Pushing Daisies
ABC | Release Date: October 5, 2007
CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
85
METASCORE
Universal acclaim based on 44 Critic Reviews
Positive:
43
Mixed:
1
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
NewsdayVerne Gay
Season 2 Review: Anyone who enters this fantastic and beautifully realized play-scape--which remains ever so slightly ghoulish--will stick around. This is a winner. Read full review
100
San Francisco ChronicleTim Goodman
Season 2 Review: Again, it's back to the writing and the look. Both are superb. Read full review
100
USA TodayRobert Bianco
Season 2 Review: Heavily narrated and prone at times to the precious, Daisies is a show unlike any other, and not everyone will like it. But even those who don't can embrace it as a sign that creativity, confidence and capability have not fled broadcast for cable just yet. Here, they're alive and thriving. Read full review
100
TV Guide MagazineMatt Roush
Season 2 Review: Easily the best and most original entertainment too few are watching, Daisies dazzles and delights with a sensory overload of perfectly surreal whimsy that juggles screwball fairy tale, romantic comedy and mystery. Read full review
100
Chicago Sun-TimesDoug Elfman
Season 1 Review: Pushing Daisies deserves its high praise. It's the best new drama of the fall, finding sweet hope in morbid tragedy. Read full review
100
Detroit Free PressMike Duffy
Season 1 Review: Pushing Daisies is a delicate, rapturously original little television miracle. Read full review
100
Miami HeraldGlenn Garvin
Season 1 Review: Pushing Daisies is by far the best new series of the fall season. Read full review
100
New York Daily NewsDavid Hinckley
Season 1 Review: Pushing Daisies is perfect. Read full review
100
San Francisco ChronicleTim Goodman
Season 1 Review: It's a gloriously visual fairy tale full of saturated colors and whimsical stories, the kind of romantic comedy/whodunit that should, by rights, captivate a nation starved for quirkiness and delight. Read full review
100
USA TodayRobert Bianco
Season 1 Review: Solid gold from top to bottom, the cast is almost an embarrassment of riches. Read full review
91
Christian Science MonitorGloria Goodale
Season 1 Review: The hour balances its caper-cartoon and ghoulish sensibilities with a crisp pace and well-cast leads. Read full review
90
Newark Star-LedgerAlan Sepinwall
Season 1 Review: It's the best-looking pilot of the season--maybe the best new show, period--even though it may not look that good in the future. Read full review
90
Philadelphia Daily NewsEllen Gray
Season 1 Review: I wouldn't want to miss a word. Read full review
90
Philadelphia InquirerJonathan Storm
Season 1 Review: This may be one of the most beautifully crafted and original TV shows ever to get fall consideration on a big network. Read full review
90
VarietyBrian Lowry
Season 1 Review: Standing head and shoulders above this fall's other seedlings. Read full review
90
Washington PostTom Shales
Season 1 Review: The lovingly and imaginatively produced pilot has to be the most gorgeous piece of television airing anywhere tonight. Read full review
90
TV Guide MagazineMatt Roush
Season 1 Review: This Technicolored kaleidoscope fable of life, love and perpetual whimsy restores my faith in TV's ability to amuse, enchant and entertain with endless invention and eye-popping style. Read full review
90
SlateTroy Patterson
Season 1 Review: It's a breath of fresh air even for those of us who find our allergies stimulated by the countless particles of whimsy suspended in its thick atmosphere. Read full review
83
TimeJames Poniewozik
Season 2 Review: Daisies has a timeless, picture-book look. It could be set today, in the '30s, in the '70s or in any other decade fond of saturated color. Like Chuck herself, it's a perfect candidate for a second chance: as glowing and lovable as the day we first met it. Read full review
80
Chicago TribuneMaureen Ryan
Season 2 Review: You may well be wondering if they are worth watching – perhaps for the first time. In the case of Pushing Daisies, the answer is a qualified yes. Read full review
80
Pittsburgh Post-GazetteRob Owen
Season 2 Review: This first episode back sets a lot of goals for itself: Remind viewers of the backstory, advance the plot from the cliffhanger, and introduce and resolve the murder-of-the-week. Daisies succeeds in accomplishing these tasks and even finds time for a "Sound of Music" shout-out as Olive pulls a Maria von Trapp en route to a nunnery. Read full review
80
L.A. WeeklyRobert Abele
Season 1 Review: It's a whimsical, romantically inventive and darkly funny pop-up hour about a man (Lee Pace) whose touch can bring the dead back to life (but also, yikes, vice versa). Read full review
80
The Hollywood ReporterBarry Garron
