About halfway through “Dummy”, I fell in love with Kristin Chenoweth. And Digby the dog.

I’m starting to get a good feeling about this show, and that became clear the moment that Chenoweth’s Olive Snook brook into song, spontaneously singing “Hopelessly Devoted to You” to express heartache over her inability to snag the attentions of Lee Pace’s Ned. But it wasn’t just the fact that Pushing Daisies gave us a musical number in the middle of its second episode, it’s the fact that it did so in such an idiosyncratic fashion, with Olive being interrupted several times and freezing up in embarrassment for her excessive keening, only to resume at the earliest opportunity. Kristin captured perfectly that sense of humiliation so many of us have felt at one time or another over being caught exposed and vulnerable in front of the wrong people. In a series so quirky and twee (I love that word!), it was a remarkably down to earth moment, and its insight into basic human nature was an unexpected answer to earlier criticisms that Pushing Daisies might be a bit too bubbly for a show so rooted in painful, complicated and seemingly insurmountable problems, like not being able to touch someone without killing them.

And then, of course, there’s Digby the dog who both provided a hilarious foil to Olive during her musical lament and a steady reminder that this is far, far too weird a program to be on the air during family hour, not only for its intimation of bestiality but also for its continuing habit of showing dead bodies in disturbing and creepy arrangements, like being suspended on wires like marionettes. As long as Pushing Daisies is going to keep presenting moments that suggest bestiality, I’m going to have to persist in my prediction that it will be off the air, probably for good, by December.

Still, as goofily uncomfortable as it is watching a beautiful woman first caressing a dog whilst singing a love song, then letting said dog lick her entire face for an extended amount of time before finally sharing a bed with that very same dog, the Olive and Digby sequences were also the moments that captivated my attention. I especially enjoyed the fact that Jim Dale’s delightful narration captured the disparity between Olive and Digby’s focus: whilst Olive believes that Digby is a good listener, Digby is merely following his canine instincts and enjoying the taste of salt off Olive’s face. In that moment, it’s hard to determine which is smarter or more pure in their truthfulness, and believe me I never thought I’d be spending a lot of time writing about Digby the dog in a Pushing Daisies review. Also, am I out of my mind, but was there a moment when Olive actually licked Digby in response?

As for the rest of the episode, programs like Reaper should take note that Pushing Daisies could provide some guidance about how you carry forward a seemingly repetitive procedural program whilst still finding ways to be fresh. In this case, Pushing Daisies does it by opening up the characters more and letting us see aspects to them that weren’t immediately obvious. It doesn’t even have to be monumental. Little details like learning that Emerson Cod has a habit of knitting clothing to deal with tension and stress, or that Chuck is a lot more eager to branch out and try new things than was immediately apparent in the pilot (and not at all intimidated by Emerson’s gruff discomfort with her presence), or that Olivia has an adult bond with Digby the dog.

Think about Reaper for a moment. Three episodes in, do we know anything more about the main characters now than we did at the beginning? No, mainly because Reaper’s principal cast remain essentially cyphers, too one-dimensional to bond with. On the other hand, after only two episodes, I’m already developing attachments to most of Daisies’s principal cast.

Curiously enough, the character which remains the most enigmatic so far is the seemingly central protagonist, Ned, but given how the rest of the characters are being given opportunities to grow, I’m confident that Ned, too, will have his time. In fact, thematically, Ned’s inscrutability fits, and it would be a mistake, I think, to make him too accessible too quickly.

I also want to commend the show in finding more opportunities for Ned and Chuck to experience some kind of physicality with each other. Zipping them both into transparent body bags and then letting them make out through them was inspired, as was the rubber hand attachment to the car divider. Both of these conceits are oddball, but Pushing Daisies was clever enough to make them work, and I’m curious to see how many more variations on this they can conceive without seeming repetitive or too goofy.

I haven’t said much about the procedural part of tonight’s episode, and that’s because it wasn’t all that remarkable, though still light years ahead of its counterparts on Reaper. Presenting Janine as a bulimic, and then sort of going for laughs with it, was kind of interesting, though, and Riki Lindhome did a nice job of making her intriguing and funny. The reveal of the killer was pretty obvious, but I don’t really think that Pushing Daisies is setting out to be a significant whodunnit. It seems to have something more unique in mind, and so far, I’m going to stick with it as long as I can.

Finally, a short bit on the visual look of the episode. I was initially concerned when I read that the network was ordering the produers to rein in the purse strings, thinking that in order for a show like this work it would need the highly stylized meadows and backgrounds. We still had a little bit of that during Ned’s flashback, but for the most part, the look of the episode was pretty straightforward and modern, with the exception of the Dandy Lion car, and, actually, I wouldn’t have minded a bit if they’d had to lose the eccentric automobile look. I’m starting to think that Pushing Daisies might well be able to work with a less eccentric palette, and that’s a good sign.

So that’s my take on the latest episode; now you!