ABC
(Season 2, Episode 2)
Everybody loves the circus! Especially a missing teen in tonight’s episode. So let’s regroup. Olive is in the nunnery trying to keep Lily’s secrets. Chuck is establishing a little more independence from Ned, her aunts are out of the house and Emerson is looking to get paid. Ratings for last week’s premiere were down from before, and critical response has been inconsistent. Some have said the show is back and stronger than ever, while others feel that some of the storybook charm seems to have waned.
Maybe it’s just that the long absence from our television screens had us looking back through rose-colored glasses at those earlier episodes. Personally, I think the show did seem a little bit off last week, though I can’t quite put my finger on what it was. I’m going to really soak in tonight’s installment, letting all the goofy pastels and rapid dialogue just wash over me to see if maybe it was just me. I want it to have just been me as I still love the whole idea behind the show.
Wow, an episode of Pushing Daisies dealing with circus folk and clowns should have been amazing. It should have been sharp and witty and filled with humor. Instead, the only slightly humorous thing was the car filled with dead clowns. And Anna Friel needs to stop wearing such high-waisted pants. That’s not a good look on her at all!
Seeing the bad guy soliloquy while Ned slowly wound up and chucked a baseball at his face … I mean, come on, it’s not like Ned was subtle about it. He would have dodged it or at least been aware of it. He was looking right down at them.
But even that wasn’t as bad as earlier in the episode when the same bad guy ran the clowns off the road and only then, we’re told, did he notice the car Nikki was driving in. And yet it was night and she was chugging along no less than four feet behind his rear bumper with her lights shining right into his cab. Or maybe we’re supposed to just be swept away in the fun and ignore such things.
The problem is that Daisies has always been pretty smart with their little mysteries. Sure, they weren’t the most challenging of conundrums, but at least they were generally well constructed and consistent. The overall threads of the mystery worked fine, its just some of the details that were a bit contrived.
Luckily, the strength of the episode, as usual, had nothing to do with the mystery. Seeing Chuck hiding behind the counter while her Aunt Vivian lamented her loneliness was heartbreaking. Aunt Lily and Olive also shared some really sweet moments, yet I do miss Olive’s presence at the Pie Hole. And Emerson, who was always a little different from the rest of the crew and yet so important for those very differences, gets a little more depth to his character. Personally, I hope they were setting up an episode dealing with his missing daughter and maybe even a sweet reunion. But no moments were as sweet, as usual, as those between Chuck and Ned. At least there’s some growth and development in the characters so far.
There’s still enough charm and delight to be found in each episode of Daisies, but if they’re facing a ratings crisis, they need to make sure each episode is rock solid. Fans love to nitpick episodes to death and naysayers will fall on any weakness and shred it to pieces. Pushing Daisies was amazing last season and almost is again this season. This is better than the first episode and this time I at least know what bothered me. And it’s really such easily fixed things. Tighten up your mystery plots and you’ll be fine.
Clacked by Jason Hughes 
on Oct 08, 2008 @ 20:26 EST5EDT