Season 2 Review: Pace and Anna Friel, who plays Chuck, his childhood sweetheart, are as charming as ever. Even better, their relationship is evolving. Yet another encouraging sign is that the first few episodes promise significant involvement from one of TV's best supporting casts. Read full review
80
Wall Street JournalNancy DeWolf Smith
Season 1 Review: As charming as all that is amid the macabre, Pushing Daisies is a show that only a grown-up can fully enjoy. Read full review
80
The Hollywood ReporterBarry Garron
Season 1 Review: The series, from creators Bryan Fuller and Barry Sonnenfeld, is a masterful mixture of life, romance, optimism and youthful exuberance, all played out under the threat of instant death. Read full review
80
Newark Star-LedgerAlan Sepinwall
Season 2 Review: A show this whimsical needs a few anchors to avoid floating away altogether. Emerson is one, and the hands-off Ned and Chuck romance is the other. Read full review
80
New York Magazine (Vulture)John Leonard
Season 1 Review: Pushing Daisies will drive you crazy or make you smile. Read full review
80
VarietyBrian Lowry
Season 2 Review: The facts, then, are these: Pushing Daisies isn’t perfect, but there’s no other dance on TV remotely like it. And to echo last season’s review, that alone is reason to hope it finds a way to avoid death’s touch. Read full review
80
NewsdayDiane Werts
Season 1 Review: On top of the stars' subtlety and Fuller's verbal wit, Sonnenfeld's pilot direction ladles layers of flashy frosting--theatrical camera angles, emphatic zooms, intensified color and those heavyhanded moments when the narration can't quite straddle the sap line. Read full review
80
Philadelphia Daily NewsEllen Gray
Season 2 Review: If you managed to miss all nine episodes of last season's best new show, worry not. The first three minutes or so should catch you up nicely. Read full review
80
Baltimore SunDavid Zurawik
Season 1 Review: At its best--during several moments of exquisite longing between the adult Ned and Chuck--Pushing Daisies feels so right that it almost redeems all the wrongs of such wretched new series as Cavemen or Carpoolers. Read full review
80
Boston GlobeMatthew Gilbert
Season 1 Review: Pushing Daisies is good, as well as distinctive. Read full review
80
Kansas City StarAaron Barnhart
Season 1 Review: It’s definitely not the same-old same-old, for which ABC is to be congratulated. Read full review
80
Los Angeles TimesRobert Lloyd
Season 1 Review: It is all very beautiful. Read full review
80
Pittsburgh Post-GazetteRob Owen
Season 1 Review: Pushing Daisies captivates with an emotionally resonant story and dazzles with its bright visual imagery. Fans of delightfully daft fairy tales, this one's for you. Read full review
80
San Jose Mercury News/Contra Costa TimesCharlie McCollum
Season 1 Review: Daisies is something you shouldn't miss, particularly if you're looking for something different on TV. Read full review
80
Seattle Post-IntelligencerMelanie McFarland
Season 1 Review: All the praise heaped on Pushing Daisies, and every declaration about the dramedy's originality, is merited. Read full review
80
The New York TimesAlessandra Stanley
Season 1 Review: The story of Ned (Lee Pace), a young man who can bring the dead back to life, is sweetly odd, but also oddly charming. Read full review
80
SalonHeather Havrilesky
Season 1 Review: With snappy writing, stunning art direction and a great cast, this really is the new show you don't want to miss. Read full review
75
Entertainment WeeklyKen Tucker
Season 2 Review: The pie puns continue to make me wince--Olive says she’s ''really flaky,'' while Lily accuses her of being ''all pious.'' And Chi McBride's cynical detective still feels oddly disconnected from the rest of the ensemble. But the show has a fresh, vigorous snap, and the impeccably deadpan Pace gets off some good lines. Read full review
70
Boston GlobeMatthew Gilbert
Season 2 Review: I admire this show--it's so original, and sequences such as the "Sound of Music" goof are right on. But I admire it more than I enjoy it. Read full review
70
Chicago TribuneMaureen Ryan
Season 1 Review: Despite the fine work of Pace and Friel--who convey tenderness despite the director’s efforts to stamp it out--the sheer quantity of forced whimsy and visual razzle-dazzle can be exhausting. Read full review
63
New York PostLinda Stasi
Season 1 Review: Pushing Daisies is fanciful and fun, but sometimes pushes the daisies too hard. Read full review
60
New York Daily NewsDavid Hinckley
Season 2 Review: It still has the same problem, which is exactly where it can take itself, but the ride remains as delightful as the bright shiny colors with which the show lavishly decorates itself. Read full review
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