TV is the New Reading

‘Pushing Daisies’ is impossibly charming

“Pushing Daisies” is far and away the most charming show I have ever seen in my life.

It’s a mischievous, psychadelic fairy-tale centered around Lee Pace as Ned, a pie-maker who just happens to be able to bring the dead back to life with a touch. But only for a minute. If he does not touch them again, taking back the life force he gave them, there are dark consequences.

The narrator – the mellifluous Jim Dale – describes this ability as a gift “given to him by no one in particular.” Ned discovers his gift when his beloved dog is killed in a car accident when he’s only a child. He touches his dog and it jumps up and runs off, perfectly fine. Which he thinks is pretty cool.

Later that afternoon his mother dies of a brain aneurysm and he brings her back to life with a touch. Unfortunately, not knowing the rules – the gift didn’t come with a manual, after all – he doesn’t touch her again, and the father of his childhood sweetheart, Charlotte “Chuck” Charles, keels over in the garden next door, which he learns is the consequence of his enormous and now all the more unsettling gift.

The other rule – that a second touch will take their life away, this time for good – he learns that night, when his mother kisses him and in a flash of horror, dies instantly.

The story picks up after Ned and Chuck kiss at her father’s funeral. He leaves his hometown of Couer d’ Couers and Chuck moves in with her nutty aunts.

The story resumes years later in “The Pie Hole,” Ned’s place of business, where he crafts pies from fruit he revives mystically and leads a more or less solitary existence. His gift is still going, strong as ever – indeed, his dog is still around and appears not to have aged a day, which opens a bit of intrigue. He uses his gift to bring murder victims back to life to tell him and his private investigator friend Emerson Cod, played by Chi McBride, whodunit. He thanks them, touches them again and collects his share of the reward when Emerson turns in the murderer.

When Chuck is killed on a cruise while inadvertently smuggling monkeys – yes, this show is exactly that adorable – Ned and Emerson travel to the funeral home to get a bit of ... inside information. Ned touches her to find out whodunit. She doesn’t know, and he can’t bring himself to touch her a second time (so the corrupt funeral director snuffs it in her place).

Even though Chuck doesn’t know who killed her, she realizes she wants to be with Ned and proposes a partnership to track down her killer and a three-way split for the reward. They track the killer to the home of her nutty aunts, where Chuck’s effects were sent following her death. They kill Chuck’s killer and collect the reward, and discover the monkeys she was smuggling are made from solid gold.

And they’re together. Except they can’t touch. And Ned still hasn’t told her the secret he knows about her father’s untimely death all those years ago.

It’s one of the most beautifully macabre stories I’ve seen since Showtime’s “Dead Like Me,” show creator Bryan Fuller’s last project. In that it even exists is cause for celebration. In that it opened to such acclaim that the network ordered a full first season is just heart-warming.

It’s airing early enough that families can watch it together. One question parents might ask is whether they should. Judging by the pilot episode, however, it appears that the show actively seeks to sanitize even the more gruesome aspects of what might be anticipated in a show depicting, well, re-animated dead people. In these crime scenes, the magic trumps the forensics every time and every scene is more or less dominated by a whimsy designed to appeal to adults and children alike.

In short, it appears that there is, indeed, still room on the dial for brilliant storytelling. Well done, “Daisies,” and keep up the good work.

Features Editor Terry J. Aman compiles the Best Bets for The Minot Daily News.

Back Back to Shows Back to Main Page Next