Pushing Daisies is unequivocally the best new show of the TV season.  Tonight's premiere episode is the most impressive network pilot since Lost, and is the most original piece of television since who knows when.  It is an astonishing feat that Pushing Daisies was even made.  Created by Bryan Fuller (creator of beloved, short-lived Wonderfalls), Pushing Daisies follows Ned, a pie-maker, who has the ability to bring dead people back to life.  

While Pushing Daisies deals with mortality and death at all turns, it is portrayed in a hopeful, light manner.  The show is quirky and witty, laugh out loud funny at times.  The jokes are never sitcom-y, though, and come from character and story.  Death is dealt with matter-of-factly, humorously, beautifully even, while never belittling the characters.  The show has soul and heart, the likes of which I can't remember ever seeing on TV.  If my gushing here seems unnecessary, it's not.  If I were to write a straight up recap of the pilot, Pushing Daisies might seem morbid and hopelessly dark.  It's anything but. 

Directed by Barry Sonnenfeld (Men in Black), Pushing Daisies evokes an optimistic Tim Burton (think Big Fish), a screen full of bright pastels and hyper-real sets.  Ned's pie shop is literally shaped like a large pie.  There are bright meadows and houses that feel like they were yanked out of Roald Dahl's brain.  The show employs constant narration from an omniscient narrator, a fact that might seem cheap in theory, but works to perfection. 

To the recap, then.  Since this is the pilot, there is a lot of information that needs to be set up.  Audiences need to know the rules and stakes for the rest of the series.  Let's start at the beginning.  Ned, as a little boy, watches his dog get hit by a car.  His dog is dead.  It is here where Ned first uses his gift.  He touches his dog, and it magically comes back to life.  Back inside his house, with his mother, he tests his abilities by reviving a dead fly.  About one minute later, his mother falls over dead while cooking.  Ned touches her, and she re-enters the land of the living. 

OK, time to back up for a second.  Next door to young Ned lives a girl his age named Chuck.  She lives alone with her father.  Chuck and Ned are friends, routinely playing together, even pretending to be Godzilla-like monsters who terrorize a miniature town located in Chuck's sandbox.

So, then, about one minute after Ned revives his mother, he watches as Chuck's father drops dead in his yard.  Later that night, Ned is in bed.  His mother comes to tuck him in and the moment she kisses him goodnight, she drops dead.  Ned tries to use his newfound power to bring her back.  But, this time, she's gone for good.  It is through these experiences that Chuck infers the limits of his revival abilities.

Ned's Abilities and Their Caveats

Ned can bring the dead back to life with one touch.  If he ever touches that person, or thing, again they die for good.  If he does not touch the person again within one minute, someone else will die as a result.  This person will always be in close proximity to the first death (hence Chuck's father).  Are we clear?  It also appears that it does matter what type of thing Ned brings back to life.  If it's a person, then a person in near proximity is in danger.  If it's a fruit, then a nearby fruit is in danger. 

Young Ned and Young Chuck share a kiss (the first for both) at the funerals for their respective parents.  They won't see each other again until they're adults.  Ned moves away to attend boarding school and Chuck goes to live with her aunts. 

Fast forward to the present.  Ned (Lee Pace) owns The Pie Hole, a pie shop.  He makes pies because he is able to bring dead, withered fruit back to life with one touch, creating ripe and glorious pies.  Olive Snook (Kristin Chenoweth), a perky and attractive blonde, works for Ned at The Pie Hole.  She has feelings for Ned, but Ned does not reciprocate these feelings. 

Ned is friends with private investigator Emerson Cod (Chi McBride), who is the only other person who knows of his secret.  Emerson was chasing a fugitive, when he witnessed Ned inadvertently bring the criminal back to life after falling off a building.  He continued watching as Ned ran him down, touched him again, killing the malcontent for good.  Emerson saw potential in Ned's gift and struck up a deal with Ned: they will go revive murder victims, ask who killed them, Ned will touch them again, killing them for good, and the duo will go collect the reward on the murder. 

We watch them solve the case of a falsely imprisoned dog.  For their next case, Emerson alerts Ned to a girl who was strangled to death on a cruise ship and thrown into the ocean.  No one knows why this happened, and there's a reward involved.  So, Ned and Emerson head to the girl's funeral, which happens to be in Ned's home town of Coeur D'Coeurs. 

It turns out that this mystery dead girl is Chuck (Anna Friel), a fact that is somewhat devastating to Ned.  Ned gets some alone time with Chuck at the funeral home and revives her while she's in her coffin.  Ned initially intends to send her back to the land of the dead, but can't bring himself to do it after the two reminisce about their shared childhood.  After the minute time limit runs up, the corrupt funeral director croaks.  In order to keep Chuck's revival a secret from family, friends and the media, Chuck remains in her coffin until later, when Ned rescues her from the cemetery.

Now, Chuck stays with Ned, incognito.  They share some tender moments and eventually Ned tells Chuck everything, his powers, why he can't touch her ever again, and that his initial reasons for reviving her were selfishly financial.  Chuck, excited at the prospect, proposes a deal where she joins up with Ned and Emerson in their plight and that she'll help them solve her own murder.  They all agree. 

Chuck has some secrets as well.  She wasn't just some innocent cruise passenger.  She was on her way to deliver some goods given to her by a sleazy travel agent.  The goods: two fake miniature monkeys.  She was out getting ice in the middle of the night and was strangled before she could catch a glimpse of the attacker.  It's safe to assume her attacker was searching for the monkeys.

After a trip to the travel agent (that involves some reviving), the trio realize that the monkeys will have been sent by the cruise line to Chuck's next of kin, which would be Chuck's two aunts.

About the aunts: they are a former synchronized swimming duo, who once were beloved, but were forced to stop performing when one of the aunts lost an eye.  Since that point, both became agoraphobic and haven't left their house.  Ned and Emerson arrive at the aunt's house to discuss Chuck, but what they really want to do is find the monkeys.  Chuck waits in the car, because the aunts think she's dead. 

But, while Ned and Emerson are sitting and eating cheese with the aunts, Chuck sneaks up the back wall and into her old bedroom.  There, she finds the monkeys.  But, the same assassin that killed her on the cruise ship has tracked the monkeys to the aunts' house as well. 

Since this recap is running quite long, I'll wrap it up succinctly.  The assassin is blown away with a shotgun by one of the aunts, who was left for dead by the assassin.  Ned, Emerson and Chuck leave while in possession of the monkeys.  At the very end of the episode, they realize that the monkeys are made of solid gold. 


-Oscar Dahl, BuddyTV Senior Writer
(Image Courtesy of ABC)