The Show
Surprisingly twisted for primetime network television, the high-concept Pushing Daisies offers a darkly funny take on, well, death. Seems that dashing young pie-maker Ned (Lee Pace) has the unusual ability to bring the deceased back to life with his touch, if only for a minute, otherwise someone else nearby will die. Oh, and if he ever touches that alive-again person (or pet, etc.) a second time, it's back the big sleep, permanent-like. A private detective (Chi McBride) even finds a way to monetize Ned's talent by reanimating murder victims, asking who killed them, then collecting the rewards.
Ned can deal (barely) until his childhood sweetheart, Chuck (the adorable Anna Friel), returns, only as a corpse. She lives again, sticks around for more than a minute, and one of the sweetest TV love stories of all time ensues, being as the couple cannot come in physical contact. Throw in murder mysteries bigger--who killed Chuck and why?--and smaller, on the weekly scale, and you have "appointment television," highly original and totally charming.
The Picture
This is surely one of those shows that merits the HD treatment. Executive producer Barry Sonnenfeld, who also directed the first two episodes, began his career as a cinematographer, quickly establishing a distinct visual style. The 1.85:1 world of
Pushing Daisies is often bright and candy-colored, at times looking as if we are peering into someone's dream. Digital haze can range from very mild to not-so-mild, and special effects shots can have a telltale, slightly mismatched look, but detail such as individual pebbles on a roadway in a static shot are self-evident, and again the bolder-than-life hues are downright hypnotic. By contrast, a flashback scene can be desaturated but not entirely black-and-white, for a subtle, fascinating effect.
The Sound
Wow, I can't remember the last time this happened: The packaging clearly lists the discs as offering Dolby TrueHD, but navigating through the vague audio menus (they just say "English" and "French") compelled me to pull up the PlayStation 3's info display, which revealed that both were merely Dolby Digital 5.1. This is not the end of the world, but a bit of a disappointment. The soundtrack itself, which is often front-heavy, turns out to be quite well-mixed for a television series. The music by James Dooley is spread aggressively across the multichannel soundfield, and sound effects are placed in the rears as appropriate, plus there is discrete placement of offscreen voices. Bass was used more generously than expected, to properly to emphasize the bigger notes of the action.
The Extras
Pie Time - Time For Pie is an interactive array of brief featurettes, one or more for each of the nine episodes. Comprised of creator, actor and crew interviews, behind-the-scenes-footage and clips from the show, they explore a specific angle, such as an ambitious special effect (an animated cheeseball-crab) or a special guest star (Molly Shannon). The pie-themed layout enables us to concentrate on the episodes that interest us most, but not without some frustration. I found the controls (we need to navigate onto a dish until the fork appears) and lack of individual segment titles (multiple pie pieces can await us and we don't know what we're going to see until we start watching it) to be less than user-friendly.
Final Thoughts
While the audio confusion was a letdown, what we are given sounds well above the norm. Pushing Daisies was one of the best new shows of last year, and is a sweet treat for the eyes, especially on Blu-ray.
Where to Buy:
Product Details:
- Actors: Lee Pace, Anna Friel, Chi McBride, Kristin Chenoweth, Jim Dale, Ellen Greene, Swoosie Kurtz
- Director: Barry Sonnenfeld, Brian Dannelly, Allan Kroeker, Lawrence Trilling, Peter O'Fallon, Adam Kane, Paul A. Edwards
- Audio Format/Languages: Dolby Digital 5.1 (English, French)
- Subtitles: English, French, Danish, Finnish, Norwegian and Swedish
- Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1
- Number of discs: 3
- Studio: Warner
- Release Date: September 16, 2008
- Run Time: 379 minutes
- List Price: $39.99
- Extras:
