Review: Pushing Daisies

This is a strange TV show. As I watched the premiere, I couldn't help but think of how I felt the first time I saw Edward Scissorhands: it's a little like peering into an alternate universe, where the rules are almost the same as here, but not quite. And where that's different than other shows where unbelievable things happen like, say, Heroes or Lost, is in the way the characters react to the weirdnesses.

For example, in the 1990 Tim Burton fantasy with Johnny Depp and Winona Ryder, you've got a main character with scissors for hands. That's weird! And yet people within the surburban neighbourhood in which he eventually ends up, don't really seem to find that so strange... especially if Edward uses his appendages to carve up nifty hedge statues for them! Kind of like the real world, and kind of not. In Pushing Daisies, the viewer is painstakingly lead through a Rules of the Game opening in which we're both shown and told - thanks to a fairly cheesy narration - exactly how Ned discovered and came to understand his unique ability. If you haven't already heard, central character Ned can touch any dead creature and bring it back to life. However, precisely one minute later, if Ned hasn't touched the re-animated flora or fauna a second time, causing it to resume being dead forever, then some other living creature in the area will die in its place. And the creature brought back to life initially will still end up dead if Ned ever touches it again. As rules go, those are pretty tight, albeit nonsensical (why exactly one minute? how is the alternate life decided? why manifest when the child is ten, or had he simply never noticed before then that he was bringing cut flowers back to life, for example?); so I give them points for tightness.

With the setup out of the way, it's time for someone to discover Ned's secret. Many years later, Ned, all grown up but seriously repressed from fear of touching anyone (not sure why he thinks it's bad to touch non-dead types, but whatever) is a pie-maker (cuz, see, his mother was making a pie when 10-year-old Ned accidentally killed her... twice!) Unfortunately, though, Ned's spotted accidentally re-animating and then de-animating (within that crucial sixty seconds) a freshly dead man. The onlooker who spies this strange turn of events, who just happens to be a private detective (ish), immediately sees an opportunity for easy money: have Ned wake a murder victim up just long enough to ask, "So, who killed you, anyway?" before a second touch and then off to collect the reward by ID'ing the murderer. I guess if he'd been anything other than a P.I. we'd have gotten a different show. Or something. You'd think, though, that someone with that knack for spotting the goose that lays the golden eggs might think: "I wonder how much a rich dude might pay us to bring a dead loved one back to life?" But no. Again: different show. Instead, we get the first of what appear to be many characters who just... accept... that this is the way the game is played, and go from there. It certainly makes for convenient plot advancement, but it also takes away any sense of reality. Which can be OK, like in the case of dear old Edward and his "Don't run with scissors?! What part of my life don't you understand?" charm.

But then the Contrivance Machine shifts into overdrive. See, Ned's childhood crush just happens to get murdered, setting up the scenario that some might call a gimmick: Ned gives her the first half of the usual treatment, but then can't bring himself to send her on to her Eternal Reward. Instead, the minute passes and death befalls a nearby funeral director - thankfully, a corrupt and worthless sort, saving Ned any messy guilt that might otherwise complicate things - leaving girlfriend Charlotte among the "alive again" crowd. And wouldn't you know it, just like Ned hasn't really moved on from that childhood crush because of his strange gift, Charlotte was sent off to live with twisted aunties - they were synchronized swimmers, OK? of course they're sick! - which saved her from ever developing a normal life! Whew! These two lovesick kids were so meant for each other!

Again, it takes Charlotte less time to adjust to this new situation, explained to her as she awakes in a coffin, than it took me to type this sentence - or, in fact, any word in it - as she eagerly joins Ned and the P.I. in their search for her killer. And here's the money shot, the gem that must've had the writers high-fiving each other raw when one of them came up with it: Ned and Charlotte can't touch, or she dies! Oh my God! I totally didn't see that one coming... except about a mile away.

The rest of the premiere is just more of the same, with a few laughs along the way but nothing terribly surprising. I've managed to make it sound like I hated Pushing Daisies, when in fact I didn't. It's horribly written in parts, and contrived as Hell, but it certainly has its heart in the right place (each of the main three characters are likable to some degree). I loved Edward Scissorhands and I wanted to like Pushing Daisies... but it didn't quite grab me. Maybe it'll get better. I think my strongest reaction, though, was: this is what's being touted as the best new show of 2007/08? Huh! That pretty much sums up this year's new crop, I think.

Rating: **