Fall TV Review: Pushing Daisies

First off, I would have to say that this is not the same old thing. It's pretty much the exact opposite of the current (and tiresome) reality show trend. Narrated like a children's fairy tale, Pushing Daisies is definitely a quirky comedy-drama-fantasy-mystery. Lee Pace stars as Ned, a pie maker with a very unique gift.

The first episode starts with a flashback to when Ned is nine years old and running in a field of flowers with his dog, Digby. Then Digby runs out into the street and is hit by a truck, killing him instantly. That's when Ned discovers he has an amazing gift. He touches the dog, who instantly springs back to life.

This seems to be a pretty cool gift, but unfortunately there are some caveats. If he brings someone or something back to life and they stay alive for longer than 60 seconds, someone or something else has to die. Ned learns this the hard way when his mother drops dead of a brain aneurysm when he is still only nine years old. He brings her back to life, but his next-door neighbor Charlotte's father drops dead. Soon after, he discovers the second caveat. Once he brings someone back to life, he cannot touch them again. If he does, they stay dead, this time forever. Of course, he didn't know that when he brought his mom back to life, so of course he touched her again and she died.

After that, Ned kind of kept to himself. He was worried about what he might do if someone else he loved died. But before he was sent off to boarding school by his dad, he and Charlotte (Chuck) share their first kiss.

Fast forward to the present. Ned has grown up to be a pie maker with his own pie shop. He still keeps himself as detached as possible, though he has somehow managed to keep from touching his childhood pet Digby again, so the dog is still with him (how can you keep from touching a dog, or rather, how do you keep them from touching you? In my experience they generally jump up and slobber all over you and just generally demand attention physically. Again, not a reality show). His waitress, Olive (Kristin Chenoweth), is crazy about him and disturbed by his aversion to touching anyone, including his dog. But only one other person knows about his gift-Emerson Cod (Chi McBride), a private investigator. Ned helps Emerson solve murders and they collect the reward money.

Then one evening on the news, there is a story about a woman who was killed on a cruise ship. Ned realizes that it was his childhood crush, Chuck, whom he hadn't seen since they were kids. Emerson wants them to solve the murder and collect the $50,000 reward put up by the travel agency who booked Chuck's cruise. They travel back to Ned's hometown so that Ned can revive Chuck, ask her who killed her, and then touch her again before the 60 seconds are up so that no one else dies.

There are only two problems with this. One is that Chuck (Anna Friel) doesn't know who killed her. The second problem is that Ned can't bring himself to touch her again, so she stays alive (well, the funeral director who died in her place was a bad guy anyway).

So there's this sort-of romance going on, but they can't touch. Sort of brings back memories of black-and-white sitcoms where married couples had twin beds. Chuck wants them to solve her murder and for the three of them (her, Ned, and Emerson) to split the reward money. She says that she got the trip for free for agreeing to pick up a package for Didi Duffield of Boutique Travel. Turns out that Didi put up the reward for solving the murder because she hoped the killer would be caught before he found Didi, but as it happens, that didn't work. The trio find Didi's body at the travel agency, and Ned revives her, but she touches him and dies again before she can tell them who the killer is.

They finally solve the murder when they visit Chuck's aunts (played by Swoosie Kurtz and Ellen Greene), eccentric shut-ins who raised Chuck after her father died (I somehow missed what happened to her mother). I won't give away absolutely all the details here as to exactly how they do that. Chuck stays out of sight of her aunts, since they think she is dead. Her own life had been nearly as constricted as her aunts' were. She lived with them (at age 28) and worked as a beekeeper and gathered honey for homeless people and read voraciously about other people's adventures rather than having her own, until her fateful trip. But she still felt homesick and missed her aunts and her old life.

This new series is so different that I am wondering how it will catch on. I found it odd but enjoyable, and hope that viewers will give it a chance. It is well-acted, funny, touching, and unique.