Filled with amusingly colorful imagery and a definite fairy tale atmosphere comes Pushing Daisies, a show about Ned, a lonely pie maker with the strange power to bring dead things back to life by touching them. He discovered that this power had a catch or two when his mother suffered a sudden death from aneurysm, and he touched her to bring her back to life, unwittingly causing the death of the neighbor girl's father. Oh, and his mother was again relegated to the land of the dead when Ned touched her again. Upon the second touch, the being was dead again, this time for good.Fast forward to present day, and we find Ned running a lucrative pie business (fruit no longer has a shelf life for him) and helping run a detective agency on the side. It's much easier to solve murder cases when you can wake the dead and ask them who killed them. Eventually, the murder of a young woman who was pushed off a cruise ship. It was Charlotte "Chuck" Charles, Ned's closest childhood friend and first kiss. The first episode details Ned and his associate, Emerson, solving her murder by bringing her back to life. The catch, though, is that Ned can't bring himself to doom her back to death and nothingness, and thus leaves her alive.
The newly formed trio use Ned's gift, Emerson's gumshoe talents, and Chuck's creativity to continue the murder-solving business, all while navigating a relationship lacking the sense of touch between the two childhood friends.
The best part of the show is by far the beautifully clever writing. It's littered with puns and alliterations, interesting metaphors, and situations that make one smile. The result is a modern fairy tale with an amazingly quirky sense of humor. The imagery is surreal at times, which only enhances the uniqueness of the show. It's funny, thought provoking, and amazingly interesting.
Also, they creators are clearly fans of They Might Be Giants:
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