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Episode Recap: "Pie Lette"
I’m thoroughly charmed by this show. I was a little afraid all the great things I’ve been hearing would lead to disappointment, but I must admit I loved the episode.
The rules:
• Ned’s first touch to something dead brings life, the second brings death forever.
• If the person he brings back stays alive for more than one minute, someone else in close proximity will die.
Ever since Ned (Lee Pace) was able to bring his trusty golden retriever Digby back from the dead, he has known he has the gift of reanimation. He was 9 when he found out. Unfortunately he didn’t realize his gift came with a price until he revived his mother only to watch his next-door neighbor and best friend Charlotte, aka Chuck (Anna Friel), Charles’ father die as a result. Soon after, Ned is shipped off to boarding school, and Chuck goes to live with her aunts, also known as the Darling Mermaid Darlings because of their synchronized-swimming careers. But before they are parted, they share a first kiss.
Nineteen years later Ned is obsessed with pie making — his gift of bringing the dead to life also works on fruit — and has avoided forming any close personal relationships. He has a business partner — private investigator Emerson Cod (Chi McBride), with whom he works murder cases. Ned uses his gift to find out why and how victims are murdered and splits the reward money with Emerson. I have to admit I was a little worried about how this procedural element would fit into this modern-day fairy tale. But I think it’s pretty seamless. Ned, Emerson and now Chuck can use Ned’s gift to be sleuths. Considering what happened to Chuck, I’m sure she wants to make other corpses who were once in her position get some justice and maybe a bit of closure.
But let me back up for a moment. Ned poses as a dog expert to get into the morgue to see Leonard Gaswint. Gaswint's dog, Cantaloupe, is accused of mauling him to death and will soon be put to sleep. Leo’s family is offering a reward for the real culprit. Ned does his thing and finds out Leo’s secretary sicced her Rottweiler on him. It might just be me, but that doesn’t seem like a good way to go. I’ve known one Rottweiler in my lifetime and although I’m not a dog person, she was sweet to me. But that’s probably only because I fed her and played in the yard with her. She wasn’t my dog.
And how does Ned run into the recently deceased Chuck? There’s a reward posted for information about her death, so Emerson brings Ned to the funeral home where she’s currently resting in peace. When Ned brings her back and discovers how she died but not the identify of the person who killed her, he can’t fathom putting her back to sleep forever. The dirty funeral director takes a permanent dirt nap after Chuck’s 60 seconds is up.
Here’s what we know about Chuck’s case:
• Chuck is given her vacation getaway cruise package gratis in exchange for picking something up for Deedee Duffield, the Boutique Travel Travel Boutique’s proprietor.
• Chuck, Ned and Emerson find Deedee dead when they go to question her. They get almost no new information out of her, other than she knew picking up the monkeys would be dangerous, before Deedee touches Ned and keels over, dead again.
• Chuck’s murderer goes to the house she shares with her aunts to get the monkeys back only to attack both Aunt Lily (Swoosie Kurtz) and Ned, trying to suffocate them with a plastic bag, before Lily takes him out with a shotgun.
• Chuck and Ned discover the monkeys she was sent to retrieve are solid gold.
There were a lot of great lines. My favorite exchange (besides the whole pie metaphor debate Ned and Chuck had) was:
Emerson: "Words that sound alike get mixed up in my head."
Olive (Kristin Chenoweth): "Me too. I used to think 'masturbation' meant chewing your food.… I don’t think that anymore."
Favorite stand-alone lines:
Chuck: "I was hoisted by my own petard."
Aunt Lily: "Unless she enjoyed vomiting and diarrhea, I can’t imagine she had a good last meal."
How Ned manages to touch Chuck without actually touching her:
• He asks Emerson to give her a hug on his behalf.
• He holds his own hand and pretends it’s hers. And she does the same.
• He kisses her monkey with his.
Other characters I can’t wait to get to know better:
Olive Snook — a waitress at The Pie Hole with a crush on Ned.
Aunt Lily — one of Chuck’s aunts. She lost her eye in an unfortunate encounter with dirty cat litter.
Aunt Vivian (Ellen Greene) — Chuck’s other aunt. She, like her sister, likes fine cheeses but she doesn’t like to be touched.
One thing I would recommend pronto is Ned coming clean about Chuck’s dad. It’s a pretty big secret and ultimately I think she’ll understand. I mean she has to, right? But there’s so much great dramatic tension with Ned continuing to keep his secret so I guess I’m not that eager for him to be honest. We’ll see.
