tv meme day 4

[marrow_sky]

Day 4 - Your favourite show ever.

It's so hard to say what my favourite show is, because I watch so many shows and they're all really quite amazing so it's hard to say "oh that's my favourite." I was actually going to make a double post with Doctor Who but I changed my mind because Doctor Who has this magical way of annoying me a lot sometimes, but with Pushing Daisies, I just feel happy. I feel warm and lovely and all those things that this show is about, with bright colours and quirky lovable dialogue. I have all these buttons that movies and television shows sometimes press to get me to love them and Pushing Daisies is that one extremely flexible prick from gymnastics class who manages to bend enough to push all of them at once.

Yes, this is cancelled too! Mainly from a variety of factors - the first season got cut off from the writer's strike and then for some reason ABC fell out of love with the show and despite the crazy amount of promotion they gave it for the first season, they suddenly turned around and gave the show almost entirely no promotion for season two. I'm still quite disappointed, and yet... I'm not disappointed as I should be. I don't know if it was the writing or the lighting or the more in depth look at the supporting characters, but there was some magic that was in season one that wasn't in season two. I can't... really pinpoint what it was, but it was there. That isn't to say I didn't love season two. You know how there are some shows that are so good that even their bad episodes are better than other shows' good episodes? That's how I always felt watching Pushing Daisies.

It was actually initially pitched as a spin-off of Bryan Fuller's show Dead Like Me which also has the whole idea of life and death, but with Reapers. Over the course of production, this changed and the cynically optimistic view of death is changed into flowers and sunshine and bright colours and hugs. Ned was going to be George's new boyfriend, who had the power to bring people back to life (without the time limit), which would understandably create chaos in the Dead Like Me universe, until George finally stood up to him and he left to be in his own show Pushing Daisies. I honestly like the original idea, but what actually came out of it was so much better.

How do you not like this show? Biased, yes, but it's so... it's Pushing Daisies. It's, as its tagline says: one touch of romance, a touch of mystery, a touch of magic. It's kind of like watching Disney's Cinderella where the King died, and Cinderella has to solve the mystery with the Prince, who isn't an empty, vapid shell of a character. Or isn't a Prince.

Or something like that.

The point is, it's true that this show is really saccharine, but I feel like ultimately that's it's charm.

I actually don't have a large amount to say about this show. That is, I have an excessive amount to say about it, I think that it's a show that you should really watch for yourself to understand its charm and to love it, which is honestly how I got into it. I thought it was an interesting idea and then when I saw it it was the most lovely show I'd ever watched.

The premise is that Ned, the pie maker of the Pie Hole, has a secret, which is his ability to bring people back to life for one minute. Though they don't fall dead themselves after one minute, if Ned keeps them alive for much longer, something else in the vicinity with the same 'value' of life (a dog for a squirrel, a bird for a bird, a fruit for a flower) will die in its place. Ned discovers his gift after his dog, Digby, get hit by an eighteen wheeler, and his touch brings it back to life. He doesn't know about the rules in place and understandably, since he doesn't exactly have the time to experiment. He gets a harsh realisation when his mother suddenly drops dead due to a blood vessel bursting in her brain and after his touch brings her back to life and one minute passes, Ned watches as his neighbour drops dead in front of his eyes. He gets another harsh lesson about the rules of his gift when his mother comes to tuck him into bed and drops dead (again) as soon as her lips touch his forehead in a good night kiss.

Ned gets shipped off to boarding school, leaving his old life (and his childhood sweetheart Chuck, the daughter of the man he accidentally killed) behind to live his miserable days at the Longborough School. After nineteen years, he meets Emerson Cod, a private investigator who puts his abilities to good use to solve murder and get money. This eventually leads him back to Chuck, who is a lot more pale and pulse-less than the last time he's seen her. He touches her alive to ask her about her murder but is unable to kill her again, causing someone else to die and basically for him to live the rest of his life like Tantalus. She's there, but he can't ever, ever touch.

TV Tropes? Blessed with suck indeed.

This show gives me such a nice feeling when I watch it, it's so loveable and adorable and I feel happy watching it, even if in reality, it is actually a fairly grim show where several people die, are dead, and we see their bodies. It's kind of creepy in the way a children's show is creepy, you know? The apparent blithe innocence despite being involved with something unmistakably dark. It's so sad, but it's so uplifting, these two people who can never actually know each other's touch, but are still happy just to be together and to experience one another.

It just... it makes me happy. I love this show. I recommend it like nothing else.

Comments

[ddd-i.livejournal.com]

i totally agree. this show has spoiled me for other shows. i can't seem to find anything i like remotely as much as i had enjoyed this show. BEST.SHOW.EVER.