In any new season, even an off-year like this, there are bound to be a handful of new shows worth a look. Here are three of the best:

Pushing Daisies (Tuesdays on CTV, beginning Oct. 2; also, Wednesdays on ABC, beginning, Oct. 3)

Whimsy, fantasy, emotional resonance and an unwavering belief in the resilience of the human spirit - these are things that TV rarely tries. And when it does, the results are either mawkish or plainly risible.

Pushing Daisies is not just the best pilot episode of any new series this year. The opener just might be one of the best hours of television you have seen. The concept is simple. One day, a boy named Ned realizes he can bring dead things, including people, back to life with a touch.

If he touches them again, they die again, this time for good. Fast-forward 20 years. Ned has put his ability to curious use, both in his personal life - by touching dead fruit and making it ripe again - and by helping a private investigator solve murder cases by asking the dead victims to name their killers.

Everything about Pushing Daisies is gorgeous, from the gentle, witty writing by Wonderfalls and Heroes vet Bryan Fuller, to the visual panache and emotional power of Addams Family Values director Barry Sonnenfeld, to a cast - Lee Pace, Anna Friel, Chi McBride, Kristin Chenoweth, Swoosie Kurtz, Ellen Greene - that appears not so much cast as born to play their roles.

If there is one failing with Pushing Daisies - and it’s a minor quibble, and has nothing to do with the first hour - it’s hard to see where it will go as a series. The opening hour, though, is astonishing. If you try just one new series this fall, choose this.  (Source)