Well, I suppose dying's as good an excuse as any to start living.
—Charlotte "Chuck" Charles
The facts are these:There once was a piemaker who could raise the dead with a touch—but only for sixty seconds, or else someone else would have to die to take their place. If he touched the resurrected person again, they died permanently. One day, the piemaker was given the opportunity to raise Chuck, his childhood sweetheart... So he did. This act brought the two much closer, but tragically kept them apart; one more touch would mean Chuck would be dead forever. Along with his undead dog, a grumpy private eye, and a singing waitress, they solved murders, asking the dead who their murderers were in those sixty seconds and then collecting the often substantial reward for finding the killers.That could be the premise of Pushing Daisies, if it weren't a laughably inadequate description.Created by Wonderfalls and Dead Like Me executive Bryan Fuller, and set In a World lavishly decorated in Fifties styles, the show effortlessly makes its faintly ridiculous plots believable, as it deftly traces the line between earnestness and irony. Its fast-paced and witty dialogue, quirky characters, and great acting really bring out what can only be called the heart of the show: showing how people connect, or don't connect, with their fellow humans.Unfortunately, it ended up doomed to live up to its name. The first season was truncated by the Writers' Strike, and the second season didn't have much of a head of steam under it. The writing team was given 3 episodes to wrap up the series, and the last episode was aired on June 13, 2009 - one year, eight months, one week and three days after the first. The two seasons together make up a normal full-sized season.Recaps page is here.
The tropes were these:
Aborted Arc: When the first season was cut short due to the Writer's Strike, most of the plot threads set up during the first half received abrupt Ass Pull resolutions. When the second season suffered a similar fate upon the show's cancellation, most lingering threads were simply left hanging, though a choice few received mention in a Ass Pull epilogue. Sadly, the two half seasons do not equal a whole in terms of story.
Merle McQuoddy, his boat the Knockout Nora, and Typhoon Tyrone, which sunk her.
Main character Charlotte "Chuck" Charles
All Germans Are Nazis: Invoked and subverted twice. In "Bad Habits", a threatening guy with an accent, thought to be an 'Angry German' by Emerson Cod, was actually Swiss (and non-threatening). In "Comfort Food" was the Waffle Nazi, who appeared with full Lederhosen get-up, Gratuitous German, speech patterns, and threatening personality - only for it to be revealed as fake: he is neither German nor actually speaks the language, but is putting on a show.
Anachronic Order: each episode opens with a segment showing one of the principals—usually Ned, but sometimes Chuck, Olive, or Emerson—as a child.
Arbitrary Skepticism: despite having magical necromancy powers, Ned finds the notion of ghosts risible.
Back from the Dead: Chuck, most obviously; but also, briefly, the week's murder victim(s).
And now, it would seem, Charles Charles.
Badass Bystander: Lily, who blasts Chuck's assassin with a shotgun, complete with a nice Pre-Mortem One-Liner: "I can hold my breath for a long time."
Balancing Death's Books: There's a grace period of a minute, but if Ned doesn't re-touch the re-animated, something else of approximately equal "life" value will die in exchange. And even after said grace period, Ned can't touch the re-animated person/creature/whatever, or they'll be dead again.
Bandaged Face: Chuck's dad. He even has a smiley face drawn on it.
Bechdel Test: Passes. Chuck and Olive do talk about Ned a lot, but they also talk about Chuck's mysteriousness, her family, and the current mystery of the week. Olive and the aunts meet and talk about Chuck.
Brick Joke: Emerson's confusion of "narcoleptic" and "necrophiliac"—set up in "Pie-lette" for a payoff in "Pigeon".
Brainy Brunette: Chuck is book smart on just about everything.
Came Back Wrong: All of the bodies of the people Ned brings back to life remain as they were when he touched them. This is not always pleasant to watch.
Interestingly, this doesn't seem to apply to strawberries. One explanation or rationalization could be that Ned's powers can reverse/heal the effects of time or death by "natural" causes but can't reverse physical trauma.
