The Best Show You're Probably Not Watching

It's that time of year, when networks are thinking about axing shows that aren't getting enough viewers. Some deserve it (Cavemen? A show based on a commercial?), some deserve it but haven't gotten it yet (Knight Rider), and some don't deserve it. Remember Freaks and Geeks? Or My So-Called Life? What would have happened if they'd canceled Buffy after the first season? Heck, even The Office had a rocky start until the networks actually did some work to promote it and nurture it so that it became the hysterical hit it is.

This season, it's Pushing Daisies.

It's a whimsical, wacky little show. With Jim Dale (narrator for the Harry Potter books on tape) narrating, it's a world of crazy characters and funny situations.

Ned is a piemaker. He owns a shop called the Pie Hole. And as a side gig, he helps solve crimes. Except it's not just CSI. He and private investigator Emerson Cod cheat on the crime-solving side, because Ned has a special talent.

He can raise the dead.

So Ned and Emerson can actually ask dead people who/what killed them. (Easy reward money.) But there are rules: Ned touches a dead thing once, it's alive again. A second touch, and dead forever. If he raises something for more than a minute, something else has to die. (Ie--if he raised a puppy, a kitten nearby would die.)

That last rule had some nasty consequences. Ned's mother died suddenly of an aneurysm when he was a child. Before he knew the rules, he touched her--back to life, mom! But then his best friend/childhood sweetheart Charlotte's ("Chuck's") father died. And she didn't know it was, technically, him.

But Chuck (she's still a girl, that's just her nickname) has come back into Ned's life. Because he was solving the mystery of her death. He brought her back to life and let her live, which means the pair can never touch. And now she's part of the crime-solving team (much to the chagrin of Emerson), which is difficult because the world still thinks she's a murder victim.

The writing is really sharp. Funny lines, great characters. Some quotes:

Narrator: As he stared at her, he reached around his back and held his own hand, pretending he was holding hers. And at that very moment, she was pretending to be holding his.

Emerson: If I wanted to mingle with a bunch of geeks wearing leotards, I'd have stayed in art school.

Coroner: My niece gave me this sweater.
Emerson: That thing's uglier then a chipmunk's ass.
Ned: He means the sweater, not your niece.

If you like The Series of Unfortunate Events, you'll love this. (Pies! Horse thieves! Carnivals!) If you like Law and Order, you'll love this. (A different murder-mystery every episode!) If you like Pam and Jim from The Office, you'll love this. (Cutest TV Couple battle!)

Unfortunately, ratings have been low for the second season. I say it's because ABC has done shit to promote it. (How many Samantha Who? commercials can I see, and yet I had to search out the Pushing Daisies premiere date.) Add that to the fact that they didn't show reruns after the writers' strike cut the first season short. (Why, ABC? Were you busy with some lame-ass reality show?) So I'm doing my part.

Pushing Daisies. Wednesdays. 8:00. ABC (even if they don't deserve it).

I do wonder how online viewers play into this. That's how I watch it, since I have class until 10 on Wednesdays.

Have some pie. Solve a mystery. It'll be a good time.