I find the idea of touching the dead to bring them back momentarily, then touching them again to make them dead again forever (compounded with the idea that if he doesn’t put them back in less than a minute, another life is taken) interesting, and full of myriad possibilities for a crime/mystery show. Not only do they weave this premise into the one-off crime for each episode, but it’s also tangled with the permanent characters themselves and seems to have lasting consequences, or at least makes for amusing and bizarre scenarios. To each their own.
[QUOTE=mnemosyneI am curious about the cost of production too; the visual effects, like the playdate village conquering, and the salesman’s imagining of the air suddenly leaving the room/planet… that can’t be cheap to do! The man who was mauled by the dog in the first ep was well done, too… there really was a hole in his face, not just bloody makeup. Visually, this has got to be one of the best things I’ve ever seen on TV.[/QUOTE]
There have been reports that director Barry Sonnenfeld spent a lot of money on the first two episodes and has been asked not to direct any more episodes. Here’s a link to him denying this: http://www.tvsquad.com/2007/09/09/sonnenfeld-responds-to-story-about-pushing-daisies-budget-overru/
I have no idea whether it’s true, of course, but I did think this episode had a lot less color and imagery than the others, which was fine. They don’t all have to look like the Wizard of Oz. (But what was with the sword fight? It was filmed in a way that made it all dark around the edges and hazy in the middle. Very difficult to watch.)
By the way, another person mentioned it upthread, but I think the movie Amelie is the biggest influence on this show.
See, for me that means unending tension. Not right for me just now, but it helps me better understand why y’all like it. Thanks. 
Grrrr. Them’s fightin’ words.