancelled in a quick airing of the episodes during the summer (it's my personal favorite of the three). However, there's so much to love, particularly Olive finding love with Randy Mann and a waving glimpse of Emerson Cod's daughter. And of course, there's the appearance of Emerson's two loves, played to perfection by Christine Adams and the divine Gina Torres.
I am not sure if they shifted it to be after Grey's Anatomy or if the presence of Molly Shannon is a wildly underutilized asset on network television, but this was the highest-rated episode of the series if you discount the premiere. Shannon and her on-screen brother Mike White were two in a long string of welcome guest stars on the series, playing candy-making rivals of the Pie Hole. We also saw Ned get framed for murder (Emerson's comment: "An attractive man who makes pies for a living shouldn't even spend a short amount of time in prison"), which allowed Emerson to flex his true detective skills without cheating. And Olive was just a ball of memorable lines this episode, with my personal favorite being, "wouldn't it just rock-and-roll if liking someone meant they had to like you back? Of course that'd be a different universe and something else would probably suck." Oh, Olive.
7. "Pigeon" (#1.4)
Every episode of Pushing Daisies feels a little bit like its own special reward, and this one is so much fun primarily because of the romance at the center of the episode. We see Chuck falling for another man (Dash Mihok), Olive finding a purpose in the show aside from just pining over Ned (and the start of her genuine friendship with the aunts), and a magical land of windmills, where Jayma Mays (utilized here far better than she ever was on Glee) plays a lovelorn woman who writes letters using a pigeon, hence the title, to a prisoner that her mother fell in love with. Again, bliss.
Christine Adams was always a welcome addition to any episode as Simone Hundin, the object of Emerson Cod's affection, and in particular in this episode, which introduced us not only to Emerson Cod's affection for Chinese food (seriously-whoever did the set decoration on the eats in this show deserved an Emmy, or a contract with a chain restaurant, as food has never looked so delicious on-screen), but also to Ned's adorable stepbrothers. Maurice and Ralston, both so cute with their Ned-matching eyebrows, were tiny additions to the show that I felt weren't utilized nearly as well as they could have been, but Olive's reaction to two new Ned-adjacent men was priceless (Ned was the only character who never got a last name).
5. "Circus, Circus" (#2.2)
Sweet Nicky Heaps, one of the many characters who has to deal with a full-name and then some moniker on the show (seriously-how is it that Ned never got a last name when everyone else got rocking ones?), is ancillary in this trip to the circus. More to the point was Olive adjusting to living in a nunnery with a prying Lily always nearby (don't you love how Swoosie Kurtz's eyepatch changed colors based on her outfit?) and Emerson's investigation hitting a bit close to home when he has to find a girl who ran away. The best part of this episode, however, and probably my favorite moment in the entire series, was the absolutely hilarious sight gag of a car full of dead clowns being hauled in front of a bewildered Ned and an eye-rolling Emerson. I remember the first time I saw this I couldn't stop laughing for at least five minutes.
4. "Comfort Food" (#2.8)
One of the reasons that Bryan Fuller is such a magical and terrific showrunner is that he manages to incorporate actors from all of his shows, and occasionally even characters from multiple shows, which is how Beth Grant's Marianne Marie Beetle, owner of the Muffin Buffalo made a triumphant return after originally being a character on Wonderfalls. In one of the few episodes where the typical pairings were disrupted, we saw Olive and Ned competing in a hilarious bake-off against chicken, pancakes, donut holes, and of course muffins (look for a pre-Modern Family Eric Stonestreet as the contest coordinator), while Emerson and Chuck try to sew up all of the loose ends from her reviving her father. In addition to Olive doing her best musical number (Chenoweth, a legend on Broadway, did five musical performances on the show), we also get her crowning glory as she takes on Grant in a series of bitchy one-liners.
3. "Pie-Lette"(#1.1)
I toyed around with putting this at Number One (honestly, I love the top three so much that on any given day they could switch around), but decided this episode, which started the multi-colored journey off on just the right foot, was perfect for bronze. We get introduced to Chuck, Ned, Emerson, Olive, Lily, and Vivian (the latter two I never realized were such important characters until repeat viewings demonstrated it), as well as Ned's special powers and the format of the show. We also got that brilliantly romantic scene with Chuck being revived and this entire journey starting to roll.
2. "Girth" (#1.5)
Whoever it was in the writer's room to decide that the first Olive-centric episode of the series (which aired, appropriately enough, on Halloween) should revolve around heretofore unmentioned former life as a jockey is a genius. Forget the great sight gags we get from the vertically challenged Chenoweth sporting her racing duds, the simple exchange between Olive and Emerson when he laughs hysterically over her embarrassing last occupation was worth the price of admission. We also get to see Ned save Olive (and a little bit more of a leg for that love triangle to stand-on), and a terrificly nasty performance from Barbara Barrie as the mother of one of Olive's former rivals.
Like Lee Pace, Oscar nominee Diana Scarwid was a holdover from Fuller's Wonderfalls, and though she only made three appearances on this series, she made an indelible mark. The best side story of the series was Olive doing her best Maria von Trapp during the first three episodes of this season (undoubtedly the plot that won her an Emmy), and I loved everything about this: a terrificly complicated mystery (there were so many suspects, you didn't automatically know who the killer was), some great sight gags (Ned reviving a cursing nun and Olive escorting around Pigby spring to mind), and SO many one-liners ("we are so going to hell"). Plus, we saw genuine order restored (Olive belongs at the Pie Hole) by the end of the episode. All-in-all, a perfect episode of a perfect show.
Those are my thoughts on the second installment of the favorites series-what are yours? Do you have a favorite Pushing Daisies moment or episode or character? Share in the comments!
For more of my favorites: Girls,
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