The narrator, Jim Dale, is quite amusing. I like how some of what he says contradicts what the characters say, which reminds me of the narrator in Little Children. The narrative there and here really adds something to the story.
I want to mention the visual palette at play here, too. It’s like everything’s in bright, vivid Technicolor. It’s cool. I hope they’ll keep the look of the pilot (or pie lette) throughout the series.
I’ve been a big fan of writer/creator Bryan Fuller for a while. He created Dead Like Me (but was only around for the first season; Mandy Patinkin seemed to be happy working in TV at that time) and Wonderfalls (executive-produced by Tim Minear, probably best known for his work on Angel. He’s another favorite). I think I’d pretty much watch anything either one of them was a part of. Yes, even Drive, but that was mainly in support of Nathan Fillion. Mr. Fuller did good work on Heroes, too.
OK, I’m sure you’re tired of me drooling over this like I would a piece of yummy pumpkin pie. Hey, it’s fall. Why not? I can’t wait to hear your thoughts. What were your favorite lines? What do you think of Ned and Chuck’s burgeoning relationship? Now that the Darling Mermaid Darlings are no longer shut-ins, what sort of mischief do you think they will get into? What’s your favorite kind of pie?
In the meantime, take a bite out of our Online Video Guide for more on Pushing Daisies.
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Oct 4, 2007 1:36 AM
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3rd time I've seen the pilot and after it ends I'm left with the same joyous feeling.
It's too bad that there are so many ppl who take their dramas too serious and cannot tap into that adventerous imaginaton we all once had.
The best thing is that once the "magic" wears off and the bright visuals become expected, we will be left with some really fun characters.
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Oct 4, 2007 1:43 AM
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I had no real expectations going into the show, beyond knowing the basic premise.
Holy wow. This is great stuff. The entire "Once upon a time..." tone was great, and poor Ned with the way his life turned out. Not to mention Chuck with the way her death turned out.
How horrible would it be to not be able to touch the love of your life? I'm guessing that it takes less than skin-to-skin, otherwise you'd think it would be pretty easy to get that hug just by wearing some bulky sweaters.
Aunt one-eye not seeing Chuck because of her eyepatch. Chuck kicking the body of the guy who killed her. Ned using an extendable back scratcher to pet his dog. Olive and her heart-on-a-sleeve crush on Ned. All great. I can't wait for more of this, but I have a dread that it won't be embraced by enough people. Fingers crossed.
Also, Kristin Chenoweth is -really- short. I mean, really really short. You get used to women being shorter than men on average, but seeing her stand next to Ned, and he was like 2 full heads taller than she was.
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Oct 4, 2007 1:54 AM
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Wow wow wow! I loved this. I saw a preview for this and Dirty Sexy Money in August. I thought the premise sounded cool, but didn't know how good it would be. I didn't hear much about it after that until recently when people online were buzzing about it.
I thought it was on last night, but to my surprise (and relief) it was on tonight! My husband brought it up that he wanted to see it too.
I loved it!!! I missed the first 5 minutes though and then the next 5 minutes I was distracted so it took me a while to figure out how Ned's deal worked.
I loved the quickness to it. They didn't miss a beat with their banter.
Can't wait until next week!
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Oct 4, 2007 2:19 AM
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Didn't like it. Over-hyped to say the least...what have the critics been smoking??
Just a gimmicky detective show.
I was bored and fed up by minute 45.
Hated the narrator, wanted to claw his eyes out...I mean really...stating everyone's age to year month day...ugh...my nerves were shot.
Hated the actress playing Chuck.
It will get old fast pple.
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Oct 4, 2007 2:38 AM
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"Pushing Daisies" didn't disappoint. My roommates and I all agreed it reminded us of the movie "Amelie" in terms of cinematography/color, style, and voice-over narrative. (Plus, in both "Pushing Daisies" and "Amelie," the mom dies early on in the child's life.) And I loved "Amelie" so I think I'm going to love this show.
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Oct 4, 2007 2:40 AM
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LOVED IT!!! This certainly lived up to the hype. Glad you mentioned the visuals - it's like Tim Burton crossed over to the Sunny Side of the Street. Loved the aunts! I knew Ellen Greene of course from Little Shop of Horrors, but didn't recognize Swoozie Kurtz at all and had to look up the cast list. And Kristin Chenowith, what can I say? Oh, yeah, LOVED IT!
