Pushing Daisies was a crime-drama with a fantastical twist that aired on ABC for not quite two seasons.  Set in a fairytale-like world of bright colors and quirky characters, the show seemed like a hit in the making.  One writers strike and no promotion later, the show was cancelled leaving the fans hanging for the last three episodes.

"You inadvertently, unintentionally, and without malice and forethought disappeared Dwight. Did you disappear him in a permanent sense?" - Olive

As I said above, Pushing Daisies was a crime-drama with a twist in that the main character, Ned, had a special gift that allowed him to wake the dead with a touch of his finger.  The catch was that the person could only be kept alive for one minute or else someone else in random proximity would die in their place.  Ned teamed up with private investigator Emerson Cod to solve murders and collect the rewards by simply (or in most cases not so simply) asking the person how they died.  Solving crimes was only Ned's part time job though, as his real job was that of a pie-maker at "The Pie Hole".  He kept up his life of baking pies and waking the dead without much drama until the day he touched his childhood sweetheart, Charlotte "Chuck" Charles, and decided not to touch her again.  Romance, drama, comedy, singing, and the most non-touching love story ever all made this show unique, unforgettable, and unfortunately cancelled.

The best part about Pushing Daisies was just how different it was from every other show on television.  It was a show about death set in a bright world filled with over saturated colors, musical numbers, and cartoon-like characters.  Yet even with all of the fun and silliness, Pushing Daises had an incredible amount of heart and depth woven into every story.  The characters all had problems and issues, and they all evolved greatly throughout the short run of the show.  They also talked about their problems with each other and worked them out - a concept that shouldn't be unique in the world of television, but sadly it is.  The writing was just awesome and the inclusion of a narrator just made the show all the more special.  The majority of the characters (including guest stars) were cast perfectly and everyone involved seemed to be enjoying themselves so much.  The show just made me happy when I watched it, and it's sad that it wasn't given more of a chance.

The worst part about Pushing Daises might have been the character of Chuck.  I don't know if it was the actress, the writing, or a combination of both, but aside from a few small scenes, I never warmed up to her character.  Perhaps it was because we were kind of told by the show that we were supposed to love her because Ned loved her, but I ended up feeling more for Olive's character.  Chuck didn't really grow throughout the show as the other characters did and her constant display of awesome talents and random information got really annoying.  She did have her moments, and I find it interesting that those moments usually had her paired with a character other than Ned.

I don't think that Pushing Daisies had a chance to go wrong in it's short run, but the addition of Chuck's alive-again dad might have done it had the show gone on.  He was just an unlikable character and he made the show not as fun when he became Ned's foe.  And reading some of Bryan Fuller's ideas for the future of the show had it gone on longer, I can say that it probably would have gone wrong concerning Chuck and her father (there was an idea to have Chuck leave and travel the world with her parents).

Olive singing "Hopelessly Devoted to You", any scene with Olive and Alfredo, the scene when Ned's brothers met him for the first time and wrapped him up in a group hug, Olive and Lily at the nunnery, Ned trying to guess Olive's secret at the nunnery, Ned and Olive winning the comfort food cook off, and Emerson's first "Oh hell no!" before he ran out of the funeral home to avoid being caught in proximity should Ned's one minute have run out.  I'm sure there are a lot more that I'm forgetting, but these ones really stood out.

Ned, Olive, and Emerson are all of my favorite characters, and Lily also holds high marks.  I just think that all of those characters were cast perfectly and they all worked so well together in every scene they shared.  Ned was the sweet, emotionally closed off pie maker with the special touch, Olive was the lovelorn waitress and former jockey trying to reconcile her feelings for the pie maker, Emerson was the money hungry PI with a love for knitting and pop-up books, and Lily was the former synchronized swimmer, gun wielding, eye patch wearing, shut in mother in mourning of a daughter who always thought she was her aunt.  I loved them all and would have loved to have continued watching their stories unfold and their characters grow had the show continued.