What I've Been Watching

Wonderfalls was another Fox show that, once they realized it was well-written and well-casted, was axed after 4 broadcasts. At least in this case, though, you can kind of understand why.

The basic setup is that Jaye is a 24-year-old slacker working at a Niagra Falls gift shop and living in a trailer park, post Philosophy degree from Brown. Kind of a bitch, going nowhere, one friend in town, a family in town she doesn't talk to much, and then... inanimate animals (wax lions, stuffed bears, pink lawn flamingos, etc.) start talking to her--"bring her home," "make a match," "don't give her the money," etc.--leading her into all kinds of situations that ultimately helps somebody, once per episode.

Like I said, it's a good show. A lot of what I really like about it what's charming about shows like Buffy, Firefly, and Gilmore Girls: the overall writing, the asides, the general pace and flow of a lot of the dialogue. I really do recommend it.

But, like I said, I can see where it doesn't quite work, too. First, apparently it was the last show to come out at that time with a "heroine does good" theme, after Joan of Arcadia and Tru Calling. Second, people have an easier time NOT thinking the plot of "god tells woman to do good" or "the dead tell woman to do good" sounds stupid, because at least it's pretty straight-forward. "Inanimate objects, which may or may not be working for a higher power, tell woman to do nonsensical things that lead to good things being done" is a little harder to sell to the masses. (I do kind of like when after the first object talks to her she takes it home, sits in front of it and says, "Are you God? Are you Satan? Tell you what: I'm going to assume that you're Satan if you don't say anything in five... four... three...")

Also, Fox did its typical job of having a good show and not letting anyone know about it. I mean, I was at least aware that Tru Calling and Joan of Arcadia were actually, you know, TV shows that were broadcast on some day at some time in the evening, but the first I ever heard about this show was somebody said, "Hey, you should check out these DVDs." I'm actually beginning to think that Fox doesn't do this out of any kind of mismanagement or incompetence. I think that they're actually just eccentrically selfish, and that whenever they have a good show they all lock themselves in a room together and watch it over and over and whenever someone tries to get them out they scream, "Go away! It's ours! This is not for you!" and throw fallafels at the intruder until they leave. Then, naturally, the show fails and they cry, lock the unaired episodes in a vault, where eventually the DVD gnomes rescue them. ("Curse those gnomes!" the Fox execs scream, shaking their tiny yet powerful fists at the heavens.) Ahem...

Where I think the show falls a little flat is because I think the writers are too damn nice. Jaye actually works best for me if she actually is kind of a bitch, misanthropic, and a harsh judge of life. Yet despite the fact that she's frequently saying things like, "This isn't me! I'm not the nice one!" and getting pissed off when people keep thanking her for helping them, the writers' hearts just aren't in it. She is a nice person, and all of her faults don't ultimately add up to much, which ends up softening the redemptive qualities of her magical realistic adventures, and softens a lot of the inherent humor of the situation. Some of the plots are similarly too nice and/or sweet on the face of it.

On a similar note, this show needed to be on cable where they'd have been allowed to say "bitch slap" and not the highly unfortunate "biddie slap" (okay, it was directed at an old person, but still). There are actually quite a few parts where you could feel them straining to swear or be more overtly sexual, but the show must have had an early evening time slot.

The one thing I can't seem to get over, though, is the casting of William Sadler in the role of her pretty cool father. I keep imagining him having episodes off-screen where he goes nuts, harrasses Bruce Willis and Mario Van Peebles for a few hours, then returns, forgetting everything that's happened. Perhaps it will be revealed in later episodes that he secretly snaps the necks of puppies.