Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		5.0
Audio		2.0
Extras		1.0
Overall		4.0

Pushing Daisies: The Complete First Season Blu-ray Movie Review

Any time of day is a good time for pie.

Reviewed by Ben Williams September 16, 2008

Eccentric and quirky: These two words describe the work of “Pushing Daisies'” creator and show-runner Bryan Fuller perfectly. Mr. Fuller has been responsible for some of the most groundbreaking and, frankly, odd television produced over the past decade or so. Fuller got his start writing for “Star Trek: Deep Space Nine” and “Star Trek: Voyager” back in the day, but his work on “Dead Like Me” really displayed his unique sensibilities. While that show was critically acclaimed much like his second series, “Wonderfalls,” both suffered low ratings and weren’t given much of a chance by the viewing public. So, with his third original series, “Pushing Daisies,” Mr. Fuller once again brings his bizarre vision to television screens around the world. Like the majority of last year’s television season, “Pushing Daisies” was limited to only nine episodes and suffered at the hands of the Writer’s Guild strike. Despite this, “Pushing Daisies” proved to be an original and inventive entry into the television landscape.

Ned (Lee Pace) is a man of strange talents. As a pie maker by trade, he harbors a strange secret: Ned is able to resurrect dead people by simply touching them. There are, however, side effects to Ned’s amazing powers. A second touch from Ned will render the newly reanimated, dead - - permanently this time. In addition, if Ned lets someone that he has resurrected live longer than 60 seconds, another person will die in their place. After years of experimenting with his powers in order to learn how to use them more responsibly, Ned enters into a business partnership with an enterprising private investigator named Emerson Cod (Chi McBride). Together, they use Ned’s powers to talk to the dead and to discover if foul play was involved in their passing. Armed with this “insider information” Ned and Emerson solve unsolved murders and collect rewards offered by grieving families.

Ned contemplates another resurrection. It's all in a day's work.

The basic setup for the show revolves around Ned and Emerson investigating the death of Ned’s childhood sweetheart, Charlotte “Chuck” Charles (Anna Friel). Naturally, Ned resurrects her, leaves her alive and the two quickly fall in love. They’ll have to deal with Ned's decision to sacrifice another life to bring Chuck back to life, the reality that they can never touch (lest Chuck be immediately and permanently killed) and their efforts to conceal Chuck's true identity. Apparently, having a dead woman as a girlfriend can cause some serious problems. In addition, a nosy employee of Ned’s, Olive Snook (Kristin Chenoweth), is suspicious of Chuck and spends the majority of her screen time vying for Ned's affection while simultaneously trying to uncover dirt about Ned's mysterious new girlfriend. Chuck’s two eccentric aunts (Swoosie Kurtz and Ellen Greene) will also factor into the mix as they try to cope with the apparent loss of their beloved niece. “Pushing Daisies” is bizarre, fun and, quite frankly, a beautiful show.

I really didn’t think I’d connect with “Pushing Daisies.” When I first saw advertisements for the show it just looked boring and intentionally weird. Months later, I attended the TV Producer’s Panel at Comic Con and had the opportunity to listen to Bryan Fuller’s sweet and twisted take on things. He instantly won me over with his rosy outlook on life and his ability to bring humor and lighthearted sentiment to the subject of death. From that point forward, I eagerly awaited “Pushing Daisies'” release on Blu-ray. Upon finally watching the series, I was not disappointed as it lives up to its billing as a completely original and a lighthearted take on its rather dark subject matter. Acting, across the board, is fantastic and decidedly eccentric, perfectly matching the kookiness presented on screen. I was particularly impressed with Anna Friel as Chuck. She’s lovable and intelligent and brings a certain warmth to an already sweet show. Lee Pace is a bit of an enigma as he plays the role of Ned as a bit of a closed book. Ned is consistently changing throughout the show and begins to open up as the season progresses. He’s a damaged character who grows and develops - - something not seen on TV very often. My favorite character is, without any doubt, Chi McBride’s Emerson Cod. The man is simply hilarious with his aggressive wit, knee-slapping one-liners and his extremely sarcastic tone.

Of course, all of these fantastic characters serve what turns out to be a very simple, yet sweetly rendered plot. “Pushing Daisies” is a warm hug of a show. Even the bad guys are good hearted and no matter how dark the subject matter gets, the show is grounded in the idea of true love, kindness and a sweet silliness that’s just plain captivating. I haven’t seen anything so hopelessly optimistic in years. Cynics beware! “Pushing Daisies” might just make you blush. It’s the kind of show that can appeal to viewers of any age and is certified “Grandma Safe.” “Pushing Daisies” is genuinely warm and spirited entertainment and is highly recommended!

