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Spotlight on Fandoms: Pushing Daisies
So, this is a day late because I fail and forgot yesterday. But, it's here now and I hope everyone enjoys it.
Pushing Daisies is a dramedy that airs on ABC. It was created by the quirky genius behind Wonderfalls, Bryan Fuller, so you know you're going to get an odd little show that's endearing, funny and dramatic.
Please assume spoilers throughout this post (and pictures too!).
Pushing Daisies centers on Ned (who is often called the piemaker in narrative). At first glance, Ned appears to just be a REALLY TALL guy with an affinity for baking. There's just one little thing that's different about Ned: he has the ability to bring people back from the dead with one touch. Of course, you'd think that something like this would make him world renowned and incredibly famous, right?
Wrong. Ned's power comes with a lot of strings attached. Once Ned touches someone or something, he has sixty seconds to decide whether that person is going to live or die again. If he touches the once dead person again in the sixty second time frame, that person will be dead permanently. If he doesn't touch that person again, something of a similar life value (as in if Ned brought one plant back to life, let it live, another plant would die) would die. Add to that, if Ned touches someone and let's them live, he can never touch that person again (for the rest of his life) or they will die.
It's kind of a lot to put on poor Ned, isn't it? Maybe that's why he always looks so damn sad on screen. It's a sad puppy dog kinda way though.
Ned (played by Lee Pace)
Ned is the protagonist of the story, the piemaker, the guy you almost can't help wanting to hug. Ned grew up in a place called Coeur d'Coeurs (which has no specific geographical location) with his mother, father and dog, Digby. They were a small family unit and Ned was happy.
That all changed.
When Ned was nine years, twenty seven weeks, six days and three minutes old, Digby ran into the street, was struck by an eighteen wheeler and was killed instantly. This all happened in front of Ned's eyes, horrifying him. He touched his dog and, just like that, Digby was back. Ned didn't know about his power at the time but really, do you think he cared? He had his dog back.
Of course, that couldn't be the end of Ned's day. Later on that day, Ned's mother, while baking a pie, died instantly of a brain aneurysm. Again, this happened in front of Ned's eyes and he touched his mother after her death, bringing her back to life. Due to Ned's mother being brought back and staying alive, someone else had to die. Ned looked out the window of his house and watched the father of Charlotte Charles (Ned's childhood sweetheart) drop dead in his front lawn. To make matters, later that night, Ned's mother kissed him and died permanently. Ned couldn't bring her back.
Shortly after the funeral of his mother and Chuck's father, Ned's father shipped him off to Longburrow School for Boys in North Thrush. His father promised to be back. His father lied. Ned's father never wrote to him except once on Halloween. That, however, was a postcard that was prewritten with the words 'We've Moved' on it. Ned ran away from Longburrow when no one was looking and went to the address he'd found on the card. There, he discovered that his father hadn't moved. His father, in fact, had remarried and had two stepsons. His father didn't even recognize him when Ned knocked on the door.
Saddened, Ned returned to Longburrow, often feeling lonely. He avoided social attachments but did work on perfecting his power on fireflies. It was at Longburrow that he was reunited with Digby. Even though they could not touch, this development did bring a little happiness to Ned's life.
After his rather terrible childhood, Ned grew into a GIGANTIC young man and owner of The Pie Hole, his pie shop. This is the Pie Hole. It's kind of adorable, isn't it?
Charlotte Charles (played by Anna Friel)
Charlotte Charles, typically called Chuck, is Ned's best friend and childhood sweetheart. Chuck lived next door to Ned during their time in Coeur d'Coeurs. Chuck's father suddenly died when she was eight years old. Chuck did not know that Ned was the cause of this for several decades.
After the death of Chuck's father, Chuck was put into the custody of her aunts, Lily and Vivian. Her aunts social phobias prevented them from leaving the house very often. Chuck yearned for a different life, for more adventure.
At the age of twenty eight, Chuck was offered a free Tahitian cruise in exchange for picking up a suitcase of two plaster monkeys that turned out to be made of solid gold. During the cruise, Chuck was attacked in her room and she was killed. Her body was dumped over the side of the boat but was retrieved by the ship's captain, thinking it was an accident. It was later determined to be a homicide.
Chuck was dubbed The Lonely Tourist because no one knew who she was during the time of her death. A fifty thousand dollar reward was offered for information leading to the capture of Chuck's killer. This came across the desk of one Emerson Cod who dragged Ned down to the funeral home Chuck was at and made him bring her back to life.
Thus, Ned and Chuck were reunited. Ned was still harboring many feelings for Chuck and was unable to kill her again. And, while Chuck was once again alive and with Ned, they could not touch. They wanted to, very much, and expressed their affections in other ways (holding their own hands to mimic holding hands with each other, kisses through plastic wrap etc). Chuck partnered with Ned in his pie business where she still works today.
