These “Daisies” should grow on you….

Over the past several weeks, I couldn’t help but wax ecstatic over this new show, Pushing Daisies, which airs every Tuesday at 8 pm over at ETC 2nd Avenue. However, given that my other current favourite, Gossip Girl, airs at exactly the same time, I decided to make do with the Sunday re-runs at 9 pm (which meant sacrificing Samantha Who? over at Studio 23 – but now that I’m updated with Gossip Girl episodes to the season finale thanks to my ever-resourceful niece, I can savour the fresh-baked Daisies goodness on Tuesdays)

Pushing Daisies revolves around the adventures of Ned (Lee Pace), a pie-maker who has the uncanny gift to restore the dead back to life. However, such an awesome gift has its limiting circumstances: if said revivee was to be touched a second time, he/she is dead for good; likewise, if one minute passes since subject’s life is restored, a random life has to taken away…whether it be a bird, a frog or even a dear loved one.

A bit like Michael Moorcock’s Elric without his soul-sucking sword Stormbringer.

Ned’s unique gift gains him the alliance of Emerson Cod (Chi McBride), a private investigator of rather dubious scruples. Together, they scour the morgues for quick resolutions resulting to instantaneous cash rewards.

One such subject eventually becomes Ned’s unwitting love interest – Charlotte “Chuck” Charles (Anna Friel), who lovingly dotes on her two reclusive aunts. Her life changes the minute she embarks on a cruise which leads to her murder – and eventual revival into the hands of Ned. Over the course of the first season, Chuck tries to find a way to show Ned how much she loves him – even if it entails stuff like Saran Wrap and prosthetic hands.

While Emerson grudgingly accepts Chuck’s entry in Ned’s life, one person is particularly displeased – Olive Snook (the petite yet oh-so-adorable Kristin Chenoweth), Ned’s loyal waitress at The Pie Hole, the restaurant Ned owns. Y’see, Olive’s had a long-repressed crush on Ned, which tends to manifest itself outright in really awkward situations.

Olive Snook channels Sandra Dee from Grease

What I love about this show – which could be best described as “a threesome between CSI, Moonlighting and ‘Amelie’” – is that it doesn’t apologize for its hyper-stylized, color-heavy appearance. Indeed, such inventive don’t-give-a-fuckness is a breath of fresh air at a time when TV programming is often accused of pandering to the lowest common denominator (we’re looking at you, Mrs. Kardashian and Lohan ). Jim Dale’s smooth-as-butter prose narration gives the show an almost fairy-tale like feel, underpinning the nonetheless bizarre cases that Ned and Emerson often face (this one takes the cake – oops, I mean pie – a company manufacturing a concept car running on dandelion power covering up crash-test-dummy reports).

Credit for managing the otherwise unwieldy concept juxtaposition lies in the hands of Bryan Fuller, who was responsible for prior attempts at imparting magical realism with a dab of slightly dark humour in primetime series like Wonderfalls (with its talking figurines) and Dead Like Me. He has a formidable ally this time around in the person of veteran filmmaker/producer Barry Sonnenfeld (no stranger in shepherding quirky product to mainstream audiences with the Addams Family and Men In Black movies under his belt).

The stories manage to pack in the requisite twists enough to satisfy procedural fans…with interesting use of milieus in every episode (horse racing in one, competitive dog-breeding and polygamy in another). The cases, thankfully, are self-contained in every episode, so there’s no danger of ideas being quickly burnt out – not yet, at least. As for the quirkiness, thankfully it doesn’t get too overboard or cloying.

Lee Pace’s Ned is endearingly awkward but unflappable when it comes to dealing with knowing the limits of his powers. Anna Friel (who sports a really convincing American accent here) is charming without being ingratiating in her role as Chuck (who happened to be Ned’s childhood sweetheart). Providing their requisite amount of tang in the atmosphere are Swoosie Kurtz and Ellen Greene as Chuck’s aunts, former synchronized swimming stars and veterans of the county-fair circuit.

Olive and one of Chuck’s aunts cover The Mighty Lemon Drops

Scheduling hassles aside…if Samantha Who moves to Thursdays opposite Two and a Half Men just before Desperate Housewives to make way for Dirty Sexy Money…bah, nevermind, I’d still stick with the “Daisies”. I just hope this rookie drama should get not just one or two…but maybe four Emmy awards come September 21.

My campaign for an Emmy victory for Pushing Daisies officially begins here.

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