Canine Companion: Digby (though of course, Ned can't touch him, as Digby was the first thing Ned had ever brought back to life. Interestingly, this raises the question of why Digby is still alive twenty-something years later.)
Combine this with Just for Pun and you get Olive's pig companion, Pigby.
Ned: It's hard enough being in a relationship where we can't touch. But… we improvise, figured out ways around that. I've even built contraptions. There's a weird mask.
Which was stolen by Olive on more than one occasion.
Played with once with the narrator saying "Oh, hell no!", and once with this exchange:
Rob Wright: I know how it must sound, but the facts were these...
Chuck: Huh?
Rob Wright: These were the facts...
Chekhov's Gun: "Circus Circus" has Chekhov's Cannon. A midget with a cannon happens to pass by when Ned and Emerson are at the ringmaster's trailer... then, later in the episode, the human cannonball gets fired at them. Also with Chuck's father's pocket watch, which the mysterious Dixon wants for some reason. It was shown in the very first episode and has only become relevant now, halfway through Season 2.
City With No Name: The city where the main action takes place is never named, though we do know that it's in (fictitious) Papen County, 131 miles due north of Coeur d'Coeurs (Ned and Chuck's equally fictitious hometown). Information on placing Papen County in a US state or region is internally inconsistent.
Comic Role Play: Olive on Aunt Lily— who tells her to pretend she's Chuck, her daughter, and to tell her what she'd say if Chuck were alive. Chuck is listening in.
Continuity Nod: After nabbing a criminal with a fake arm in "Pigeon" (Ned: "Is this the hand you were holding?"), Ned keeps the arm. In later episodes, he uses it to pet Digby and fish things out of a vat of taffy.
The bee brooch used as a bug in "Bzzzzzz!" is also used for the aforementioned Comic Role Play in "Oh Oh Oh—It's Magic"
Cool Old Lady: Both of Chuck's aunts are cool old ladies, but especially Aunt Lily, who shot Chuck's murderer. After nearly being killed herself. With zero depth perception. In the very first episode.
Cosmic Deadline: The last couple of episodes are a very obvious rush job that fail to resolve most of the lingering plot threads.
Costume Porn: Everyone dresses very nicely, but it's Lily and Vivian who pull out the bejewelled eyepatches and qipaos.
Curse Cut Short: in "Circus Circus", a dead clown mentions that the clowns had made up a limerick about an audience member named Bryce von Deenis. Chuck and Ned speculate on the contents of the limerick:
Cursed with Awesome: Ned can revive the dead with a touch, and has used that power to revive his dog and later his childhood sweetheart, make lots of money investigating murders, and open a thriving bakery by using old, rotted fruit in his pies (since it becomes fresh-off-the-vine as soon as he touches it). And as a result, he can't touch the woman he loves lest she drop dead instantly, ditto his beloved pet, and if he ever eats any of his pies the fruit will wither and rot in his mouth.
Although, if he ever wanted to make a pie for himself, he could get around the whole rotting-in-his-mouth problem by actually using fresh ingredients, which he does later in the series.
His second revival was his mother whose lingering caused the death of Chuck's father and then she promptly died when she kissed him good night.
Cutesy Name Town: Coeur d' Coeurs. You can't really get more cutesy than that. For the non-Francophones in the room, it means "Heart of Hearts"
Cut Short: The finale is a mad rush to try to tie up several of the loose ends, and misses a few in the process. Stupid network.
We never did find out what happened to Charles Charles or meet Ned's dad beyond a five second shot at the end of one episode. He was going to be played by George Hamilton. Stupid network.
Death Amnesia: Though the newly-revived are generally aware that they have died, they do not remember any sort of an afterlife.
Death by Childbirth: Chuck's mom. This is later subverted when it is revealed that Aunt Lily is really her mother. She lied due to the fact that Vivian was engaged to Charles.
Delicious Distraction: Ned's pies, especially those Chuck bakes with cheese on the crust for her aunts.
Department of Redundancy Department: everywhere, as well as all over the place. (See also Repetitive Name, below.) Chuck's aunts used to be the Darling Mermaid Darlings. There's a life insurance firm called Uber-Life Life Insurance. The travel agency Chuck frequented was Boutique Travel Travel Boutique. It was run by... Dee Dee.
