Sorry he was unable to write a review for the previous episode, the Blog Maker made a silent vow never to miss one again.

Yeah, really. Sorry ’bout that. For the tens of you who come by, here’s my drive-by of last week: at first it seems incredibly bold to dispense with all the Lily-is-your-mother NUNsense in the third episode of season two, until you realize it was probably slated to go down late in the strike-shortened season one. But it’s out there and it’s now time for Olive and Chuck to figure out their friendship.

Which, I might add, is a lot easier when you’re not stuck in a locker with someone who uses freesia hair detangler.

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A brighter-colored, quicker-paced episode than the season premiere, tonight was at about 80% strength. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve enjoyed both episodes, but Olive’s too isolated in the convent and no one’s broken into song yet. As soon as Kristin Chenowith gets her butt out of that habit and into the habit of singing again – or Ellen Greene blasts out a number or Raúl Esparza comes back and sings Air Supply¹ – then I’ll know Pushing Daisies is fully back on track. Still…

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1. Okay, that only makes sense to about a dozen people, but they got a giggle out of it. [↩]

W00t! In six minutes, almost all of season one was recapped in the pithiest bit of exposition I’ve seen in a while. The universe, the characters, and their relationships were laid out with the usual charm and panache (always helped by Jim Dale’s marvelous narration.) Toss in a little foreshadowing about Emerson and his missing daughter and before my favorite coroner can say, “mmhnn,” last year’s quirkiest show is off and running.

Having spent a really long time with these characters this spring and summer while banging out a spec script, I know their voices like my own. There were nights I went to bed and heard them speaking to me – not a bad thing when it’s Chuck or Olive, but a little off-putting when Emerson wanted his say. It’s been a while since I polished off that spec, so the voices had faded a bit. Now, they’re deliciously fresh again.

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