The Pushing Daisies Review: 1.6 - Bitches
Posted by Brendan Newton on 11.16.2007
Well, they're female dogs, that's the correct word, isn't it?
Man, it seems like it's been forever since I graced 411 with a review; no Pushing Daisies last week, plus a screwy work schedule led to my missing Bionic Woman, so it's been two weeks since my last review. Ah well. Pushing Daisies was decent tonight and as cute as ever, so it's all good, even though I wasn't as over the moon about this episode as I have been about previous installments. Thoughts:
-Missed Sy Richardson as the coroner last week, good to see his return in this episode, and finally we see him in a mood besides his usual dourness, as his face lit up when Emerson bribed it in a great little character moment. I love how Ned and co. seem to have given up on the whole gimmick of telling the coroner that they're some sort of expert (one wonders why this week they didn't reuse the “dog expert” gag from the pilot) and are just flat-out bribing the guy. He seems down with it.
-As usual, this week's Flashback to Ned's past was great; there's something really haunting about young Ned, alone in the orphanage, trying to recreate his happy past out of Play-Doh. Loved one of those little “Didja Notice?” moments as Chuck's monster outfit from “Pie-lette” returned. Showing how important these two were to each other even-or perhaps especially-after they were separated goes a long way towards alleviating the slightly unrealistic quality their relationship has. Sure, it seems odd that these two would fall madly in love again after being apart for the better part of twenty years, but it all makes a bit more sense-at least insomuch as TV ever makes sense-when we see how much of those twenty years they spent dreaming of each other. Of course, when you spend that long an amount of time apart dreaming of someone, you end up idealizing him/her, which means that you may end up being rather let down by actual contact. This of course is not a problem in Ned and Chuck's case, which brings up an interesting point; obviously, Ned and Chuck's inability to touch doesn't make for a healthy relationship on a number of levels. It really enables (“enables” just seems like an appropriate word for this psychologically savvy show) the idealized view that each has of the other and neatly prevents messy reality from rearing its ugly head. It's a credit to the soon-to-be-on-strike writers and the actors that they can make an unhealthy, somewhat infantile relationship so sweet, but then as the Narrator (still love that Disney narration!) points out at episode's end, love takes many forms, and love in whatever form is still love. And Ned and Chuck's separate, Ernie-and-Bert style beds across from each other just cement them as the most adorable couple on TV.
-Speaking of Ned and Chuck in bed, I'll admit that the writers had me worried for a second during Ned's dream sequence when he and Chuck appeared to have touched and were wondering what that went. Don't get me wrong, if the show's going to last they do need to have Ned and Chuck find a way around the no-touching problem at some stage, but that would have been way too much too soon. Also, if they were going to have Ned and Chuck touch at this point, it would need to have some goofy “reset button” ending in order to keep the show going, which would have been just lame. Cool dream sequence, although it could have done with a few more bizarre elements to make it clear that it was a dream (“Why is my great aunt dancing with a German Shepherd in a Tutu?!?”). Good job of dramatizing Ned's uncertainties about Chuck and Olive though, and good continuity from last week with Olive and Ned's kiss coming up; at one point they had me thinking that they were going in the direction of Ned settling for the girl he can actually touch and starting a relationship with Olive. As always we get that sense of relationship realism mixed in with the fantastical stuff, as I think we can all relate to Ned's situation here, torn between the girl you really want but can't have and the girl you don't want quite so much but who really wants you and knows how to make it obvious physically. By episode's end we were back to the status quo, however, as Ned made it fairly clear to Olive that he wasn't interested. I'll admit I was surprised by Ned's apparent (and hilarious) cluelessness regarding Olive's attraction, when I'd always assumed he was hip to her. C'mon man, she's rubbing up against you like that and she just wants to be friends?? It does work as a reflection of just how alienated Ned has become that he doesn't pick up on Olive's in-your-face advances, so huzzah. I did have my reservations about how they resolved the Ned-Olive storyline, as it seemed like they were reaching for the dreaded reset button with Olive clinging to some slim hope for something to work out between herself and Ned in time despite Ned's overt rejection of her; have I mentioned how much I hate it when TV shows do this? Have a bunch of crazy emotional stuff happen to the characters, then just conveniently “undo” it all so they don't have to deal with it the next week. Drives me mad, the only show that I don't mind doing it is when The Simpsons mercilessly makes fun of it. On the other hand, I think we've all done what Olive does at the end of this episode and cling on to that sliver of (probably false) hope in spite of reality, so it's realistic on that level. I'd really like to see the return of Alfredo the homeopathic antidepressant salesman as the guy who's as hung up on Olive as she is on Ned sometime though. Besides death, desire is a central theme of this series; this week we get Ned's great little speech about said desires: “We wake up everyday with a list of wishes a mile long and maybe we spend our lives trying to make those wishes come true, but just because we want them doesn't mean we need them to be happy.” Is the link we all perceive between our desires and eventual happiness in fact a false one? After all of this will it really be such a great moment when Ned and Chuck find a way around the whole curse thing (I've said it before and I'll say it again; Naked Gun-style full-body condoms). Anyways, one of this show's typically disturbing little touches was the revelation that Olive's late racing horse was named The Pie, perhaps suggesting that her affection for pie-maker Ned (who's a pie-maker, remember, since he watched his mother die while she was baking him a pie) stems from her attraction to her...horse? This show really does get me thinking in weird directions sometimes, although it was cool to see Olive helping to interrogate the Corpse of the Week's wives as she's gradually becoming a fourth member of the “team.” This should all lead to her finding out about Ned's gift by year's end.
