Brief spoilers for "Pushing Daisies" coming up just as soon as I pick up a flea and tick collar...Oh, my sweet lord, the twee-ness! Too much twee-ness!
I really like "Pushing Daisies" overall, and even enjoyed a number of things in this episod -- Emerson's dissertation on Gangsta Love, the freaky "Chuck suit" sex dream, the gang finally figuring out an efficient way to get answers from a corpse and it still getting too complicated -- but good lord was this one precious. When we got to the sequence about all of the bizarre new breeds that Joel McHale was creating, I think I may have gone into sugar shock for a few minutes. Not even expanding Emerson's role and letting him flirt with Wife #3 (or was it 2?) was enough to overcome the cutesiness. Until now, the series has pulled off that tart but sweet balance, but this one was an illustration of how easily things can get too cute for their own good.
At the same time, I'm glad they finally had Ned and Chuck confront the limitations of their relationship -- and had Ned and Olive confront her crush on him -- even though it's not something that can really be solved anytime soon. What's interesting and occasionally frustrating about Ned is what a hangdog, passive character he is, always getting pulled along through life by other people like Emerson and Chuck. You don't usually see that in the protagonist of an ongoing series, which makes it refreshing, but I certainly hope that part of the long-range plan of the series involves Ned growing up (or manning up, if you prefer) and taking control of his own life and this weird gift/curse that he has. Lee Pace is charming, but I think the dumbsquizzled expression is going to get old after a while.
What did everybody else think?
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