The Show
I can only guess the weekly budget of the gleefully quirky Pushing Daisies, which must have invested more in the production design and costumes than most series, and perhaps high overhead factored into its untimely demise, after only two brief seasons. With its unique vibe and a logic all its own, this was a world we could get lost in, and now, I guess I'm back to bourbon and Fiddle Faddle.
The setup is kind of complicated; basically pie-maker Ned (Lee Pace) has the ability to bring the dead back to life but only for a minute, otherwise someone nearby will die instead, and if he touches that person again it's back to being dead, this time for good. The Blu-ray disc allows us to switch the elaborate recap sequence on or off depending upon how much time we have.
The second season saw a lot of changes in Ned's life: Waitress Olive quits, girlfriend Chuck moves out, and Ned's father returns, among many other juicy developments. There were also some terrific movie homages, some overt and some blink-and-you'll-miss-them. In short, these 13 episodes are great fun and definitely worth a look.
The Picture
Perhaps as a metaphor for all the colorful characters, the show itself features a lush and vibrant palette unlike any other on TV, one best celebrated in high-definition. The 1.78:1 frame is a canvas for some wildly imaginative imagery brought to life by a lot of CGI special effects which usually reproduce quite believably. There is some grain and twitch to the video but in general it is cleaner than most of what you're likely to see in primetime.
The Sound
It's only Dolby Digital 5.1 again, same as last season, but at least it's correctly noted on the packaging this time. From the very first episode, the multiple channels are creatively exploited, from the buzzing of a colony of resurrected bees in the surrounds to the side-to-side thump of big doors opening. There are more than a couple of gunshots across the season, and they could be punchier, but the music is always mixed spot-on with ample bass reinforcement as needed to make its point.
The Extras
Four featurettes reside on Disc Two, all in high-definition. Up first is "The Master Pie Maker," wherein we learn how creator/writer/executive producer Bryan Fuller's many gifts have guided the show (twelve-and-a-half minutes). "Secret Sweet Ingredients" reveals the process of composing and adding Jim Dooley's score: There's a lot of music here, and its effects can be subtle (eight minutes). "From Oven to Table" shows how the team solved a particularly interesting production challenge, realizing a line from the script about a human "fried egg"(five minutes). And "Add a Little Magic" details the time and work necessary to bring about a movie-quality CGI rhinoceros.
Final Thoughts
And so another inventive, original show bites the dust. The last minute or so of the final chapter addresses many (not all) of the show's major conflicts with the dramatic efficiency of an Ernest Lehman screenplay (North by Northwest, The Sound of Music), tied up neatly but leaving the door open for future visits. And if ever a show was poetically destined to come back to life, it's Pushing Daisies.
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