Review: Pushing Daisies is drama but comedy, modern but fantasy

Tim Burton's "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" meets Jean-Pierre Jeunet's "The Fabulous Life of Amélie Poulin," and they get happy and land a TV series.

That's ABC's 8 p.m. Wednesday show "Pushing Daisies" in a nutshell.

Though set in a modern world, it feels like a fantasy, and the show would be dark if it wasn't so darn funny.

The main character, Ned (Lee Pace) discovers as a boy that he can touch the dead and bring them back to life. Unfortunately, if he touches them a second time, they will die again and this time cannot be brought back to life. His gift also comes with a price: to bring someone back to life, someone else in proximity must die.

If you're thinking that sounds similar to the life-giving-and-taking in Daniel Knauf's "Carnivále," don't. This show is about as dark or dusty as the kitchens of the robot women in "Stepford Wives"--that is to say, it is sparkling, polished, and shiny.

A private investigator ( Chi McBride) happens to discover Ned's extraordinary ability, and hatches a surly plan to collect reward money by investigating murders with Ned at his side. They interrogate the dead in a routine and hilarious manner before killing them again and collecting the reward money.

They run into trouble when Ned has to revive his childhood sweetheart (Anna Friel), who soon becomes a regular in their investigating team. Ned, who falls in love all over again, can't ever touch her or she will die, and they have to resort to amusing displays of affection (for example, kissing while wearing dry-cleaner bags).

Meanwhile Ned's neighbor Olive (Kristin Chenoweth) is jealously in love with Ned, and is forced to rely on Ned's dog for the companionship she longs for from Ned.

With episode names like "The Fun in Funeral," "Bitter Sweets," and "Corpsicle," the show promises to make light of the sadder side of life. A heavy feature are side characters who have severe social anxieties, from anorexia to social depression, that are casually solved in a narrated summation at the end of every episode.

The fact that what should be dark is made mostly hilarious adds to its charm and quirkiness. Fortunately for us, the humor does not overshadow important dramatic moments. The narrator (Jim Dale), who ties all the scenes together, does a soothing job of underlining their comedic or dramatic importance for us, similar to the narrator in "Amélie."

While quirky and charming, the narration sounds formulaic after only three episodes. "As Ned was (insert amusing verb with a short explanation of motives here), Olive was (insert wacky attempt to get attention from Ned here)..."

Every time Olive's desires for Ned seem to get too intense, a quick line from the narrator or an interruption of song places her role back firmly into the category of comedic. The line between serious and laughable is constantly danced on and chalked over, which makes the show feel like a dark, cartoony fantasy similar to "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory."

The creator is Bryan Fuller of "Dead Like Me" and "Wonderfalls." It airs at 8 p.m. Wednesdays on ABC. Be ready to laugh at death and to fall in love with the characters.