From the first frame, it’s obvious ‘Pushing Daisies’ is unlike anything you have ever seen on television.

We open with a boy and his dog running through an unbelievably yellow field (I didn’t know that a field could be unbelievably yellow, but it can).   The narrator, perfectly performed by Jim Dale, proceeds to tell us the exact age, in years, months, days and minutes, of the dog happily running through the field…promptly before it runs into the road and is hit by a semi.

This is our first glimpse at the hook of the show…a tearful Ned kneels beside his lifeless pooch, and as he strokes him, the dog leaps up, full of life again.

Through the course of the pilot, we come to understand the scope of Ned’s ability: with one touch, he can bring the dead back to life.  The power comes with a few caveats, though.  Those that return to the land of the living only have one minute…after which someone nearby will suddenly die to take their place. Also, if the risen are touched by Ned again, they die again, never to be revived.

The premise sounds like a CW drama, but, lo and behold, it’s a comedy.  A very funny one, at that. 

As an adult, Ned (Lee Pace) has opened his own pie shop, called The Pie Hole.  One day, Emerson Cod (Chi McBride), a private investigator witnesses Ned’s unlikely power when a suspect that he is chasing falls off of a roof, and is subsequently re-animated and de-animated by Ned.  The two team up, and begin to solve murders, mostly for rewards, by bringing the victims back long enough to find the identity of their attacker, and then returning them to the afterlife.

Throughout the course of the narrative, we come to find that Charlotte “Chuck” Charles (Anna Friel), Ned’s childhood sweetheart, has been murdered.  So Ned, motivated by reuniting with his first love, and Emerson, spurred by the $50,000 reward, go to the funeral home where Chuck’s body lies.  She is brought back, but Ned can’t let her die again, so she is snuck out of the funeral home and goes to temporarily live with Ned, where it’s apparent that love is blooming.  The irony that the kiss that the two shared when they were in grade school is the only contact that they can ever have is beautiful.

The whole show is very surreal, and very…random…absurd, even.  Events, especially those in Ned’s childhood memories, are larger than life.  In fact, it’s very reminiscent of one of my very favorite Tim Burton movies, Big Fish, in a lot of ways.  The colors are very vibrant, and give virtually every shot, from the yellow daisy-covered field in the opening shot, to the childhood flashbacks, to The Pie Hole, a sort of dream-like appearance.  The comedy is very random, but never falls flat.  Even the characters, like Chuck’s agoraphobic great-aunts who used to be professional synchronized swimmers until an unfortunate kitty litter accident ended their career (See? Random.), are in-a-good-way ridiculous.

I honestly feel like this is the best pilot I’ve seen since ‘Lost’ debuted back in 2004.  Rather than the thirst for knowing what will happen to the heroes, though, I can’t wait to see what the imaginations of Bruce Cohen, Bryan Fuller, Dan Jinks and Barry Sonnenfeld have in store for us next.

A+

‘Pushing Daisies’ debuts Wednesday, October 3 at 8/7c on ABC.