Did Not Do the Research: Not so much Did Not Do the Research as Didn't Quite Think it Through. Near the end of the Pie-lette if you pay attention you'll see that Aunt Lily actually should have seen Chuck.
Discriminate And Switch: A bartender refuses to serve Emerson in "Girth"—not because he's black, but because he's too tall (the bar, as it turns out, is specifically for horse jockeys).
Faking the Dead: Chuck, sort of. Olive thinks Chuck's faking her death.
Fanservice: Used a fair bit, especially with Olive's outfits — the costuming department really got the most out of using Kristin Chenoweth, that's for sure. The ultra-low-cut mermaid costume with the one-leg so she had to hop up and down to move is probably the shining example.
Film Noir: The show's aesthetic draws pretty heavily on the Film Noir, particularly Emerson's office, the clipped, rapid-fire dialogue, and a good portion of "Dim-Sum Lose Some". Also, several film noir classics can be seen playing in the background in a few scenes of "Corpsicle".
As mentioned above, each episode begins with a segment indicating something about young Ned's past.
Usually the Victim of the Week recounts something about their murder, or the Narrator sums up the clues Emerson and company have found to solve the Mystery of the Week.
In "The Smell of Success" Aunt Lily mentions a sweater that belonged to Charlotte's mother. The narrator mentions that this made her go to "her dark place." The moment is framed such that it appears Chuck's aunt simply misses her niece. But a later episode reveals that Aunt Lily is Chuck's mother.
In the first episode, Lily mentions that Chuck used to threaten to bake anti-depressants into their food in order to cheer them up. Come Season Two...
Friendless Background: Ned very explicitly had no friends as of the start of the series. Emerson and Olive start as more business associate and oblivious crusher than anything.
Friendly Local Chinatown: As part of the Emerson's PI status, as well as the pervasive noirish milieu, his office is located in the local Chinatown, directly above a dim-sum restaurant, and his sign is in Chinese as well as English.
Genki Girl: Chuck, determined to make the most of her second chance at life.
Genre Savvy: Chuck is aware of and afraid of CHUD: Cannibalistic Humanoid Underground Dwellers.
Gratuitous German: Used by the Waffle Nazi, who, funnily enough, neither speaks the language nor is German at all. He's just cultivating an image.
Getting Crap Past the Radar: "Jock-off 2000." "Well, I'll be dental-dammed." "Simone had come... and gone." How in holy hell do they get that past the radar?
Also in the episode "The Norwegians," the crime lab used by the titular Norwegians is called Mother, with the lettering on the side saying "Mobile Investigative Lab Facility." The acronym spells a certain popular term for a hot mom.
In that same episode, Emerson ate at a Noodle bar called Hentai Noodles
Naming an episode "Bitches" when only one female dog is involved?
Olive, in one episode: "I used to think 'masturbation' meant chewing."
Chuck in episode 2 talks about a tee shirt Ned gave her for her eighth birthday, "Be kind to animals, kiss a beaver." Also Lampshaded by Chuck's aunts, who said Ned had a dirty mind and called him "Beaver Boy" following that incident.
Ned referring to his abilities as "Waking and Baking".
In "Corpsicle," one of the suspects deliberately messes up Emerson Cod's name, referring to him as Mr. Cox.
Come & Sleep Hotel.
G-Rated Drug: Chuck spikes her aunts' pies with homeopathic remedies, and Aunt Lily accidentally get an overdose in "Corpsicle". A Mushroom Samba results, and Hilarity Ensues.
Has Two Mommies: Chuck, raised by her two aunts or rather, one aunt and her mother masquerading as her other aunt...
Homage: Exactly how much this show owes to the classic French film Le Fabuleux Destin d'Amélie Poulain varies from "it's the writer's favourite film, there's bound to be some similarities" to "attempted shot-for-shot remake".
As well as the Hitchcock references in "Bitches", culminating with Emerson's dream homage to Vertigo.
