The Pie Maker can bring the dead back to life with a touch of his hand. But when he touches them once more, they’re dead forever. What if he wakes his childhood sweetheart from the dead? Welcome to the fantastic world of ‘Pushing Daisies’
EMRAH GÜLER
ISTANBUL - Turkish Daily News
Young Ned is nine years, 27 weeks, six days and three minutes old when he quite tragically discovers he has a special gift.
Having witnessed his dog being run over by a truck, Ned touches Digby’s dead body one last time only to find out that his Golden Retriever is brought back to life. Soon after, his mother dies of an aneurysm while holding a freshly baked pie in her hands.
Testing his new-found gift, Ned brings his mother back to life by the mere touch of his hand. We find out the cost of this gift exactly 60 seconds later when their neighbor drops dead while watering their garden. For every life Ned brings back from the dead, there’s another to be given in return – in close proximity.
But even more tragic than the death of his neighbor is that Ned cannot touch the person he’s resurrected because they will die forever. As young Ned goes to bed, trying to digest the things he’s experienced that day, his mother kisses him gently on his forehead, only to die instantly.
Having watched all of these in the first five minutes of “Pushing Daisies,” narrator Jim Dale takes us forward to 19 years, 34 weeks, one day and 59 minutes later. When young Ned has become a handsome pie maker. Running – quite unsuccessfully – a restaurant named “The Pie Hole,” Ned uses his gift for an extra job. Working with a private investigator, Emerson Cod, Ned pays an occasional visit to the city morgue, to resurrect murder victims for one minute and find out the killer, eventually splitting the reward with his partner in anti-crime.
Leading an ordinary life of baking pies and speaking with the dead, Ned’s life changes when one of the murder victims turns out be his childhood sweetheart Charlotte (or Chuck). He brings her to life, but doesn’t quite manage to send the love of his life back to dead (killing the funeral manager in the process). That’s when the heart-breaking main story of “Pushing Daisies” comes to life: An ethereal love story shining in the middle of all dysfunctional TV relations. The story of the Pie Maker and his childhood sweetheart who cannot touch one another.
The Pie Maker and his sweetheart
“Pushing Daisies” aims directly at senses and emotions. With an atmosphere created by Bryan Fuller of “Heroes” and director Barry Sonnefled of “Men In Black” among others, falling “somewhere between “Amelie” and a Tim Burton film – something big, bright and bigger than life, the heart-warming chemistry of the Golden Globe-nominated Lee Pace and Anna Friel, the pies that are the ultimate punishment for the audience in diet, the murders reminiscent of Hansel and Gretel, and with its surreal narrative turning instantly from a mystery to a musical, “Pushing Daisies” only wants you to let your emotions loose.
The city where Ned, Chuck, Emerson (Chi McBride) and waitress Olive, who has a crush on Ned (Kristin Chenoweth), reside in is a place right out of children’s books. The only thing missing from the surreal city with candy-colored morgue, cars working with dandelions and wind mills of all colors is Charlie’s Chocolate Factory. The city is like a children’s book, so are the other resident actors of the murder cases, with names like Deedee Duffield, Wilfred Woodruff, Napoleon LeNex, Dilly and Billy Balsam.
Jim Dale’s narrative (known best as the narrator of the Harry Potter audio books) is intended to boost the visual richness of “Pushing Daisies.” While we’re given couple of seconds to digest the fantastic visuals behind a baffled-looking Ned, the narrator talks with a soothing voice: “At that moment, the Pie Maker felt a mixture of happiness and trepidation.” To that Ned retorts, “Why is it always a mixture?” Or the narrator introduces a minor character: “Her name was Elsa. And this was her windmill.” Next, the woman speaks. “My name is Elsa. This is my windmill.”
“Pushing Daisies” is a show about love at its most innocent, when touching wasn’t a priority, and about childhood. Each episode begins with a brief story on Ned’s mostly unhappy childhood. We soon realize that pies are a way for Ned to become happy again, to go back to that time when he was a happy child, with his parents with him and without the crushing knowledge of an unusual gift. The most passionate moments in the relationship between Ned and Chuck are when the two are kissing through cellophane or holding hands through oven gloves. They even have a glass compartment in their car not to accidentally touch one another. It will be a pleasant surprise if the story of the two lovers who cannot touch one another is able to make it much further on TV. Enjoy the Pie Maker and his sweetheart while you can.
You can watch “Pushing Daisies” at 9:00 p.m. on Tuesdays at CNBC-e. The show will debut on Feb. 19.
