Can TV's "Daisies" bloom again after such a long layoff?

Is is just me, or does the new TV season just kind of suck? I mean, I guess we knew it would be pretty bad with last year's strike, but so far I've only found one show that has me hooked, and that one not entirely.

I'm still sticking with "Fringe" simply because I'm a sucker for the supernatural, but until last night's pretty good episode that show has seemed nothing but predictable, especially given its drive to be bizarre.

Much better but still improving is FX's "Sons of Anarchy," which has been accurately described as "The Sopranos" on motorcycles. Starring Ron Perlman, Katey Segal (yes, that Katey Segal), Charlie Hunnam of "Undeclared" fame (what there was of it) and Maggie Siff (a k a Don Draper's mistress Rachel Mencken on season one of "Mad Men"), this drama airing tonight at 10 delivers plenty of grit and is still working on the storyline to match it.

But the real news, and what I've been waiting for all fall, is the return of "Pushing Daisies," which has to be the last show to either return or premiere in this entire year. If you haven't tuned in before to this prime-time fairy tale from the mind of Rryan Fuller, I can't urge you strongly enough to start tonight when it returns at 8 on ABC. All you really need to know is its a super-sweet romantic tale about a piemaker (Lee Pace) who just happens to have the ability to bring people back to life for one minute and the return of his childhood sweetheart Chuck (Anna Friel), whose father he just happened to kill by accident when they were kids.

From there, it usually just gets crazier, and a whole lot of fun. So, what's gonna happen in the new season? Well, tonight Ned, Chuck and Emerson Cod (the extremely funny Chi McBride) are on the case of a murder involving some killer bees (and just as deadly honey marketers). In the next two weeks they'll then visit a circus where the human cannonball has some deadly ideas of his own and then a convent, where Ned and Emerson will play men of the cloth.

That all sounds like a lot of fun, but will it be as whimsical and entertaining as ever? Variety, thankfully, says yes. Here's what they had to say about the opening episodes of season two:

Emerging like a sweetly scented addition to primetime’s musty flower bed, “Pushing Daisies” opens its second season in full creative bloom. Producer Bryan Fuller’s Emmy-nominated dramedy is one of the few programs that dares to deal in whimsy, which is perhaps why audiences drifted away before the writers strike truncated its initial run. Managing expectations is paramount to the show’s longevity -- such an offbeat concept is unlikely to break out in a major way -- but let’s hope ABC’s patience is rewarded with this gentle if somewhat delicate flower.

Beyond its fairy-tale explosion of color and production design, “Daisies” indulges in moments of almost surreal imagination, like having Kristin Chenoweth -- as Ned’s lovelorn assistant Olive -- put her Broadway chops to use reenacting a memorable scene out of “The Sound of Music.” The cast, meanwhile, is uniformly terrific -- down to the 150-some-odd-year-old Golden Retriever (in dog years) that Ned can only scratch with a stick.

In my mind, I'm already there. One of my other favorite TV dramas, "Friday Night Lights," also returns tonight, but since I don't have DirecTV and will be unable to watch it I have nothing else to say about that (yes, I'm a petty man in many, many ways.)

'Now I'm a paraplegic and I know why'

Instead I'll leave you with the video for what I still think is the catchiest cautionary tale of all time (and the only one I can think of that could make the above line about paraplegics very, very funny). I have no idea how it came up, but somehow I got into a discussion the other day with my fellow cubicle slave Randy Waters about the old Afroman song "Because I Got High" and just how infectious it is. MIA's "Paper Planes" has been driven almost as deeply into my skull this year, but that tune isn't nearly as cool as what will probably be Afroman's only hit song ever. Enjoy this video featuring Jay and Silent Bob, but please, if you're watching this at work do so with headphones, because the end gets a little racy. Peace out.