In some episodes Chuck's fashion style is a clear tribute to Audrey Hepburn
A lot of scenes are shot in style of a Film Noir with the window shades casting shadows over the characters faces, most notably "Girth", "Bitches", and "Bad Habits", when Olive goes to hire Emerson.
Huge Guy, Tiny Girl: Casting Lee Pace and Chi McBride (6'3" and 6'4", respectively) opposite Anna Friel and Kristin Chenoweth (5'2" and 4'11", respectively) guaranteed lots of this.
Human Shield: The villain in "Oh Oh Oh—It's Magic" does this to Olive, and is mocked for his choice of hostage by Emerson
Emerson You need a bigger human shield or something. You're hanging out all shorts of places I can shoot!
Idiosyncratic Wipes: Often an Iris Out. These were once extremely common, especially in cinema, but they look old-fashioned or even slightly cheesy to modern eyes, which are used to more unobtrusive scene wipes. (Therefore, perfectly suited to the show's theme of retro charm.).
In "Oh Oh Oh—It's Magic", some of the scene transitions are curtains opening and closing.
"Robbing Hood" uses an animated bell for some of its scene transitions.
"Window Dressed To Kill" uses slide-close doors.
"Kerplunk" used shark jaws.
Impairment Shot: In "Oh Oh Oh—It's Magic", we see what the dead person sees when Ned touches them a second time.
Just Between You and Me: Subverted. The murderer in "Dummy" explains his entire plan... without realizing that the heroes, who are trapped inside a car, can't even hear him.
In the season two opener, "Bzzzzzzz!" a cheerfully tango-ized variation of "Flight of the Bumblebee" threads under and through the rest of the background music.
Arrangements of "Ave Maria" appear in convent scenes fairly often.
Olive: It's a frickin' convent. Show some respect.
Emerson: (pointing at the white-streaked wall of the bell tower) I'm showing you bat crap.
Littlest Cancer Patient: Subverted, in "Corpsicle", by heart patient Abner Newsome, the least likable kid-with-a-terminal-disease in the history of the trope.
It's because he's heartless. (See also Stealth Pun.)
Getting slightly more complicated with Alfredo and Oscar Vibenius
Also made awkward in the episode where Ned dreams Chuck and him getting intimate and actually touching and then it turns out that it's actually Olive in a Chuck suit.
Ludicrous Precision: The narrator when explaining how long ago something happened.
MacGuffin: Charles Charles' pocket watch, apparently.
There's music intended to bring to mind wind in the episode "The Smell of Success".
Motor Mouth: Ned tends to babble rapidly when he's nervous, and he's nervous quite frequently.
Arguably Chuck as well. The two of them together have a lot of whiplash-inducing back-and-forth conversations together.
Mundane Utility: Ned's pies are great because the fruit he uses is extremely fresh; all the fruit he touches is brought back to life, so it tastes like it's not more than a few minutes off the plant when it hits the oven.
The Nicknamer: Emerson has a nickname for just about every character, every episode.
No Good Deed Goes Unpunished: in "Bitter Sweets". Ned goes to clean up a vermin infestation planted by Olive and Chuck (a task made even more difficult for him because he can't directly touch the dead rodents) in a rival's store—only to find a corpse and get Mistaken for Murderer.
No Name Given: If Ned has a last name, we haven't yet learned it. The narrator, who often refers to characters by their full names, calls him "young Ned" in the flashbacks and "the pie maker" in the present. Doubles as a meaningful name, given that it is an anagram for 'End' and 'NDE', the synonym for 'Near Death Experience'.
Obfuscating Disability: In a season 2 episode we see a brief flashback to Emerson Cod's childhood. His mother faked putting him in danger to expose a man who had made fraudulent insurance claims. She pushed a stroller with a baby doll in it down a flight of stairs- the allegedly wheelchair-bound man with a neckbrace and a broken arm ran from his wheelchair to catch the baby with both hands.
Of Corpse He's Alive: Used to flush out the victim's murderer. Of course, done with the advantage that, for one minute, he is alive...
