Never Mind Sweet

I had been interested in checking out Pushing Daisies since it premiered in the fall of 2007. But then the writer's strike exploded and the show's first season was reduced to only nine episodes. Then the show came back for season two --but the audience did not, and Pushing Daisies was cancelled. Still, I was curious, so when I found the first season for fifteen bucks, I decided to give it a try.

The show's premise is sort of interesting: a guy that can bring people back from the dead by touching them. However, there are two caveats. One is that whoever he brought back will die when he touches him again. So why would he touch them again, you ask? Well, if he doesn't send them back to the Ever After one minute after resurrecting them, somebody else dies to preserve the balance. So what Ned, the guy thus gifted, does is pretty much avoid touching anyone. Then Chuck, his first love, is murdered, and he touches her to find out who killed her. But then he cannot bring himself to kill her again, so someone else dies and she gets to stay. So they can be together! Except for the fact they cannot touch each other ever again, or she will die for good. Oops.

The whole show feels like a fairy tale, with Jim Dale narrating the story from beginning to end. The look of the show is also fairytale-esque and clothes and cars and buildings look old and quaint, with bright colors and whimsical designs. The dialogue is quick, witty, and funny, and every episode is jam-packed with awkward moments, sweetness, cuteness, improbable names and outlandish events. To sum it up: imagine Tim Burton on a sugar high. Now add three thousand spoonfuls of honey, and you will pretty much have it.

Pushing Daisies truly is quite idiosyncratic and out there, an original mixture of noir detective stories (Ned works with Emerson Cod), fantasy, romance, and mystery seasoned with lots and lots and lots of sweetness and quirky stuff. And even though I like weird stuff and cute stories and love and fantasy and whimsy, I found the combination overpowering. It was cute, but I wasn't invested in the characters. It was entertaining, but the extremely episodic nature of the show makes it hard to commit to it long term. So while I enjoyed watching these nine episodes, I really don't find any reason to get season two when it comes out on DVD. But judge for yourselves, check out one or two episodes, and let me know what you think.