WHAT ON EARTH WAS THAT SHOW "PUSHING DAISIES?"

My wife and I finished all 2 seasons (it only lasted 2 seasons) of "Pushing
Daisies." We caught all the episodes on the online Netflix and after seeing
it again I can give you a fresh perspective if you've never watched it.

First off, the show is done as fanciful as possible. The music in the
background was chosen to give it a "fairy tale" like quality. The main
hero, Ned, brings dead people back to life. However, if he doesn't touch
them again before a minute's up, someone else dies who's standing in close
proximity. When he touches the dead person again they stay dead forever.

So to make it interesting Ned brings back to life his childhood sweetheart,
Charles, who falls in love with him even though they can never touch again.
The two of them hang around a detective and they solve crimes. There's all
sorts of fringe story lines that take over here and there but basically this
is a murder mystery show.

The show was loved by the critics. Entertainment Weekly talked it up so
much I had to watch it online (me who refuses to have a TV). My wife and I
loved Kristin Chenoweth who played Olive, the only employee of Ned's cafe
called The Pie Hole. Obviously the producers of the show loved her too
because they had her sing 80's songs at random moments throughout the show.


The show was great except for 2 little problems: the constant recap of plot
lines and the hurried ending of the series.

Every show began with what seemed like a 10 minute review of everything that
happened on the show before. I love shows that have several continuing plot
lines that run from episode to episode, but if you're a loyal fan of the
show the recap gets annoying. We know all this already! To recap they
often wrote the lamest most forced dialogue that was delivered by the actors
at break neck speed.

Then the show lost ratings big time in the second season, mostly ratings it
didn't have to begin with. The writers had to wrap up the show in less than
3 episodes which left some bizarre strings hanging. First, George Hamilton
appeared at the end of one show playing who was supposedly Ned's long lost
father. Second, Charles long lost father, who was brought back to life by
Ned, drove off in Ned's car and was never heard from again. Third, someone
completely destroyed one of the episodes that showed the Detective, Emerson
Cod, meeting up with his ex-wife and daughter. You can't find this episode
anywhere! The final episode moves so quickly you almost have to tivo it and
set it to extra slow motion.

The creators of this show also did a short lived, one season program called
"Wonder Falls" which ran on FOX. My wife and I tried to watch it this past
weekend and could barely get through the first episode it was so awful. The
main character was this bratty girl and the premise of her seeing inanimate
objects come to life could have been better if the writers could have come
up with better dialogue. The one hour show seemed like it lasted two
hours. Boring, boring, boring. We were so disappointed given that we loved
"Pushing Daisies" so much.

This has been MIKE MAKES HIS MIND UP on "Pushing Daisies." Let me know what
you thought of the show!