Or Are You Just Happy to See Me?: Subverted, as is usual for this trope: Olive asks Ned if that isn't really a rolling pin under his apron; Ned silently produces the rolling pin, to Olive's dismay.
Missing Mom: Ned's mother died suddenly when he was nine. Chuck grew up believing that her mother had died in childbirth, but later discovers that her mother is her "Aunt" Lily.
Disappeared Dad: Chuck's father died when she was eight, as an unfortunate side effect of Ned bringing back his mother. Ned's father just abandoned him. Emerson Cod is himself a Disappeared Dad...but not through any fault of his own.
Post-Kiss Catatonia: Ned sort of dangles in the air with his eyes closed and his lips puckered even after Chuck has stopped kissing him. It happens every time she kisses him, along with the theme music swelling with violins.
Power Incontinence: Ned is forced to use an extendable arm with a fake hand on the end to pet his dog, and to come up with multiple creative ways to touch Chuck, because his power is always on.
Power Trio: Ned/Chuck/Emerson as Ego/Superego/Id, respectively.
Refuge in Audacity: Usually, when fifteen people die, it's a very big tragedy. Except when it's clowns and they all die in the same clown car crash. And then their bodies are taken out one at a time, with one dead clown having enormous stilts. Then it's hilarious.
It was also pretty hilarious when in episode 3 of season 2, Olive prays for a sign from God. Then a dead nun falls from above where she was praying. It's so morbid but funny at the same time.
Repetitive Name: Charlotte "Chuck" Charles and her father, Charles Charles
Which is why the recurring fan favorite choice for Ned's last name is Edwards.
The Resolution Will Not Be Televised: Although a rather rushed epilogue of sorts was stuck on the end of the final episode, a "third season" of comics is due to be published by DC in 2011. It will apparently involve a "fresh take on the Zombie Apocalypse"
Retro Universe: From Chuck's Hepburn-esque wardrobe to Ned's and Emerson's beautiful old cars, the world is like a more colorful version of the past... or the past as it should have been (although the idealized past apparently includes the Reagan administration as seen in "The Smell of Success").
Sarcasm Mode: Emerson, basically all the time: "Oh, look at that, a dumb idea just found a friend!" And very occasionally, Ned: "'Come to our show, Frère Pie-Maker! It's a magic show."
Scooby Stack: Chuck, Emerson, and Ned peeping out from a curtain in "Dim Sum Lose Sum".
Screwed by the Network: Though it was aggressively promoted in its first season, ABC had evidently lost interest by the second season premiere. After a ten-month hiatus plus half a season, all without any promotion for the show, they canceled it, citing low ratings.
Tragic thing is it won a posthumous Emmy (the series won seven in all, including for Kristin Chenoweth and Barry Sonnenfeld).
This trope also applies to how it was handled in Britain; the series was bought by ITV and unusually for an American import screened in primetime on the flagship ITV1 channel - most American series currently bought by the channel are either relegated to off-peak slots (like In Plain Sight) or shown on their digital offshoots (like Gossip Girl) - but the channel held back one episode because it would clash with a World Cup match. For which England failed to qualify. Needless to say, fans weren't happy.
Secret Keeper: Though most of the main characters are keeping secrets, Olive seems to be an especially popular secret repository.
Except, of course, the biggest secret of all...
Serious Business: Very nearly everything, from honey to pop-up books to scratch-and-sniffs to synchronized swimming to department store window dressings.
"The Legend of Merle McQuoddy" is larded with shout outs to the 1977 Disney movie Pete's Dragon. The movie had starred Pushing Daisies' narrator Jim Dale.
Silly Rabbit, Idealism Is for Kids!: "I grew up" is the reason Ned gives for disliking Halloween, even though it is really because that's when he found out his father had a second family.
Similar Squad - the Norwegians though judging from some viewer reactions, they weren't similar enough
in "Circus Circus", Ned repeats the secretary's description of the head clown as a "real low-down, dirty _____________" just as a circus performer walks by breathing fire, the flames both drowning Ned out and preventing viewers from reading his lips. When the flames clear, Emerson says "I've never heard you say those words."
in "Bad Habits", a revived nun swears a blue streak, conveniently drowned out by a church bell.
