Pushing Daisies: The latest of creation from the wonderful Bryan Fuller. (You may remember him from other cancelled-too-soon shows such as Wonderfalls and Dead Like Me) Let me start out by saying that this review is completely biased. From the moment I saw Pushing Daisies I knew that it was wonderfully different from anything I'd ever seen before, and it remains my favorite television show of all time. Seriously, right up there with Bewitched, and I Love Lucy.The story revolves around Ned (Lee Pace), a man with a gift. He can touch dead things back to life. Of course, this gift comes with a few restrictions, to keep things interesting. One touch to a dead thing, and it springs back to life. A second touch, and it goes right back to being dead. This time, for good. Finally, if Ned leaves something "alive-again" for more than 60 seconds, something else has to die, restoring the universal balance of life and death.
Ned makes his living baking pies with "alive-again" fruit in a bakery shaped like a giant pie (called The Pie Hole- what else?), until one day when PI Emerson Cod (Chi McBride) stumbles upon Ned's talent and offers him a job. Ned touches murder victims, asks who killed them, and collects the reward. And thus, a quirky procedural is born!
Things go smoothly until Ned discovers that his childhood sweetheart, Charlotte Charles a.k.a Chuck, was murdered on a cruise ship. He touches her back to life and, at the funeral director's expense, keeps her alive. The childhood romance quickly rekindles despite the fact that they can never ever touch. If they do, Chuck is dead forever.
Adding to the mix, Broadway Baby Kristin Chenoweth plays Olive Snook, a pint sized pie waitress who continually pines over Ned, occasionally bursting into song to express her unrequited love.
Along with a fascinating and magical premise, Pushing Daisies serves up a visual feast, borrowing the artistic style of Amelie and even films by Tim Burton. Each week we are met with a colorful new case of murder. From a fiery explosion by scratch-and-sniff to a chef deep fried in his own batter, each death is beautiful, and never gory. The sets are of such quality that many times you will have difficulty believing that it did indeed air on network television. Quick paced dialogue filled with alliteration and quirky references to pop culture adds to this heightened reality.
The first season was cut short due to the writers strike, and unfortunately ABC seemed to decline advertising as heavily as it did for the first season when the second season finally aired 10 months later. Due to this, many thought the show had already been cancelled and missed the entire second run. The show was cancelled in November of 2008, and finished airing in June 2009 after a series of time changes by ABC. Despite its unexpected ending, the last episode wraps most plot lines up satisfactorily for fans. It brings the series full circle from the pilot and ends just as beautifully as it began.
Bryan Fuller has penned a "third season" of the show in comic book form, due out in Spring 2010. Both seasons are available on Amazon.com for purchase. Highly recommended!
My score: 5 stars/5 stars
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