Emerson Cod (played by Chi McBride)
Emerson Cod is Ned's business partner but, not in the pie business. Emerson is a private investigatory and discovered Ned's power while chasing a criminal. Said criminal jumped from a roof, slipped and fell to his death, landing on a dumpster outside the Pie Hole where Ned happened to be emptying the trash. The criminal touched Ned, came back to life and then Ned killed him again with another touch. Emerson saw this and...saw very many lucrative opportunities in front of him.
Emerson and Ned entered into a partnership then. Emerson would find unsolved murders offering rewards and Ned would use his powers to bring them back to life so they could get information to sole the crime. They'd collect the reward and split it between the two of them. This partnership allowed Ned to earn the money to save the Pie Hole from financial ruin.
Emerson and Chuck don't always get along (he calls her Dead Girl) but they do work well together and Emerson is dependent enough on Ned's power to tolerate her.
Emerson is awesome. Really really awesome. He enjoys knitting especially when he's upset. No one knows about the secret hobby though. He also has a love of pop up books and has recently taken to making his own pop up books.
Seriously, Emerson is awesome.
Olive Snook (played by Kristin Chenoweth)
Olive works at the Pie Hole with Ned where she bakes and serves pie. She lives next door to Ned and has an unrequited crush on him. She doesn't, as of yet, know about Ned's power.
Before Olive got into the pie business, she was a former professional horse jockey. Her horse was named The Pie. It was during her time as a jockey, that she was involved in the destruction of evidence in the death of John Joseph Jacobs. His girth was cut, causing him to die during a race and allowing Olive to win. After this incident, she resigned from the races and locked up her winnings.
Olive is one of Ned's few friends. She frequently flirts with him, not knowing about his childhood or that he often avoids emotional attachments. But, she isn't just an unrepentant flirt. She's very good with Digby, often dogsitting him and giving him the attention that Ned cannot. She's very friendly to all their customers and has a close relationship with Chuck's aunts.
While Olive does not know about Ned's power, she does know (and keeps) many secrets including: the fact that she thinks Chuck faked her own death and her crush on Ned. The weight of these secrets caused her to run away to a nunnery. She did return to the Pie Hole, though.
And, since she's played by the AMAZING Kristin Chenoweth, she sings. She once broke into Hopelessly Devoted to You when she was particularly sad.
Vivian and Lily Charles (played by Ellen Greene and Swoosie Kurtz)
During their teenage years, Vivian and Lily were known by a different name: The Darling Mermaid Darlings. They were famous synchronized swim team who drew large crowds. The crowds slowly dwindled as the aunts grew older and performed well past their glory days.
The Darling Mermaid Darlings came to an end when Lily got cat dust from a littler box in her eye and lost her right eye permanently. Lily could no longer compete and Vivian would not go on without her sister. The team was disbanded.
Following the death of Chuck's father, the aunts received custody of young Chuck. And, while the aunts social phobias prevented them from leaving the house, they formed a strong connection with Chuck, despite a few rough patches. The aunts came to rely heavily on Chuck to do things that required them leaving the house and this, in turn, made Chuck yearn for more adventure, for more in her life.
After Chuck's death, the aunts felt their fears of the outside world were reaffirmed and they became even more phobic of leaving. Lily and Vivian were instrumental in helping capture Chuck's killer and, thus, were rewarded with the $50,000 reward. This gave them newfound confidence and optimism. They were set to go back on tour as the Darling Mermaid Darlings when they received a postcard from Chuck in the mail.
With the knowledge that her aunts are being cared for, Chuck took it upon herself to send them pies (through Olive) that had antidepressants baked into them. And she worked tirelessly to get them back into the water. That one was more difficult to achieve but they did eventually get back into the water and performed in front of an imaginary audience.
The Narrator (as voiced by Jim Dale)
The Narrator is an omniscient entity who voices the adventures of Ned, Chuck, Emerson, Olive, Vivian and Lily. He is extremely specific and precise, providing details to the almost second.
Pushing Daisies is a show that you probably have never and will never see again. It's quirky and colorful, full of characters that you can't help but care about. It will make you laugh and cry and wince and curse.
It's been compared to some of Tim Burton's finer works and is often infused with whimsical elements of fantasy and supernatural. The show excels at not dropping fantasy and supernatural elements so heavily on the audience that they lose sight of the characters and their stories.
It's received Emmy Award nominations for Lee Pace, Kristen Chenoweth and Bryan Fuller.
Pushing Daisies is headed into it's second season (the first season was nine episodes long due to the WGA strike) and will air on ABC on Wednesdays beginning October 1st.
Watch it!
