Top 5 Pushing Daisies Episodes

I don’t think I’m overstating things when I say that Pushing Daisies is the heaven-sent pinnacle of prime-time television that literally spewed love and glitter from the screen. The thought of the show’s cancellation still short-sheets my soul, but I can lounge out with a little bit of luxury thanks to my seven-DVD collection. I’ve been going through the show again, and, with every episode, I find myself in a giddy fit of giggles over the eye-popping visuals, dazzling dialog, and utterly charming characters.

Picking favorites from among these televised gems is like having to choose a favorite child when all of your children are independently wealthy and incredibly generous with their love and riches. Still, here are my top five:


5 – Pie-Lette

Pushing Daisies, for me at least, works as a series because of the wild imagination brought to the little screen in every episode. That train of imagination left the station with a hearty burst of creative steam. Ned and Emerson team up to solve the murder of Ned’s childhood sweetheart. The first episode of Pushing Daisies brought us our first glimpse of lovably neurotic aunts Lily and Vivian Charles, the magic powers of Ned’s finger, and, of course, the life-loving enthusiasm of a girl named Chuck.

4 – Circus Circus

The second season of Pushing Daisies lost a lot of the charm the first season had (I suspect but can’t confirm that budget cuts may have been responsible). However, the second episode, focusing on a young girl’s suspicious disappearance and a string of murders surrounding a travelling circus group, proves that the show still had some mileage left to it. Too bad the same couldn’t be said for the clown car run off the road and the twenty or so gaudily-painted bodies inside…


3 – Bitter Sweets

Ned makes such a good super-powered private eye that it’s sometimes easy to forget that he’s also a business owner and talented pastry chef. This episode focuses on the business side of Ned’s life, as he is forced to compete with a pair of dastardly confectioners and their underhanded business practices. Bitter Sweets also highlights Emerson Cod’s personal ability and intellect, showing that, even without supernatural help, the man is a fine detective.


2 – Window Dressed to Kill

Another episode which takes our main characters and puts them in situations we’re not used to seeing them in. Ned, taking a break from resurrecting after experiencing some personal trauma, decides to “try on” a relationship with Olive while helping her former kidnappers flee the country. At the same time, Chuck and Emerson track down the murderer of a store window dresser as her devotees mourn her loss. All that, plus a resurrected rhinoceros.


1 – Fun in Funeral

The third episode of Pushing Daisies is the first one I ever saw, so my attachment to it is a little sentimental. That said, I still feel “Fun in Funeral” is the strongest episode of the entire series. When Ned decided to let Chuck live in “Pie-lette,” he let another man – a thieving funeral home owner, die. The moral consequences of Ned’s actions are difficult to sort through, but the show deals with it with its usual charm, humor, and sophistication, proving that the magic of the first two episodes wasn’t accidental.

***

Just about every episode is worth watching. Looking back over this list, I realize I’m missing a LOT of great moments from the series: Ned’s magician half-brothers, the polygamist dog-breeder, and pretty much every Olive Snook solo.

That said, there is ONE (and ONLY ONE) episode of this show that I can safely say I don’t like. Heck, I’d maybe even say that I HATE this episode. Going with the Sophie’s Choice analogy again, this episode is like the child that is independently wealthy and generous but has an unfortunate inclination towards serial murder.


:-( – Kerplunk

The final episode of the series actually works in a lot of ways – a fittingly over-the-top mystery, fantastic visuals, and the climax of one of the most significant plot threads of the series. However, since the ultimate fate of the show was, at the time the episode was written, unclear, a half-hearted attempt was made to wrap up EVERY dangling plot thread. In trying to wrap up the whole series in a pretty bow, they left a lot of gaping holes in the package. “Kerplunk” is the most dissatisfying conclusion to any show I think I’ve ever seen, and it downright sucks. Given another season, the show could have easily concluded without leaving any mysteries unexplained, and Pushing Daisies would have just been a fantastic bite of fairy-tale sugar. Sadly, this final episode leaves a bit of a bitter aftertaste.