Pushing Daisies

Yeah, I know, "Pushing Daisies" is so last fall and didn't make it back after the strike, but I'll put in a plug for it now anyway. Robyn and I watched it when it was on and it was hands-down our favorite TV series of the season.

It's got an odd premise: Ned ("The Pie-Maker") has the ability to touch the dead and bring them back to life. But there are some catches, of course, arbitrary but certainly necessary to make this interesting: if he touches them a second time, they're dead forever. If he doesn't return somebody to death within a minute of their revival, somebody else in the vicinity will die instead to take their place.

Ned works with a private investigator who solves mysterious deaths for reward money; they simply find the dead people, bring them back to life and question them (within a minute), and then restore them to death and collect the bounty. Of course, in the pilot episode we run into a hiccup: Ned resurrects his childhood sweetheart and can't bear to kill her again. So for the rest of the show, they're doomed to a touch-less romance. Figure that one out.

But what really makes the show sparkle is the way that it looks and sounds unlike any other TV show. The colors are extra-vivid, the writing is snappy, and there's narration (by Jim Dale, who did something like 300+ voices for the Harry Potter audiobooks) which gives a storybook quality to the whole thing. You can practically hear Dale winking at you from behind his microphone. It's not a show that takes itself seriously, and it's all the better for it. Ridiculously complicated murders and accidental deaths? Check. Bereaved aunts who used to be synchronized mermaid swimmers? Check. Incredibly delicious pies made from once-rotten fruit? Check.

If you haven't seen it, do yourself a favor and go check it out. I think you can watch full episodes at ABC.com.