Pushing Daisies is a dramedy that airs on ABC. It was created by the quirky genius behind Wonderfalls, Bryan Fuller, so you know you're going to get an odd little show that's endearing, funny and dramatic.
Please assume spoilers throughout this post (and pictures too!).
Pushing Daisies centers on Ned (who is often called the piemaker in narrative). At first glance, Ned appears to just be a REALLY TALL guy with an affinity for baking. There's just one little thing that's different about Ned: he has the ability to bring people back from the dead with one touch. Of course, you'd think that something like this would make him world renowned and incredibly famous, right?
Wrong. Ned's power comes with a lot of strings attached. Once Ned touches someone or something, he has sixty seconds to decide whether that person is going to live or die again. If he touches the once dead person again in the sixty second time frame, that person will be dead permanently. If he doesn't touch that person again, something of a similar life value (as in if Ned brought one plant back to life, let it live, another plant would die) would die. Add to that, if Ned touches someone and let's them live, he can never touch that person again (for the rest of his life) or they will die.
It's kind of a lot to put on poor Ned, isn't it? Maybe that's why he always looks so damn sad on screen. It's a sad puppy dog kinda way though.
Ned (played by Lee Pace)
Ned is the protagonist of the story, the piemaker, the guy you almost can't help wanting to hug. Ned grew up in a place called Coeur d'Coeurs (which has no specific geographical location) with his mother, father and dog, Digby. They were a small family unit and Ned was happy.
That all changed.
When Ned was nine years, twenty seven weeks, six days and three minutes old, Digby ran into the street, was struck by an eighteen wheeler and was killed instantly. This all happened in front of Ned's eyes, horrifying him. He touched his dog and, just like that, Digby was back. Ned didn't know about his power at the time but really, do you think he cared? He had his dog back.
Of course, that couldn't be the end of Ned's day. Later on that day, Ned's mother, while baking a pie, died instantly of a brain aneurysm. Again, this happened in front of Ned's eyes and he touched his mother after her death, bringing her back to life. Due to Ned's mother being brought back and staying alive, someone else had to die. Ned looked out the window of his house and watched the father of Charlotte Charles (Ned's childhood sweetheart) drop dead in his front lawn. To make matters, later that night, Ned's mother kissed him and died permanently. Ned couldn't bring her back.
Shortly after the funeral of his mother and Chuck's father, Ned's father shipped him off to Longburrow School for Boys in North Thrush. His father promised to be back. His father lied. Ned's father never wrote to him except once on Halloween. That, however, was a postcard that was prewritten with the words 'We've Moved' on it. Ned ran away from Longburrow when no one was looking and went to the address he'd found on the card. There, he discovered that his father hadn't moved. His father, in fact, had remarried and had two stepsons. His father didn't even recognize him when Ned knocked on the door.
Saddened, Ned returned to Longburrow, often feeling lonely. He avoided social attachments but did work on perfecting his power on fireflies. It was at Longburrow that he was reunited with Digby. Even though they could not touch, this development did bring a little happiness to Ned's life.
After his rather terrible childhood, Ned grew into a GIGANTIC young man and owner of The Pie Hole, his pie shop. This is the Pie Hole. It's kind of adorable, isn't it?
Charlotte Charles (played by Anna Friel)
Charlotte Charles, typically called Chuck, is Ned's best friend and childhood sweetheart. Chuck lived next door to Ned during their time in Coeur d'Coeurs. Chuck's father suddenly died when she was eight years old. Chuck did not know that Ned was the cause of this for several decades.
After the death of Chuck's father, Chuck was put into the custody of her aunts, Lily and Vivian. Her aunts social phobias prevented them from leaving the house very often. Chuck yearned for a different life, for more adventure.
At the age of twenty eight, Chuck was offered a free Tahitian cruise in exchange for picking up a suitcase of two plaster monkeys that turned out to be made of solid gold. During the cruise, Chuck was attacked in her room and she was killed. Her body was dumped over the side of the boat but was retrieved by the ship's captain, thinking it was an accident. It was later determined to be a homicide.
Chuck was dubbed The Lonely Tourist because no one knew who she was during the time of her death. A fifty thousand dollar reward was offered for information leading to the capture of Chuck's killer. This came across the desk of one Emerson Cod who dragged Ned down to the funeral home Chuck was at and made him bring her back to life.
Thus, Ned and Chuck were reunited. Ned was still harboring many feelings for Chuck and was unable to kill her again. And, while Chuck was once again alive and with Ned, they could not touch. They wanted to, very much, and expressed their affections in other ways (holding their own hands to mimic holding hands with each other, kisses through plastic wrap etc). Chuck partnered with Ned in his pie business where she still works today.
