Fairytales are full of horrors, as well as happiness. Too often we remember the happily ever afters and not how we got there: the beautiful woman who eludes a hitman sent by her stepmother; the girl swallowed by a wolf; the chamber full of dead women.
Corpses abound in Pushing Daisies, but this fairytale TV show, as vivid as a picture book, also has plenty of heart and warmth. It tells the story of Ned (Lee Pace), a pie maker who can bring people back to life. He resurrects his murdered childhood sweetheart, Chuck (Anna Friel), and they fall in love – so far, so happily ever after. But once Ned has resurrected someone, he can’t touch them again or they will die – this time for good – so the two lovers are destined to moon over each other, sleep in separate beds and kiss through plastic wrap, never feeling each other’s touch. They must conceal their big secret: he makes the dead live and she is the living dead.