-Well, looks like some of my theories about Emerson from my last review (namely involving the implications of his knowledge of the difference between purple and mauve, his knitting, and art school background) were proved false this week by his near-fatal attraction to one of Harold the Corpse of the Week's four wives, leading to plenty more of this show's delicious (heh) pie-related double entendres. Great pie-tastic dream sequence, I loved the way Emerson turned around after that vivid dream and wanted to figure out what it meant after having scoffed at Ned's dream analysis the week. Reminds me of the way I'll scoff at Astrology to no end and yet sometimes still glance at my own horoscope. Cool “childhood flashback” about his claustrophobia; one of these interesting little character notes, but also the fridge incident's relative mundanity contrasts nicely with Ned's one-of-a-kind childhood traumas. And great to see him finally getting some romantic action courtesy of Simone the Bitch Trainer. Don't know that this will happen, but she would make a great recurring addition to the cast as a love interest for Emerson. What can I say, I think the Bitch and Breeding gags have legs.
-Speaking of Bitch Trainers, Dog Breeding is this week's Wacky Subculture, hence the episode's title, which I love because it falls under the Bart Simpson Bastard Rule: Sometimes the swear word is the correct word. To say that this show's writing can be almost self-consciously clever, it also really gives my inner sniggering twelve-year old a good workout. Lots of good talk about breeding issues too, I loved the conversation with Heather the Dog Psychologist about “Ned's” “breeding issues.” I think it's fair to say this show has found the perfect balance between intelligent, rapier-sharp dialogue and sophomoric toilet humour, especially with the revelation that Hilary the killer found “satisfaction” with Bubblegum the hybrid dog.
-Interesting basic whodunit plot this week, good gag with the Corpse of the Week plainly revealing that he was killed by his wife (I felt a bit sorry for poor old Harold when he was all up for coming along with Ned & Co., only to immediately be put back to death by Ned) and then having things immediately get all screwed up again with the revelation of his polygamy. They did a really good job of dropping subtle hints that Hilary was the killer (her shock and outrage over Snuppy owning Bubblegum), while also having her fly under the radar by giving the other wives the more memorable scenes and more clearly defined personalties before surprising you with her being revealed as the killer. Liked the final chase scene too. I'm also surprised that it's taken them this long to get to them doing the Weekend at Bernie's thing with a corpse, in this case poor ol' Snuppy (great character name by the way, vaguely doggish while not meaning anything in particular), basically storing up the 60 seconds that Ned's touch can give until the victim was able to finger the perp in person. Speaking of Ned's 60-second rule, I just realized that we haven't actually seen how he discovered that rule, that he only had 60 seconds to touch a corpse a second time or else someone else would die. Hopefully that'll be one of the “Young Ned” clips some week.
All in all, this was a good episode of a great show; some sweet Ned/Chuck stuff, advancement of the Olive arc (albeit with a bit of a “reset button” feel to it), good character moments all around (Emerson and the Coroner), and a fun but-not-too-self-consciously wacky murder mystery of the week. Merrily, creepily, Pushing Daisies rolls along. Hopefully if we see a second season they'll do a sequel to this episode. It would of course be called Son of a.....
The 411: Good little episode with lots of clever dialogue and character stuff mixed with some good old-fashioned 12-year old double entendre humour. "Bitches" was a lot of fun.