Emerson Cod (played by Chi McBride)
Emerson Cod is Ned's business partner but, not in the pie business. Emerson is a private investigatory and discovered Ned's power while chasing a criminal. Said criminal jumped from a roof, slipped and fell to his death, landing on a dumpster outside the Pie Hole where Ned happened to be emptying the trash. The criminal touched Ned, came back to life and then Ned killed him again with another touch. Emerson saw this and...saw very many lucrative opportunities in front of him.
Emerson and Ned entered into a partnership then. Emerson would find unsolved murders offering rewards and Ned would use his powers to bring them back to life so they could get information to sole the crime. They'd collect the reward and split it between the two of them. This partnership allowed Ned to earn the money to save the Pie Hole from financial ruin.
Emerson and Chuck don't always get along (he calls her Dead Girl) but they do work well together and Emerson is dependent enough on Ned's power to tolerate her.
Emerson is awesome. Really really awesome. He enjoys knitting especially when he's upset. No one knows about the secret hobby though. He also has a love of pop up books and has recently taken to making his own pop up books.
Seriously, Emerson is awesome.
Olive Snook (played by Kristin Chenoweth)
Olive works at the Pie Hole with Ned where she bakes and serves pie. She lives next door to Ned and has an unrequited crush on him. She doesn't, as of yet, know about Ned's power.
Before Olive got into the pie business, she was a former professional horse jockey. Her horse was named The Pie. It was during her time as a jockey, that she was involved in the destruction of evidence in the death of John Joseph Jacobs. His girth was cut, causing him to die during a race and allowing Olive to win. After this incident, she resigned from the races and locked up her winnings.
Olive is one of Ned's few friends. She frequently flirts with him, not knowing about his childhood or that he often avoids emotional attachments. But, she isn't just an unrepentant flirt. She's very good with Digby, often dogsitting him and giving him the attention that Ned cannot. She's very friendly to all their customers and has a close relationship with Chuck's aunts.
While Olive does not know about Ned's power, she does know (and keeps) many secrets including: the fact that she thinks Chuck faked her own death and her crush on Ned. The weight of these secrets caused her to run away to a nunnery. She did return to the Pie Hole, though.
And, since she's played by the AMAZING Kristin Chenoweth, she sings. She once broke into Hopelessly Devoted to You when she was particularly sad.
Vivian and Lily Charles (played by Ellen Greene and Swoosie Kurtz)
During their teenage years, Vivian and Lily were known by a different name: The Darling Mermaid Darlings. They were famous synchronized swim team who drew large crowds. The crowds slowly dwindled as the aunts grew older and performed well past their glory days.
The Darling Mermaid Darlings came to an end when Lily got cat dust from a littler box in her eye and lost her right eye permanently. Lily could no longer compete and Vivian would not go on without her sister. The team was disbanded.
Following the death of Chuck's father, the aunts received custody of young Chuck. And, while the aunts social phobias prevented them from leaving the house, they formed a strong connection with Chuck, despite a few rough patches. The aunts came to rely heavily on Chuck to do things that required them leaving the house and this, in turn, made Chuck yearn for more adventure, for more in her life.
After Chuck's death, the aunts felt their fears of the outside world were reaffirmed and they became even more phobic of leaving. Lily and Vivian were instrumental in helping capture Chuck's killer and, thus, were rewarded with the $50,000 reward. This gave them newfound confidence and optimism. They were set to go back on tour as the Darling Mermaid Darlings when they received a postcard from Chuck in the mail.
With the knowledge that her aunts are being cared for, Chuck took it upon herself to send them pies (through Olive) that had antidepressants baked into them. And she worked tirelessly to get them back into the water. That one was more difficult to achieve but they did eventually get back into the water and performed in front of an imaginary audience.
The Narrator (as voiced by Jim Dale)
The Narrator is an omniscient entity who voices the adventures of Ned, Chuck, Emerson, Olive, Vivian and Lily. He is extremely specific and precise, providing details to the almost second.
Pushing Daisies is a show that you probably have never and will never see again. It's quirky and colorful, full of characters that you can't help but care about. It will make you laugh and cry and wince and curse.
It's been compared to some of Tim Burton's finer works and is often infused with whimsical elements of fantasy and supernatural. The show excels at not dropping fantasy and supernatural elements so heavily on the audience that they lose sight of the characters and their stories.
It's received Emmy Award nominations for Lee Pace, Kristen Chenoweth and Bryan Fuller.
Pushing Daisies is headed into it's second season (the first season was nine episodes long due to the WGA strike) and will air on ABC on Wednesdays beginning October 1st.
Watch it!
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. . . which doesn't do any good if it's not on DVD yet, now does it?
OH HAI THAR, CAFFEINE, I NEED YOU OVER HERE NOW KTHX.
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. . . which doesn't do any good if it's not on DVD yet, now does it?
Canon uploads, if you can! *points up*