The award for most creative new show so far this year certainly must go to Pushing Daisies, which premiered last night on ABC. Created by Bryan Fuller (Heroes) and directed by Barry Sonnenfeld (The Addams Family, Men in Black) the show has been very obviously influenced not only by Sonnenfeld himself but also by the works of filmmker Tim Burton. Its whimsical, imaginative visual and storytelling style is certainly appropriate to the adult fairy tale that it is clearly intended to be.

The pilot episode snagged a very respectable 13.03 million viewers last night, which constitutes the strongest opening for any show in the 8 p.m. EDT slot so far this year.

The subject matter is eccentric and somewhat grim: pie shop owner Ned (Lee Pace) happens to have the ability to bring the dead to life with a single touch of his hand—like Prince Charming in Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, except that Ned’s power works on everybody. However, if he touches the person again, they die.

However, if Ned does not touch the person again within sixty seconds and send them back to the land of the dead, someone else immediately dies in their place.

When private investigator Emerson Cod (Chi McBride) finds out about Ned’s talent, he persuades the pieman to turn it to their monetary advantage by touching murder victims, asking them who killed them, and then collecting the reward.

And it actually works. The story becomes even more interesting when Ned ends up bringing back to life his childhood sweetheart, Chuck (Anna Friel), whom he had not seen for two decades but never stopped loving, and who was murdered while on a cruise ship.

Of course Ned cannot bring himself to touch her again, and another person—a wicked, thieving funeral director—dies in her place.

Now that Ned has his long-lost sweetheart, their love can bloom. But they can never touch each other, lest she die immediately.

Certainly an immense amount of creativity has gone into the show. The visual effects are impressive, the writing is much more literary than television viewers have any right to expect, the performances are good, and the overall look of the show is striking and inventive.

The latter is particularly impressive, with the liberal use of bright, cheerful primary colors, a great contrast with the dark, gloomy visuals typical of contemporary dramatic television. The use of such vibrant colors is also smart in taking some of the edge off the program’s story material, which deals heavily in death.

There’s a good deal of wit in the writing. When Ned observes that at least the person who died when he revived Chuck, partner Emerson sarcastically asks Ned if that makes him feel better. Ned says, "Yes, immensely."

There are other moments of amusing honesty by the show’s characters, and altogether it’s a very interesting concept, done very effectively. The murder mysteries are handled rather perfunctorily, however, except for Chuck’s, and one suspects that the mystery aspect will not be the program’s strongest aspect.

In addition, the show rather studiously avoids any discussion of an afterlife, which is smart politics but immensely unrealistic. It’s the first thing any sensible person would ask about.

On the plus side, the pilot episode (titled "Pie Lette") has set up a very interesting premise: the love between Ned and Chuck can never include a normal physical relationship, or physical contact of any kind, and hence must remain purely spiritual. Thus future episodes can explore the nature of human love.

Given the intelligence evident in the pilot episode, one imagines that the producers actually might achieve something along those lines. Now that really would be something magical.