Pushing What-sies?

And just when I thought tv was getting formulaic--this little gem arrives from ABC. When I first heard about it, it sounded bizarre. Basic concept: boy has extraordinary power to bring people back from the dead with his touch. Boy grows up, has an obsession with pies, and helps an investigator solve unsolved murders for the reward money. Catch(es): 1) The previously dead can only be alive for 1 minute or someone else dies to take their place and 2) if he touches them again, they die...again.
"Oh Lord," I thought, "could this get any more difficult to understand OR far-fetched." Well, I take it back. This has to be one of the most original television shows I've ever seen. But I'm not sure it's for everyone, especially for those who don't suffer the "magical fantasy" genre well. Here are the ways it deviates from "usual" (read "boring" or "formulaic" television):

1. It looks like the movies Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events and Nanny McPhee. The setting (and sets) are outrageously colorful and bizarre--a pie shop called "The Pie Hole" (which I LOVE), a garish house, a windmill someone lives in.

2. The characters are purely fictional. There's no realism here. This is like a children's book in that you have basically archetypal characters: Ned (the boy), Chuck (the girl he loves but can't touch b/c he's brought her back to life), Chuck's 2 spinster aunts, the Detective, the Pie Shop Girl. There's no sense of reality--just a sense of wonder from the characters that populate this bizarre "mystery" type of show.

3. The storyline is magical and planned but also bizarre. Because of Ned's powers, the way he relates to other people and his whole purpose is so out-of-left-field that it sets up really huge, unsubtle story lines, but it's mysterious. The story unfolds slowly and in a way that meanders so that some patience and "going with the weirdness" is required. But it makes you feel joyful and innocent somehow.

4. The supporting cast in IN-CREDIBLE. The two leads are virtual unknowns--all the better b/c we aren't hampered by lingering images of past characters. But Chi McBride (House, Boston Public) plays the Detective. Kristen Chenoweth (The West Wing, the original Galinda in Wicked, basic Broadway star and ingenue) plays the Pie Shop Girl in unrequited love with Ned. Swoosie Kurtz (Sisters, general Broadway star, appeared in multiple movies showing either on Lifetime or LMN) takes a turn as one of the spinster aunts. Couldn't ask for richer human scenery--and that's the key to this show: the supporting characters all get a turn at the front so that it's important to have great people in those parts. I love all of them.

This is by no means a laugh-out-loud opportunity. It's quirky, inventive, and shockingly different so that you almost have to switch into a totally different mental gear to appreciate it. But I was fascinated and mesmerized. It's like Teletubbies but for adults. I say give it a try.

(tip: catch up with the full episodes on line before jumping in to the primetime regular show, otherwise it'll be ultra confusing. If anything, at least watch the pilot--it makes the "rules" for Ned's dealing with others clear enough to actually get.)