Pushing Daisies

Sadly, ABC has canceled one of my favorite shows. Pushing Daisies was a unique, stylized, and charming show, unlike anything else I've seen on TV (except maybe the creator's other under-appreciated show, Wonderfalls).

When I first saw the ads for it, I wasn't interested. It was a weird looking show about a man who can bring the dead back to life for a minute. How would it help to bring someone back for only a minute? That's just playing with corpses. Ew.

But I happened to catch the show, and I was immediately won over. Extremely well-cast and well-written, the characters, the stories, every visual element, even the lilt of the narrator's voice fit a consistent creative vision for a product that was quirky, magical, heart-warming, and tragic, all at the same time. The colorful subtly vintage-inspired costumes (of course, I'm a sucker for that). The equally colorful just slightly cartoonish sets. The slightly ridiculous murder mysteries they solve along the way - at the circus, at the dog show, at the magic show, at a showroom for cars that run on dandelions, at a honey-based beauty product company where someone fell victim to a killer swarm of bees, and of course, the olfactory assistant who was killed when her scratch-'n-sniff book combusted.

How could we not love the former synchronized swimming aunts, Vivian and Lillian (Swoozie Kurtz), with their hit "mermaid" carnie act?! Or Olive Snook (Kristin Chenoweth), the "Pie Hole" waitress and former jockey, so worried she'll give away a secret that she goes undercover at a convent?! Or Emerson Cod, big gruff opportunistic PI, who spends his free time knitting and making pop-up mystery books?! And, of course, the bittersweet tragedy of childhood sweethearts, the once-dead bee-keeping girl named Chuck and Ned, the humble pie maker whose strange gift accidentally killed her father. A love that has precariously circumvented death, but is condemned to never be able to actually touch [sigh].

Right now, we need magical realism. We don't need more grim crime-solving shows lingering in the darkest parts of our society (much as I love them). We need to be charmed and delighted, and gently be made to feel longing and compassion.

Apparently, there are three more episodes that ABC may still air this summer. And we can relive it on the internet and DVD. But like Arrested Development before it (and My So Called Life, Sports Night, Studio 60, Veronica Mars...), it is gone before it's time. And it is entirely our loss.

Rest in peace, Pushing Daisies.