From Matt Roush’s column at TV Guide:

Question: I know that you and every other critic seems to be in love with Pushing Daisies. I just watched the pilot, and while I was thoroughly entertained, there are three problems that I think could become much bigger over the long run. Firstly (in order of escalating seriousness), I imagine that the extensive narration, though helpful in the pilot’s exposition, will become very grating after a few episodes. In the pilot, I think the narrator had more lines than any individual character, including Ned. The second is the weakness of the supporting cast. Lee Pace does such an amazing job portraying the whimsical and
fast-talking Ned, and Chi McBride plays a great strait man to his oddball. But Kristin Chenoweth and Anna Friel absolutely cannot keep up with him and his fast-paced dialogue. I feel like every scene where he talks to either one of them slows the whole thing down. Was Alexis Bledel not available? Chenoweth is so distractingly short that she can’t properly interact with Pace. They had to have her stand on a coffee table in one scene to get it to work. Friel and Pace have no chemistry, and their forced separation is contrived. The third, and, I think, biggest problem, is that the reason this is so beloved by critics is that its tone and general air of whimsy is so different from anything else on television. The problem is the novelty will wear off, and fast. It won’t feel so new after the fifth week. Borrowing your dessert metaphor, while people go out for a decadent cake every once in a while, no one has one every night.— William L

Matt Roush: So what, the backlash begins before the show even premieres? To be so skeptical about a show that you find “thoroughly entertaining” hurts my heart. The biggest problem I think the show faces is that there will be some who find its fairy-tale, fablelike qualities overly “precious.” Cynics will certainly choke on the whimsy. But what floors me each time I’ve watched it is how extreme it all is: in its look, in its colors, in its theatrical performance style (and I respectfully disagree about the supporting cast), in its overwhelming charm. Even the narration, by the masterful Jim Dale (of the Harry Potter audiobooks), is exquisite. Could it be overdone? Easily, and the show’s creator says the narration will be dialed back considerably as the show continues, probably limited to the beginning and end of most episodes. Is the premise going to be tricky to sustain? Absolutely. But I’ll insist to the end that I’m not liking the show merely because it’s different. That’s the road that leads to good reviews for John from Cincinnati. I love the show because it’s lovable. Whether and how the audience responds is out of my hands, but at the moment, I’m mostly concerned that the maximum number of viewers is made aware that something special is coming and to miss it is unthinkable.Here’s another take on Pushing Daisies, from Jake L, who screened the pilot as part of ABC’s “Red Carpet Screening Tour.” He reports:

“I was presold and went specifically to see it. (I loved it, of course.) A couple of friends went with me, and I was really interested in their reactions. One of them loved it and the other one didn’t care for it much. The crowd that came out for the event, as a whole, seemed to enjoy it, though. I think this is going to be a show where you either “get it,” plug in to its different-drummer beat immediately and love it obsessively, or you don’t like it at all. Therefore, its fate will be easy to determine quickly once it gets under way, but I really do feel that there is an audience ready to embrace it and that it will stick around.”

That’s my gut feeling as well. But without question, it’s among the new season’s biggest risks.