And unfortunately, when it finally comes along, it gets swept away and buried in the incessant flood of regurgitated cop dramas and reality-TV shows. So when I heard ABC decided to axe “Pushing Daisies,” you could bet I was rightly pissed off.
Since its Fall 2007 debut, ABC’s “Pushing Daisies” has consistently blown away all of my expectations of primetime programming.
‘Daisies’ follows the story of humble pie maker Ned (played by Lee Pace), who has the unlikely ability to bring dead things back to life with a single touch, while a second touch will return the revived back to their deceased state—permanently. But there’s a catch: anytime Ned revives something for more than a minute, the “universe” balances itself, and something (or someone) with similar “life value” in the vicinity drops dead.
As a means to supplement his income, Ned teams up Private Investigator Emerson Cod (Chi McBride) and the two use Ned’s power to interview recent murder victims to solve the cases and split the rewards. This all works well and good, until one of the victims turns out to be Ned’s childhood sweetheart, a girl named Chuck (Anna Friel), and Ned can’t make himself touch her a second time and lose her again.
From the storytelling to the visuals, ‘Daisies’ has reinvented the television dramedy.
The show runs on secrets, and everyone is playing investigator at one time or another. From the tomboy-in-a-dress Chuck secretly sending pies to her dear aunts that raised her that she can’t visit (because how would she explain she’s back from the dead), to Ned’s love-struck assistant Olive Snook (Kristin Chenoweth) trying figure out the unusual relationship between her boss and chuck, and the teams latest murder investigation.
But the charm of the series comes from its central romance between Ned and Chuck, two lovers who can never touch. As their love growths, the two develop new ways for them to express it, like kissing with their lips separated by plastic wrap or holding their own hands and imagining holding each others—sweet scenes contrasted by the fact that because of his unusual power, Ned normally tries to avoid physical contact with anyone.
There’s a dark humor the series, as many of the characters speak rather cavalierly about the murders they investigate and the casualness with which they treat the dead with. In many cases, the dead were only brought back so they could be asked who killed him—often times in rather absurd ways (like being done in by a crash-test dummy or drowning in a vat of taffy). It had never occurred to the uncomfortable Ned or ambitious Emerson before Chuck arrived to ask the deceased if they had any last requests or messages they wanted delivered.
Aside from the dark and twisty wit, the storybook look and feel of the series is one of my favorite qualities of the series. Reminiscent of Tim Burton’s more colorful works like “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory” or “Big Fish,” the sets look like an illustration come to life. From Ned’s bake shop The Pie Hole (that ONLY sells pies) to the unusually bright morgue; every scene is visually intriguing, making the world of “Pushing Daisies” a character in itself.
Unlike most primetime programs that keep the shadows of dimly lit crime labs, operating rooms, or “confessional” booths, it was nice to see a show that embraced color, and I will miss that amongst the moody tones of the 30 million CSIs and Law & Orders.
But there might still be hope.
The final three episodes of ‘Daises’ air this summer, and maybe…maybe…if enough people tune in, ABC might renege their decision to cut the series. Also, check out the first season on DVD or iTunes, and recent episodes on ABC.com or Hulu.
Follow Frank DeAngelo on Twitter at @modernheart.
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