And so Pushing Daisies has ended. (In a way.) (That’s your hint that spoilers lie ahead.)
The episode, entitled “Kerplunk,” was a dizzy doozy, one that focussed on some of the series’ most crucial subplots. It was largely a Vivian-and-Lily episode, in which we learned more about their past career as The Darling Mermaid Darlings — “the Serena and Venus of water ballet,” as Chuck called them. The synchronized-swimming duo had a rival: Coral and Blanche, the Aqua Dolls, played with madcap glee by Wendy Malick and Nora Dunn.
If the episode’s crime was the death of Dunn’s Blanche (swallowed by a shark), the pleasure as always arose from the main characters’ emotions and the clever supporting players. Chief among the latter for me, at least, was the welcome sight of Wilson Cruz — Rickie from My So-Called Life! — looking fit and sly as a fellow aqua-show performer, a suspect in the murder, and possessor of what the show called with its usual arch euphemisms an impressive “banana hammock” of a Speed-o.
Vivian and Lily’s rivalry with the Aqua Dolls lured them out of their house to watch their enemies perform. (Vivian uttered my favorite line of the night: “This is an unanticipated stresser.”) The result was a spilling of more than water. Coral’s infidelity reminded Lily of her own indiscretion (she’d had a fling with Vivian’s fiance), and eventually everyone finally knew: that Lily is Chuck’s mother, not her aunt. Lily and Vivian learned that Chuck (their Charlotte) was still alive.
The series did a necessarily hasty but satisfying wrap-up of its subplots. Emerson was reunited with his daughter. Olive, emboldened by her love for Randy, left the pie shop to open a macaroni-and-cheese emporium called The Intrepid Cow.
And narrator Jim Dale gave this lovely, graceful, witty, and mischievous series its farewell by coming full-circle (a pie-shape), by uttering the final, fairy-tale words of Pushing Daisies: “Endings are where we begin.” That’s what I meant at the beginning of this piece: It ended, in a way. But in another way, it began again, for now we can imagine the lives these characters are leading with their new knowledge of each other.
How much are you going to miss Pushing Daisies? Did you like the way it ended?
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I miss Pushing Daisies already! I wish we had many more seasons to see how these new twists unfold, but since we’re being robbed of that, I’m satisfied with the way it wrapped up.
I will miss it much. It’s been a real delight. It goes on tangents no other show has, from food/seasonings to fashion themes to true moral dilemmas. Delightful, but of course without the script it would be nothing.
I’m very sorry to see it go.
I’m glad they went back and retooled the ending to give us some closure before the comic comes out in the fall… They weren’t obligated to do that at all, so even though it was rushed I appreciate the effort they made anyway. I too miss the show already. It was so nice to have a show on TV that was never really depressing, it’s whimsy made it such a wonderful escape. I needed to have that counterpoint to help balance out the constant stream of police shows and high-drama relationship shows. With the good comedies on network TV so few and far between these days, each one of the light hearted shows was needed even more.
The finale was as bittersweet as strawberry-rhubarb, and ABC is crummier than a stale graham-cracker crust. But in all seriousness, I don’t think this show could have ended on a better note. Had it ended with a major cliff-hanger (such as the one we were left with before the final three regarding Ned’s perennially-tanned father) it would have been far too painful (though it is a shame George Hamilton didn’t get a chance to come back). And had it tied up everything perfectly, well then it probably would have been the safe, uninteresting, barrel-scraping show that ABC would have gladly renewed. As it is, we are left as one is with any great desert, satisfied, but certainly hungry for another scrumptious bite. Here’s hoping this show can be resurrected again, regardless of the medium. And if it is true it is going to be a comic book, wouldn’t it be wonderful to be accompanied with complete narration by the mellifulously voiced Jim Dale?
Watching this final episode of Pushing Daisies was of course bittersweet. I was happy that the loose ends were tied up, but the ending was so very hasty. I don’t blame the show’s producers and writers for the tacked on ending, since it was the best they could do to try and satisfy the fans. And I’m definitely grateful we were given some closure, rather than a cliffhanger. I just wonder, had the show not been canceled, when these questions would have actually been answered. Was it planned for Lily and Vivian to find out that Chuck was still alive in this episode, or was that also an addition they made after having been canceled? How long would it really have been for Emerson to be reunited with his daughter? It’s just so frustrating because I know Bryan Fuller had more delightful stories up his sleeve for this show. And now, we can only imagine what they could have been. Well, it was a great ending to a wonderful show. It’s most unfortunate that ABC didn’t support it this year.
Oh, and how frustrating was it that during the closing credits, ABC decided to run a promo for the skanky Bachelorette, instead of showing a promo for the return of Eli Stone next Saturday (which will be airing in the same time slot as Pushing Daisies did these past 3 weeks). But of course, ABC doesn’t care enough about the fans of these much-loved shows to notify them of new episodes. Just more promos for their reality shows. Screw you, ABC.
I’ll miss the show very much, but I hope there will be a movie like Kristin Chenowth said.
I wish they would make a movie rather than a comic. Its these specific actors playing these parts that makes me love the show, not just the concet alone that will carry on in the comic. I wonder if there would be a magical way to allow Ned & Chuck to touch….
Re: the ending. Originally it ended in black before the aunts open the door. source: paley fest 2009 April 19.
Another great written show gone. Ironically KINGS made its return on the same night…
http://tvdonewright.com/2009/06/14/tv-tonight-sunday-june-14th-2009/
I’m going to miss seeing Kristin Chenoweth as Olive. She’s really something special. But most of all I’m going to miss Ellen Greene. She’s the reason I started watching the show and I still think she’s one of the most talented, underrated and beautiful actresses in Hollywood. I’m glad she had the opportunity in the finale to, once again, knock it out of the ballpark.
Wonderfalls, Arrested Development and now Pushing Daisies. Its always my favorite shows that get canceled.
I’m really going to miss this show. TV has rarely given us a show that manages to make that teetering balance of pain and whimsy invigorating and joyful, without resorting to cloying, treacly tripe. And it was genuine, a quality that has grown more unfortunately infrequent in any media. I was sad to see those plot strands, that throughout its run “Pushing Daisies” had always managed to braid so fastidiously yet artfully, forced into a crude, wadded up bun in 2 minutes’ time. Still, at least they made the most of a most cruel disservice. Up your ABC!
Side note – I love that even at the end, the makers of this show slipped in one last clandestine allusion to that other great, unjustly cancelled show- Wonderfalls -as they have done throughout the series. It was like one last, secret wink to the audience that followed the spirit that flowed between Bryan Fuller’s greatest artistic achievements to date.
Another blow to quality television. And the networks wonder why nobody watches them anymore. Shame on you ABC, I hope that your ratings go down the toilet!
It’s been two hours, thirty-seven minutes and fifty-one seconds since the untimely demise of one of my all-time favorite television shows. It was beyond magical, in that wonderful Dorothy-in-Oz way, but with its own Technicolor whimsy. I just weep that TV America didn’t fall in love with this gorgeously written fable. All the characters had their charms, but Chi McBride as Emerson and Kristin Chenoweth as Olive took charm to a whole new place. Best of luck to this fabulous cast in new adventures, and may your future series be even half as good as “Pushing Daisies!”