Pushing Daisies – The Complete Second Season (2008 – 2009/Warner DVD)
Picture: C+ Sound: B- Extras: C+ Episodes: B-
The hit
series Pushing Daisies seemed to be
on a roll, but like the overrated Ally
McBeal, it did what it wanted to do early, then found itself in steep
decline. We covered the debut season at
this link:
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/7819/Pushing+Daisies+%E2%80%93+The+C
Now on The Complete Second Season, the show
started to trip over its witty, energetic approach and though the case does not
say so, it looks like it is its last.
The combination of murder, pie and small town living ran 13 more
episodes, a few more than the first, and the energy is still there. It is just hard to keep something like this
going and though the cast is very likable again, it just sadly lost its way and
could not hold together what made it work in the first season.
I was not
as big a fan of the show as my fellow writer who covered the previous release,
but thought it was an interesting new idea with appeal and could see why it had
the fan following it did. I could see
why, especially in a sea of awful TV, it would be so appealing. Unfortunately, it is already finished when
so-called “reality TV” still lives. That
is a sad commentary on our lives currently.
However, there are some interesting shows here just the same and only if
you start with the first season, should you entertain seeing this one.
The
anamorphically enhanced 1.78 X 1 image is a little weak, but this is a nicely
shot show that actually knows what to do with color and does not have much
shaky camerawork. Wow! Real TV!
The Dolby Digital 5.1 mix is pretty good throughout for a TV show with
good soundfields across the shows and well-recorded dialogue. The combination is nice and we expect the
Blu-ray would be better, but could not secure a copy to compare by posting
time.
Extras
include four making-of featurettes: The
Master Pie Maker (on Creator Bryan Fuller), From Over To Table (scripting), Secret
Sweet Ingredients (on Composer Jim Dudley’s music work) and Add A Little Map (on the Visual
Effects). Wonder if the show will come
back to life? We’ll see.
- Nicholas Sheffo
