| What You'll Find in the Pie Hole |
 It is a rare thing nowadays, when a TV show captures one's imagination. I guess I can only speak for myself, but I find a lot of the current programming a bit unoriginal, what with the proliferation of spin-offs and the ubiquitousness of the reality show genre. Although there are some TV shows worth mentioning for their original content: Dexter, Californication, Weeds, to name a few, the mediocrity and the sheer number of the unimaginative shows coming out of Hollywood overshadows its few creative productions. One show, in particular, has been kept off the radar. It is a show that deals with life and death, requited and unrequited love, guilt and honesty, passion and passivity. It is a show called PUSHING DAISIES.PUSHING DAISIES stars my hunk-of-the-moment, Lee Pace, as Ned, the pie-maker. Ned is not only a talented baker, which makes him a fairly attractive catch to all femmes out there, but he also has the ability to bring the dead back to life. This special gift has its limitations, of course. Someone he has brought back to life can only remain alive for one minute, or someone else will die. As part of this prerequisite, if Ned touches the revived person again, they die. Hmm...interesting, you might say, in a slightly convoluted way. It all makes sense in Brian Fuller's, the show's creator, scheme of things. Ned's secret talent is put to use when he works in collaboration with private investigator, Emerson Cod, played by Chi McBride, as they seek to solve murders with the help of Ned's magic touch. The wonderful ensemble cast includes firecracker, Kristin Chenoweth from the hit Broadway show, WICKED. Chenoweth plays the role of Olive Snook, a waitress in Ned's pie restaurant, who charms not only the customers, but the audience as well, with her superb acting and awesome vocal abilities. She plays the part of Ned's unrequited lover perfectly that she'll make you root for her. Veteran actress Swoosie Kurtz of BUBBLE BOY fame, stars as one of the Charles' sisters whom Ned knows from childhood, and Anna Friel, who was nominated for her role as Ned's childhood sweetheart, completes the quirky, funny and amusing cast of characters. What I really like about PUSHING DAISIES is not only its original plot, but also its wonderful production. The show is really quite reminiscent of Jean-Pierre Jeunet's AMELIE. It's magical sequences of dead people, dead fruit and dead animals coming back to life is so well thought of and well-executed. There is also a narrator who voices over the thoughts and emotions of the characters, as well as the events as they unfold. This aspect adds the final magical ingredient to this modern fairy tale. If you are, like me, jaded with the way that network programming is headed (oh no, not another LAW AND ORDER or CSI!!!), and you don't have the luxury of having cable ("Who doesn't, in this day and age, have cable?", you may ask. I, for one do not have cable, as well as the few people who are waiting to get it in 2009, when everything goes digital), then, turn your TV sets on to ABC for the next season of PUSHING DAISIES, when it returns this fall. In the meantime, you should trawl on the internet (www.ABC.com) for season one's episodes. I assure you, you won't regret it. It might even make you a believer of magic, again, just like it made me. by Angela Torregoza |
