I found out that the pilot episode of the new ABC series Pushing Daisies was in the wild (read torrented) and given my frenzied anticipation, immediately downloaded it. And I’m glad I did, though watching it early just means I have to wait a week longer to find out what happens next. This is my kind of show. It’s quirky, funny, well written and visually arresting. The dialogue is fast, think Gillmore Girls only it doesn’t wear out its welcome (or rather, think Wonderfalls, but I doubt you’ve seen that.)
The story centers around a young man, Ned the piemaker, who has a gift, not given to him by anyone in particular, where he can bring someone (or thing) to life merely by touching them. The problem being that if he touches them again they die instantly, never to revive. And if he doesn’t touch them within one minute, someone else dies taking their place “it’s a random proximity thing,” he explains.
Ned makes pies for a living (being able to bring wilted strawberries back to life comes in handy for this) though he supplements his income with the reward money from solving murders. Turns out that the easiest way to solve a murder is to ask the victim who killed them!
The show twists around the Ross/Rachel, Jim/Pam will they or won’t they bit quite brilliantly when Ned’s childhood sweetheart Chuck is murdered on a cruise ship. There’s reward money involved so Ned resurrects her to ask the usual questions but is unable to bring himself to end it before the minute is up. Of course this means that the random proximity things happens, killing the man in the bathroom nearby.
“He was a very, very bad man, he stole stuff off dead people and sold it on the internet” explains Ned to the business partner in murder-solving.
“Oh that’s very nice, the fact that he was a very, very bad man make you feel better about what you did?”
“Yes, immensely!”
Now, however, there’s a problem, Ned and Chuck are desperately in love, so the question isn’t really will they get together… it’s how in the world can they. If he touches her, she dies. Which means the show gets to be very clever in how it advances their short-distance relationship.
The pilot episode was directed by Barry Sonnenfeld and is just as quirky as that would suggest. It deals with dark and somewhat disturbing things, all while maintaining a light-hearted attitude to it and a bright palette of colors to offset it. The stars are immensely appealing and have genuine chemistry together.
The show premieres October 4th on ABC and more than deserves an audience. The pilot was very, very good (best pilot since Lost and the show may be better...) Watch it, I’d hate for it to die an early and undeserved death.