PUSHING DAISIES. Wednesday at 8 ABC.
If possible, ABC’s charming comedy “Pushing Daisies” has become quirkier as it begins its second season.
It still has the same problem, which is exactly where it can take itself, but the ride remains as delightful as the bright shiny colors with which the show lavishly decorates itself.
Like several other new series, “Daisies” ended last year in an awkward limbo. It hadn’t scored knockout ratings, but it was so darn cute that it was like a ladybug in the garden. No one really wanted to step on it.
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So ABC decided to give it a shot with a relaunch, which is why tonight’s premiere spends about 10 minutes summarizing what happened last year.
Ned (Lee Pace), who owns a pie shop, has a gift. He can touch dead things and bring them back to life. Unfortunately, if they stay alive for more than 60 seconds, something else dies to take their place. More unfortunately, if Ned touches them a second time, they die for good.
He uses this gift mostly to bring back murder victims, who have 60 seconds to finger the perp before Ned puts them back to rest.
One day, however, he brings back Charlotte, aka Chuck (Anna Friel), his old girlfriend. They fall in love again. Except, of course, they can never touch.
This odd romance is the show’s central theme, buttressed by vignettes with a bizarre supporting cast that includes detective Emerson Cod (Chi McBride), Chuck’s two agoraphobic aunts, and Olive Snook (Kristin Chenoweth), who works at Ned’s pie shop and secretly loves him.
Since Ned and Chuck aren’t in a position to create sex jokes, the show instead goes for a highly stylized presentation – think bright colors and butterflies – and tongue-in-cheek faux melodrama.
A lot of it works, too. Chuck, who is quite literally glad to be alive, is irresistible, and Ned is the classic nice guy.
Tonight’s episode moves a few of the pieces around, shifting characters to different settings. At one point Chenoweth appears in an Alpine meadow, chirping like Julie Andrews in “The Sound of Music.”
A more substantial development puts Chuck deeper into Ned’s and Cod’s detective game, which she was clearly itching to join last season.
It’s a show that’s forced to be more clever than most, and it is. Next we find out if cleverness and charm will be enough.
