Pushing Daisies (Season 1, 2007)
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| © 2007/ ABC / The Jinks/ Cohen Company/ Living Dead Guy Productions/ Pushing Daisies Show Partners |
I have been meaning to watch Pushing Daisies because I've learned that it was written and created by Bryan Fuller, the writer whose genius is manifested in the recently concluded first season of NBC's Hannibal. What prompted it to jump up to the top of my priority list is learning that Lee Pace is the lead of the show, where he plays Ned the Pie-Maker.
The series revolves around Ned's ability to bring dead things back to life for a minute without any repercussions. Any second longer than that, something or someone else has to die. His first touch brings life, and the second touch brings death again, permanently. With an affinity for baking that he got from his mother, Ned grows up to become the owner of The Pie Hole, with the help of his waitress who harbors affection for him, Olive Snook (Kristin Chenoweth). Accidentally learning of Ned's ability to bring the dead back to life, private investigator Emerson Cod (Chi McBride) suggests a partnership where Cod finds murder victims whose deaths Ned will solve using his special gift, and the reward money split between the two of them. Things have fallen into a routine when one day Ned learns of the murder of his childhood sweetheart, Charlotte "Chuck" Charles (Anna Friel). Remembering the young girl he used to know from his hometown of "Couer d'Couers," Ned makes a choice concerning Chuck's life and death, the consequences of which will turn his and his friend's worlds upside down.
Quirky, funny, exciting and heartwarming when it wants to, Pushing Daisies is an enjoyable series disarming viewers with its colorful visual style, snappy dialogues, clever wordplay, likable characters, and intriguing overall scheme of "forensic fairy tale." Indeed, this show is a refreshing kind of comedy, with drama and romance on the side, and the amazing cast managed to capture the larger than life premise of the show as well as the endearing personal connections between the characters. Ned and Chuck are a delight to watch, especially when facing the unusual nuances of their relationship. I also like how Olive and Chuck were not put against each other as typical vicious rivals over a man, and that their characters, especially Olive's, did not fall into shallow stereotypes.
I've yet to see the whole of the second season but I'm saddened all over that it got cancelled so abruptly. I really wish the Pushing Daisies Movie Bryan Fuller talks about will come into fruition soon. It will be amazing to see Ned, Chuck, Emerson, Olive, as well as Aunts Lily and Vivian again, and wrap the story up as splendidly as it had begun.