Pushing Daisies: The Complete First Season Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Warner Brothers brings "Pushing Daisies" to Blu-ray in its original broadcast aspect ratio of 1.78:1 in full 1080p glory utilizing the VC-1 compression codec. As a compliment to the show's decidedly eccentric and quirky story, "Pushing Daisies" is a visually rich and colorful affair. The show makes use of plastic-looking sets and features an almost surrealistic take on the average suburban environment. In a stark contrast to these fake looking city shots, many of the scenes that take place in rural settings feature lush green fields and sweeping vistas of tall grass and beautiful rolling hills. It's all rather cartoon-ish and gives the show an otherworldly feel. In one episode from mid-way through the season, a crop dusting plane crashes into a building across the street from Ned's "Pie Hole" pie restaurant. The special effects used for this sequence are just plain silly and look like some sort of odd combination of claymation and CGI. Of course, this is all on purpose and it just adds to the overall weirdness of the show.

With the show's bizarre visual style and extremely rich color palette, high definition really helps to showcase the intricate detail that has gone in to creating the world of "Pushing Daisies." Colors are vivid and intentionally over-saturated. Contrast is a little on the weak side, but I think it is intentional and gives the show a more illustrated look. Detail is exceptional throughout the show with skin and fabric details exceptionally well rendered. As a matter of fact, this Blu-ray actually shows some of the production's weaknesses in that some of the show's CGI backgrounds are easily identifiable and stand out against live action elements in the foreground. As strange as this show can be, it wouldn't surprise me in the least to learn that this was entirely intentional and was intended to add to the kooky visual style that the show has adopted. All in all, "Pushing Daisies" looks fabulous on Blu-ray.

Pushing Daisies: The Complete First Season Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Boy, has Warner dropped the ball with "Pushing Daisies." In every press release or advertisement that has been released for this set, Warner has stated that a Dolby TrueHD audio track would be included. To make matters worse, Dolby TrueHD is even listed on the back of the packaging of the retail version of this Blu-ray release. There's even a TrueHD logo! Unfortunately, there is no TrueHD track on this disc. In addition, when selecting your audio track from the setup menu, all that is listed is "english" - - as though this set defaults to TrueHD. Viewers will have to activate the audio menu of their BD player to know for sure what they are getting.

Bearing that in mind, I'm not sure if what we have with "Pushing Daisies" is an authoring error, a misprint or some other screwup. I'm sure it wasn't an intentional mistake on Warner's part, but I can't imagine plenty of buyers not being disappointed by this oversight. I've asked Warner to get to the bottom of this issue and I'll update this review with their response when they figure out what has taken place. In the mean time, the Dolby Digital track included with this release is actually quite good. This is a dialogue heavy show, with an abundance of multi-channel music presented in all five speakers. It's a nice track and does a nice job of conveying the drama and emotion of the show. It will be an interesting experiment, if Warner should offer a corrected TrueHD version of this set, to see how this Dolby Digital track compares to TrueHD. Stay tuned...

Pushing Daisies: The Complete First Season Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

The second weak spot to this Blu-ray edition of "Pushing Daisies" would be its supplemental features. The packages advertises the sets lone special feature as "Pie-Time - Time For Pie: a delicious interactive featurette in which cast and creative team members dish forkfulls of series secrets." Sounds enticing, doesn't it? In reality this is a simple featurette of behind the scenes footage and cast and crew interviews. Given that "Pushing Daisies" is such a unique show, perhaps next time around, the folks at Warner might opt to include the show's unique advertising campaign or even a commentary or two. Alas, it is not to be with season one.

Pushing Daisies: The Complete First Season Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

"Pushing Daisies" is a thoroughly original and groundbreaking television series. Its quirky characters, odd sets and powerful musical score all serve to highlight a bizarre and ingenious plot that presents dark subject matter in a way that focuses on the most positive elements and warmest feelings. It's an entrancing experience that leaves the viewer happy - - despite being a show about death. Warner has presented "Pushing Daisies" on Blu-ray with a stellar video encode that features bright, lively colors and striking photography. They mystery of "Pushing Daisies'" disappearing TrueHD track is a definite disappointment that I hope Warner will correct. We'll have to wait and see how that turns out. Despite a lackluster collection of extras and the aforementioned sound issue, I can't recommend "Pushing Daisies" enough and hope it finds its audience on Blu-ray. Season two is right around the corner and I intend to tune in every week!