Touching drama ... Pushing Daisies
The buzz surrounding the new season of American programming is reaching fever pitch. This time last year all the hype surrounded Aaron Sorkin's new series, Studio 60 only for the show to be abruptly cancelled. Bryan Fuller will be hoping his latest, Pushing Daisies, which first screens in America tonight before coming to ITV early next years, fairs rather better. It certainly deserves to.
Daisies is this year's sure thing, garnering rave reviews and that all important web attention. It follows the everyday story of Ned the pie-man, the highly acclaimed Lee Pace, who discovers he can bring people back from the dead with a single touch only to reverse the process with his next. Unsurprisingly traumatised, Ned distances himself from human contact; a lovely touch has him stroking his resurrected dog Digby with an artificial hand. In his spare time he solves murders with PI Emerson Cod, the one person who knows his secret, and fends off the advances of the waitress in his pie-house. This sheltered world is disrupted by the murder of childhood sweetheart, Charlotte "Chuck" Charles, played by our own Anna Friel. It's a dark, adult-fairy tale set in a Burtonesque, vivid technicolour world with understated English narration by Jim Dale, a wry sense of humour and a core relationship which promises to take the TV staple will-they-won't-they flirtation to a fantastical extreme.
Of course none of this is any guarantee of longevity, as creator Bryan Fuller knows all too well. His last two shows, Dead Like Me and Wonderfalls, were both excellent television and both cancelled. Wonderfalls especially is the one that might give Fuller pause for thought, bearing strong comparison with Daisies in palette, tone and quality, yet yanked off the air after only four episodes. It has since gone on to enjoy some success on DVD (and is well worth checking out, even though there's still no UK release) and a dedicated internet following, but it remains to be seen if Fuller's style and sense of humour can connect with the American public. If not I'll be among the fans wailing their complaints.
Fuller, who began on Start Trek before moving on to create Dead Like Me, is fresh from success as Executive Producer and writer on last year's big hit Heroes, despite a professed disinterest in heroic action. If Daisies takes off like Heroes Fuller will finally get the recognition he deserves, and who knows, maybe Ned could use his magic touch to resurrect Wonderfalls?
