Excellent episode – the best so far. They gave some explanations about how things worked, and I loved the issue when Chuck discovered the funeral home guy had died in her place.
I liked seeing the aunts again. I get the impression that they were supposed to be on as one-shots, but everyone liked it so much that they became regulars.
Loved the “What part of Do Not Resuscitate don’t you understand?” And the Gruyere cheese in the pie crust.
Agreed…I think it was the strongest episode to date. This show really has excellent characters, and it’s hard not to just smile through the whole thing! Here’s hoping the rest of America likes it and it stays on the air for several seasons.
I liked it, too. I loved Ellen Greene’s “poo-ah, poo-ah Chahlotte” and Swoozie Kurtz dumping the tears out of the eyepatch.
“My future self is saying ‘I told you so’ up one side and down the other…”
This was the first episode I watched and I loved it. I don’t even watch primetime television but am going to make an exception for this.
What Aesiron said. 
Ditto to what Aesiron said. I only watched this episode because I had read that Raul Esparza was guest-starring and I loved every minute of it! I will definitely be tuning in to future episodes.
This was another great episode. They had fun with changing Chuck’s dresses throughout the show, all of them bright and colorful.
The lightning bugs were cool. Odd thing I noticed, when the Southerner drove by in the truck, I heard a reuse of the sound of the Gravelings from “Dead Like Me”. My daughter noticed it too.
I like the subtle little “Kiss a Beaver” joke. I am glad my kids did not ask why I gave a startled laugh.
I look forward to more of the Aunts. There is Dahlian about them.
It looks like the Herbal Medicine guy will become a semi-regular. Did anyone catch his name?
I got a great laugh with Ned’s over the top “Dive off the stairs” and arrest his fall by slicing through the curtain, an obvious homage to Errol Flynn in Captain Blood. I wonder if any of the writers had caught the Myth Busters episode dealing with the stunt.
I really like this show, I don’t know if that is at all apparent.
Jim
Okay, if Herbal Medicine Guy was Raul Esparza (and I think it was), and he has this budding romance with Olive and looks to be around a few episodes, anyway…do you think there’s a duet in store?
“Alfredo Aldarisio,” played by Broadway star Raúl Esparza.
“I always wanted to be a Jedi”
This show just gets better each time…I really like it when the script tries to rhyme.
And I loved that Chuck never caught that, but the aunts clearly did. Hilarious.
This ep was great - however, there was one thing it needed: Olive singing!
We’ve got a week until the next episode. Writers: When come back, bring song!
I’m not sure I buy the kissing through plastic wrap bit, but I’m willing to go with it. I wonder if they’ll take it to its logical, kinky fetishwear conclusion…
Did he slice through the curtain or did he use a hand-over(under)-hand climbing down? That’s what it looked like to me.
I thought that comparing Emerson to Winnie The Pooh was great. Especially at the end of the fight when Chuck yelled from inside, “Kick, Pooh! Kick!”
So what is Olive going to do now that she knows who Chuck really is?
Did you catch the sign in the funeral home? An arrow pointing off to the left indicated Funeral Home, and an arrow pointing off to the right indicated Snack Bar.
Maybe I’m just looking for the coincidences, but did anyone notice that when the featured pie of the day was peach, Olive was wearing a peach-colored dress?
Still not loving the commercial breaks in the last half hour…really chops things up.
I loved the Asian guy with the Southern drawl…such an over the top ridiculousness…I am delighted.
When we saw the dead guy in the freezer Ivylad and I looked at each other…“How did he get there? Did we miss something?”
I know I’m supposed to like Chuck, but I find her kinda annoying. Of course, that could be because I love Kristin Chenowith and I’m rooting for Olive.
I really liked it too, although I wonder if they’re going to keep explaining the premise over and over again each episode. They handled it well this time, by adding additional information (like how the piemaker experimented to figure out the one-minute deadline).
I liked the part in the fight with the Southern Asian guy where he slices off the corpse’s foot accidentally and they both pause to get creeped out.
Does anyone know what kind of watch the piemaker wears? We keep pausing when it shows a close-up, but we can’t make out the brand.
I swore he sliced through the curtain. We all laughed at that, having recently seen Captain Blood as a family.
I am impressed with Anna Friel. She has a more believable American accent than Ellen Green* who was born in Brooklyn and raised in Westbury, New York. I find the Character of Chuck very likable if slightly annoying, of course I also have a thing for cute petite brunettes.
Kristin Chenoweth does very little for me, blond, older and somehow too southern. Her voice annoys me except when she is singing.
Jim
I whole-heartedly second that. Honestly, I’m more than a little annoyed at Chuck…I really, really don’t like her. Count me in as a member of the pro-Olive camp.
I guess I am doomed to be out-of-step even with those I am mostly in-step with, because I found this the least satisfying ep yet. True, there were loads of good bits, but a couple of things really bothered me.
The biggest thing was that Chuck slamming the coffin lid was so potentially dangerous. After she had wasted most of a minute in a previous ep, I wonder how much longer they can risk bringing her along. Yeah, she’s damn cute, but not cute enough to excuse that!
And even for an incredibly over-the-top show I thought the bit about the chinese civil war guy being mistaken/accepted for a dead reb officer was too extreme. So I didn’t see the reason for making the grandson oriental, other than to be cute and wacky.
Was there ever any follow-up on the anti-depressant drops in the pie Olive and the aunts ate? Or are we just supposed to accept that the homeopathic remedies are snake oil and their peddler a charlatan?
And - um - I know this is really too silly of me, but I used to fence a bit, and I had trouble with that scene for a couple of reasons. Not only was that fencing completely different from what one would do with a civil war hanger/sabre, but they were WAY too accomplished for rank amateurs.
Yeah, these are all nits, but in my mind this ep had an excessive number of them.
Of course, I’ll keep watching if for no reason other than to see if they can make Olive’s dresses any shorter…
This is only the third episode (assuming I am counting correctly). I’m pretty sure (but not completely sure) the script was written and shot well before ABC was aware of any reaction to the aunts, unless the reaction you are referring to are test audiences and studio execs.