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Oct 4, 2007 2:45 AM
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YUCK! HATED IT!
After all the hype here at tvguide.com, I was looking forward to this show. But it couldn't keep my attention. I watched to the end, but I won't be trying a second episode. But since I hate it, it will probably be on for the next 10 years, so everybody who loved it should be in luck as long as you don't let your TV touch you while you watch.
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Oct 4, 2007 2:56 AM
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Adored it. It definitely had the same feel as Amelie, which was a fantastic and original film. Hopefully, this show isn't too unique&thoughtful for some people's attention span. 
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Oct 4, 2007 3:20 AM
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I was sort of underwhelmed. Too much hype raised my expectations, I guess. It was cute and clever, sort of, but I have my doubts that this premise can be sustained over a whole season. It's the sort of thing that gets boring pretty fast for me.
There were a couple of great moments, though. The fact that Ned's restaurant is called The Pie Hole had my husband and I howling. Emerson calling Ned "Bitch" was another howler. And Swoozie Kurtz and Ellen Greene as the crazy aunts was a real treat.
But overall, I don't know how long I will stick with this one. I'll wait to see how next week goes.
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Oct 4, 2007 3:38 AM
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Well, the premise is neat and new; scores points there---but---the narration drives me nuts! I kept expecting the Grinch to pop out somewhere or a little tiny Whoville resident. The narrative style was too resemblent of Christmas shows and it really annoyed me. I'm going to try watching again but I am uncertain if it will stay on my viewing schedule.
Sandi
45 years, 7 months, 4 days, 54 seconds old  ">
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Oct 4, 2007 5:29 AM
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Brilliant on every level. It was a perfect show for me.
The unfornate side is that the average TV viewer won't have the patience, the understanding of fantasy and whimsy, or the understanding of a show that doesn't fall into a specific genre with a specific formula.
It won't last until Christmas. We'll see it again on "Brilliant But Cancelled" or somesuch, eventually.
Still, I'm going to enjoy every piece until it's gone.
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Oct 4, 2007 6:27 AM
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I loved Wonderfalls- alot- so I knew I would really enjoy this show too. I can do quirky no problem. Let me tell you what I enjoyed the most:
*The colors- the visuals are fantastic. My daughter, who knew nothing about this show going in, thought the beginning was a dream because of the colors.
*The witty banter
*The one liners (specifically the masturbation line mentioned and the "b**ch, I was in proximity")
*Lee Pace. Fan since Wonderfalls.
There's probably more, but that's what I liked the most.
Now- let me tell you what I liked the least:
*The narrator. The telling of peoples ages down to the second really started grating on my nerves.
*Chuck. For some reason that actress does nothing for me. I've never seen her before and I'm not really liking her with our Ned. Maybe she'll grow on me but something just irked me and I had a hard time getting through that to enjoy the rest of the show.
The narrator alone may be enough to drive me away from this show eventually. I really hope it was so heavy-handed this episode because it was the pilot and so much had to be explained. I'm not really a fan of narration to begin with. I can tolerate it in Grey's Anatomy since it's just bookended. I can tolerate it in Gossip Girl simply because it's Kristen Bell (even though that one is starting to bug me too). I couldn't get past 3 minutes of Little Children based on the narration alone. Just not a fan of narration.
So, I'll stick around for now and pray that the narration slows down and the Chuck grows on me because I really did enjoy the rest tremendously.
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Oct 4, 2007 7:19 AM
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I absolutely loved it. It was super cute; the fairytale aspect works well. And the visuals are amazing! Plus the writing and the acting are superb. I'm definitely in love, it's my new favorite show. I just hope they let Kristin Chenoweth have some more screen time, she's one of my favorites.
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Oct 4, 2007 7:24 AM
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If you think it's a "gimmicky detective show", I think you're missing the whole concept of the show. I respect people's opinions if they didn't like it, but it's not some normal detective show. I think you have to go into it with an imagination, and if you don't have that you most definitely won't like it. I personally loved it. I loved the concept, the fantasy aspect of it, the witty banter and the use of color and animation to bring the story to life. I also enjoyed the whimsical music and narration. There's nothing else like it on TV right now and I'm excited to continue watching it. That being said, I have a horrible feeling it will be canceled at some point. All the good and unusual shows are canceled, only to be replaced with more of the same crime dramas. Hopefully that won't happen with this one.
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Oct 4, 2007 7:50 AM
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