A New Show with Pompous Appeal

By Cameron Ross

The first episode of Pushing Daisies captures attention with the death of a precious dog seconds after running in a field with a boy, Ned. Luckily for us animal lovers, the dog is brought back to life by Ned’s touch.
Certain aspects of the show are bizarre and hold no real significance, which causes the viewer to think. Where are there rolling hills of yellow daisies along the side of a highway? The serene setting resembles that of a Tim Burton movie and the music seems to mesh well with the unusual storyline. It sounds like curiosity if the feeling had a sound, almost zany.
Charlotte Charles, Chuck, is the love of Ned’s life since he first kissed her during their parents’ funerals on the same day. For some reason Ned did not cry when his mother died. Assumedly, this is meant to convey the bizarre situation by adding to strange behavior from the characters.
Narration switches back and forth with Ned and the Pie Maker as the main character’s name and calls the woman who he loves Chuck. The main characters all have quirky personalities that make them likeable. Skepticism surrounds every person in the show because while you become familiar with them you overlook the fact that they are bringing dead people back to life for a minute so that they can extract enough information to solve the mysteries of their deaths and kill them again before someone else in the proximity dies.
Emerson Cod is the owner of The Pie Hole where Ned works and is also his business partner. Only Cod and Chuck know Ned’s secret. Cod’s “unibrow” is occasionally distracting as he follows Ned around like a publicist advising him what actions to take.
This show seems to follow the trends of other popular television series but constantly leaving the story on the edge of a revelation. Just like Lost and Prison Break, Pushing Daisies ends each scene with the beginning of a new one even more intriguing.
There is some comic relief in the show consisting of the munchkin neighbor who likes Ned and also works at The Pie Hole with him. The formulaic babbling of Ned also is entertaining, much in the way that the character Tony Shalhoub plays on Monk. He is scared of touching for more obvious reasons but acts very proper and almost feminine.
Ned is likeable because of the way he means well like when he sets a truck on fire to distract the gravediggers from burying the now undead Chuck. The writing for the show is clever as is the filming. The camera angles and drifting of view move with the pace of the music and keep a constant draw on the screen.
What is frustrating about the show is the chemistry between the main characters and how they cannot physically act on any urges. It is highly unlikely that in the impossible situation where things would happen like in the show that the people involved would be able to adapt so quickly.
Chuck is really cool with the way she instantaneously bonds with Ned and his lifestyle. It is smart to make a living by profiting from Ned’s gift and unfortunate that his revival of a dead person results in the death of a living person.
Lee Pace, who plays Ned, deserves praise for his acting because his character is the foundation of the show and he really created a unique personality and is consistent in his acting. The rest of the acting is adequate, although if Anna Friel weren’t so cute and innocent then Chuck would be a typical bimbo character simply on the show the purpose of eye candy and sex appeal. Overall the show seems uniquely interesting but require a specific type of interest in order to be appealing to viewers.