Pushing Daisies: Season One

A pie maker with the power to kill? So the concept to Pushing Daisies might sit better in your archetypal B-movie plot, but a cast of Lee Pace, Anna Friel and Chi McBride keep it strictly A-star in terms of performance.

Pushing Daisies is a slick, CGI-heavy jaunt with all the white picket fence appeal of your classic American prime time show. Pace’s character, Ned, is goofy, nervous and immediately likeable: a good guy with a dangerous gift, a kitsch storyline of a pie maker with the power of God. Anna Friel’s cute, sassy porcelain doll distraction as Ned’s childhood sweetheart, Chuck, is the sugar and spice antithesis to Chi McBride’s quirky, and often hilarious, turn as Emerson Cod, a pie loving Private Investigator and Ned’s business partner.

Utilising Ned’s gift for bringing the dead back to life, regular trips to the city morgue see the duo question corpses for information that’ll lead the cops to a satisfactory conclusion, and reward money to the pair’s bank accounts.

A Funny Bones story for grown ups, Pushing Daisies is eminently watchable, but possesses a darker underbelly. You see, Ned (Pace) is a man with talented hands. One part pie maker, one part maker, he has more power in his index finger than ET could ever have wished for. Having discovered from an early age he has the power to bring the dead back to life with a single touch, Ned inadvertently kills his childhood crush's dad in order to save his recently deceased mom, not realising his second touch is deadly. Now, killing your sweetheart’s dad isn’t the smoothest of moves, but when that sweetheart turns up dead 22 years later, admittance isn’t really his main priority.

Perfect casting and sharp dialogue provide the fulcrum for Pushing Daisies' glowing appeal and turn an odd concept into a playful, successful one. Beaming with innocent love and good intentions, you’ll certainly need a sweet tooth for this saccharine little series.

Released on 23rd June 2008 by Warner Home Video.

Written by Reef Younis.