Review:
Ned finds out as a child that his touch can bring the dead back to life. He learns the hard way that after a minute, someone else has to die for them to continue living. Worse still, if he touches the person again, they die again.
As an adult, Ned (Lee Pace) eschews physical contact with everyone while running a pie show. A chance encounter with private investigator Emerson Cod (the always excellent Chi McBride) leads to an arrangement of resurrecting the dead, finding out who killed them, returning them to the dead, and collecting the reward. This works well until Chuck, Ned’s childhood crush, is murdered on a cruise ship, throwing a monkey wrench into Ned and Emerson’s arrangement.
Pushing Daisies is unlike anything I can remember ever seeing on television. Directed by Barry Sonnenfeld, the show feels very much like a movie. The stylistic choices made in the shooting, editing, and music remind you of macabre productions such as Edward Scissorhands and The Addams Family.
The acting is terrific. Pace is sublime as Ned, trying to live in a world he cannot touch. McBride reminds me a lot of his role in Peter Jackson’s The Frighteners, always there to help, but gruffly. The omniscient narrator (Jim Dale) adds a storybook feel to the tale, too.
I’m very eager to see how this series is received when it premieres. I hope audiences warm to its fairy tale aspects and the series lasts the whole season, if not many, many more.
July 30th, 2007 at 9:54 pm
This sounds a lot like Carnivà le, the old HBO series. Carnivà le is one of my favorite shows ever, which probably explains why HBO pulled it before it reached its logical end. If you never have seen Carnivà le, go rent it. Let’s hope Pushing Daisies is as good.