Stage Magician: Ned's twin half-brothers and their mentor, the Great Hermann.
Stealth Pun: Usually Subverted, in that the narrator does not spare himself the joy of actually making the pun. For example, in "The Smell of Success" Ned dredges up a sock from the sink in the kitchen of the Pie Hole. By the reactions of Chuck, Olive, and Emerson, its smell is most unpleasant.
The Narrator: The message was clear. Someone wanted to make a stink.
Sugar Bowl: The Pushing Daisies world is brightly coloured, full of pies, tender sweet moments, coy glances, happy honeybees, whimsy, and little charming gestures. This offsets the bizarre murders, morbid humor, and unflinching examinations of personal responsibility and morality.
The Summation: The narrator does this, sometimes several times an episode, and always starting with the phrase "the facts were these..."
With Improbable Fencing Powers justified by the page quote of Sword Fight.
Synchronized Swarming: While following a case where a woman says she was attacked by a "terrifying bee man", Ned speculates about being chased by a human-shaped swarm of bees. Turns out it was actually a person covered in bees.
Taxidermy Terror: Ned is terrified of preserved animals, but not for the usual reasons. He's afraid of accidentally resurrecting them.
Unfortunately, Olive was provided a missed love connection in the person of one Broadway veteran Raul Esparza, who... well, would a duet been too much to ask for?
File his song-less appearances on the show along with that of Christopher Seiber.
Theme Naming: Ned's three closest human associates all have food-related names: Olive Snook, Emerson Cod, Charlotte Charles. (A charlotte is a French dessert: a "crust" made of ladyfinger cookies enclosing a mousse of some sort. Her nickname, "Chuck", can also refer to a cut of beef.)
Also, both Snook and Cod are types of fish.
They Called Me Mad!: The scent scientists—both Napoleon Le Nez and Oscar Vibenius.
They Fight Crime: But as private investigators primarily motivated by big rewards.
Emerson: I suppose I could pay my bills with blind kids' smiles, but their money is a lot easier.
Ned: Ever since I was a kid, I'd have this dream where somebody would find out what I could do. It starts off with lots of ice cream and balloons and ends in a small white room where little bits are cut out of me until there's nothing left to cut.
This Is No Time For Knitting: Literally—Emerson Cod's knitting needles turn out to be instrumental in saving himself, Ned and Chuck from the bad guy.
Throwing Your Sword Always Works: "The Fun in Funeral" has a slight variant—Ned throws his sword into the wall, where it trips the fleeing villain.
Theme Twin Naming: Averted if you consider the show tendency to alliterative and repetitive names.
Twitchy Eye: Ned. As noted by Olive, it twitches when he's lying.
Undeath Always Ends: Averted with Chuck, Digby, and Mr. Charles. Exaggerated with everyone else, for good reason.
Unlimited Wardrobe: To the point Chuck can dress thematically to the centerpiece of a given episode. So can Olive. And Chuck's aunts... right down to Lily having eyepatches to match her outfits.
Un Paused: In the first episode, the first thing Chuck does after Ned brings her back to life is grab his tie and bang him on the lid of her coffin in self-defense against her killer.
Window Love: Practically obligatory for Ned and Chuck, as they can't touch in any other way.
Word of Gay: According to the writers, whilst there are other people working at the morgue, we only see that one coroner ever because he's the only one who'll let Emerson and Ned in no questions asked, due to having a crush on Emerson.
Writers Strike: Like many shows, it was harmed by the 2007 writer's strike, cutting down the number of episodes in the first season. The overall narrative never really recovered.
Sadistic Choice: In "The Legend of Merle McQuoddy", Charles Charles, the father Chuck always longed for, offers to take his daughter on a life of adventure—far, far away from the man she loves.
Sexy Back: The Dandy Lion model costumes in "Dummy". At the same time, the front leaves everything to the imagination.
Uranus Is Showing: Young Emerson gets sent to the principal's office for making this joke.
Valley Girl: Elise, the gold-digging wife in "Robbing Hood."
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