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.

Power Panels 3

Every comics fan out there should pick up the Flight anthology. Each volume contains a massive collection of short stories in comic form. Admittedly, not every story works, but the level of experimentation and creative energy that goes into these stories is admirable.

The second volume is probably my favorite of the bunch, and Sonny Liew's "Dead Soul's Day Out" seems to have made the biggest impression on me.

I've only read the Malinky Robot stories that appear in Flight. As near as I can tell, the stories center on two orphan boys, Atari and Oliver, who spend their days begging and scrounging up enough money to go watch their favorite science fiction giant robot movies.

Gripping, right?

Actually, these stories usually contain some surprisingly poignant moments. For a medium that allegedly doesn't do music well, "Dead Soul's Day Out" finds an effective use for musical lyrics. The story begins with Atari on the street, singing a song for coin:


Later, after finding some money on the ground and catching a giant robot flick, the boys find out their friend Misha is moving. Atari watches her leave just as the rain starts to come down:


In case you can't see it, the words to the apple song are hidden in the rain. The effect is surprisingly haunting - the music enhances the bittersweet atmosphere of parting with a dear friend. It's the closest I've ever seen a comics panel come to incorporating real background music, and it's surprisingly effective.

Karaoke Night

New Year's Writing

I started with my New Year's writing goal on Monday of this week. Three days in, and I already remember why I've had so much trouble with any novels I've planned in the past.

Writing prose is HARD WORK. Especially when you actually care about what you're writing.

See, for NaNoWriMo, what I wrote didn't really matter. The idea was to just write as much as I could, regardless of how good it was. I wound up writing a lot of garbage - flecks of gold in the middle, certainly, but there's a lot to be trimmed out.

I've been having difficulty figuring out how to incorporate character description into my prose, especially in the opening paragraphs, which are supposed to be engaging. For a bit of guidance, I turned to a book I read back in college, Disgrace by Nobel-prize winning author J.M. Coetzee. I wanted to see how he described his main character in the first chapter.

He didn't.

Oh, that's not to say the reader doesn't learn a lot about David Lurie. We learn about his divorces, his sexual history, and - most importantly - his attachment issues.

It's an uncomfortable read.

However, we never learn (at least in this first chapter) what exactly the main character LOOKS like. It kinda makes me rethink my assumptions on how important physical description IS.

I'm gonna have to take another look at the books I read and how the writing progresses. I'm new to prose fiction, so I'm still learning the mechanics.

This is gonna be fun.

The Game is Survival

Resolutions 2011

Last year I made something like 14 resolutions. I think I kept one, maybe two (although I did come close on a couple of my goals). This year, I'm gonna keep things simple by focusing on the things I do that make me happiest.

See, I kept myself pretty busy during 2010. I had a lot of fun performing (with one pretty notable exception), but, really, theater isn't the thing that's made me happy. So I'm pretty much done with the stage, I think, except for the improv team.

Of everything I did in 2010, I got the most satisfaction from the daily sketches I did and, of course, NaNoWriMo. So my goals for 2011 are going to be a continuation of those activities.

1 - Continue with One Sketch per Day

2 - Write at Least 250 Words per Day

By the way, 250 words (about the equivalent of 1 type-written page) takes about 15 minutes to do. This should be an easy goal to keep.

3 - Complete a Second Draft of the Novel I Wrote in November

4 - Write and Draw at Least 4 Complete Comics

Here we're talking 6 or more full-sized pages, hand-drawn (not that I have anything against Microsoft Paint). I got an idea for a pretty fun little comic while I was in the shower the other day, and I'm participating in a writing competition in which I plan to do a comic, so, hopefully, this goal's not too unrealistic.

And now, a little something extra:

5 - Start Saving for a Real Vacation

Travel for me has always been a pipe dream. I've never made concrete plans to go ANYWHERE further away than Smith's Marketplace. I don't have any idea where I'll go (maybe New York, maybe the Grand Canyon, or maybe I'll just pop down to Cedar City for the Shakespearean festival), but I want to start planning for the trip by setting aside a little extra from each paycheck.

I think that'll do it.

An Inauspicious Start

Dear 2011,

I usually look forward to the arrival of a new year with a great deal of hope and optimism. I make all sorts of resolutions and vow that my relationship with the coming year will be a good one. To this day I maintain correspondence with some earlier years, thinking about how good times have been.

However, the first impression you made has left me feeling a little cold - and that's not simply due to the faulty heater in my apartment.

I awoke this morning to prepare for work as usual. Upon heading out to my car, I saw the trunk had been opened. I'll admit to experiencing a bit of dread at that moment. I closed the trunk, opened the door to the car, and, sure enough, I had been robbed.

I advise all my passengers to not leave anything valuable in my car, as my car doors don't lock. Unfortunately, I myself tend to be a bit forgetful, so I had accidentally left some new clothes I had just purchased on the backseat, which are now in the possession of some ruffian (see attached photograph).


Above: Some Ruffian.

I would not usually be so upset about this - I figure if someone steals from me, they may actually be in greater need of the stolen items than I am. However, this ruffian showed a bit more cheek than most of the ruffians I've encountered - he left a note on the front seat that said, "Merry Christmas."

Now, I understand that you're new to this whole "year" thing, so I'm willing to forgive this first trespass. However, just know that I'll be watching you VERY carefully from here on in.

Regards,
S.R. Braddy