"I don't know what's going on with me. I feel like a pinball. I've been bouncing off bumpers and flippers trying to get something to happen, but I had no idea what it was. And then all of a sudden there's a tracheotomy and you're a lesbian and there's this other lesbian and I was just trying to do what I thought I was supposed to do, but they didn't tell me what it was, they just kept on making me guess." - Caroline Dhavernas as Jaye Tyler
Wonderfall: The Complete Viewer Collection DVD Review
By Jonathan Boudreaux
Jaye Tyler (Caroline Dhavernas) is a slacker. Sure, the twenty-four-year-old earned a degree in philosophy from Brown, but after graduation, she returned to her hometown of Niagara Falls, NY and took a job at Wonderfalls, a souvenir emporium. She certainly didn't inherit her lack of ambition from her family. Her father, Darrin (William Sadler, Roswell), is a doctor. Her mother, Karen (Diana Scarwid, Mommie Dearest), is a best-selling author. Her sister, Sharon (Katie Finneran, a Tony Award-winner for Noises Off), is an immigration lawyer, and her brother, Aaron (Lee Pace) is pursuing a doctorate in comparative religion. Jaye, on the other hand, is so apathetic that a mouth-breathing high school student is promoted to the position of assistant manager at Wonderfalls while Jaye remains a lowly cashier. Jaye is horrified by this development. Of course, she's not horrified enough to actually get a better job since that would mean taking on more responsibilities.
Jaye might be a slacker, but the universe has bigger plans for her. She is about to become "destiny's bitch." Seemingly inanimate objects - a wax lion, a flock of pink plastic flamingos, a wind-up penguin - begin to speak to Jaye, commanding her to perform certain tasks. Even worse, they won't shut up until she actually completes their sometimes vague assignments - "save him from her," "save the lovebirds," "spit out your gum," "she's going to kill him." And you thought those stupid fish that sang "Don't Worry, Be Happy" were bad.
Since no one else can hear Jaye's muses, at first she thinks that she is going crazy. She even visits her mother's psychiatrist, Dr. Ron (Scotch Ellis Loring), but when a brass monkey on the doctor's desk begins to speak to her, she realizes that she won't even be able to find refuge in the doctor's office. As the muses guide her to mend broken hearts and right past wrongs, she reluctantly begins to accept her fate: "I think the universe is conspiring against me - all of creation. It's a plot. I know that now."
Jaye's apathy also carries over into her nonexistent love life. Eric Gotts (Tyron Leitso) is the new bartender at her favorite hangout, The Barrel. When she meets Eric in the first episode, the New Jersey native reveals that he got married the previous week. While on his honeymoon at Niagara Falls, he discovered his new wife and the bellman having oral sex in their hotel room (and really, I thought monetary tips were acceptable). Now Eric has decided to drop out of his old life and start anew. Eric and Jaye share a mutual attraction, but she can't quite commit to him.
Jaye's attitude toward her job and her interpersonal relationships stems from the fact that she's really afraid of living. Her life can never be as perfect as the driven people around her, so why bother? Forced by her muses to engage with those around her, Jaye begins to realize that people aren't always what they appear to be. Her sister seems like a calm, savvy professional...but she's really a chain-smoking lesbian who is terrified that someone will see beyond her steely façade. Although her brother has centered his education on religious studies, he's actually an atheist. Jaye's best friend, Mahandra (Tracie Thoms), chides Jaye about not confronting the personal issues that hold her back, but Mahandra lives in fear that the Tylers will discover that she is in love with Aaron.
Wonderfalls will definitely appeal to fans of wacky and witty humor. It features some of the best-written comedic dialogue on TV, as when Sharon explains to a lovesick suitor: "I'm a lesbian. The reason I'm not attracted to you is your genitals are on the outside." The attitude of the muses - and the situations into which they force Jaye - can also be quite amusing.
The series is filled with likeable performances. Dhavernas' wry skepticism and Finneran's screwball neuroticism create magic every time they're onscreen together. Scarwid is also terrific as their brittle, petulant mother. Singling out these performances hardly seems fair, because the entire cast is uniformly talented.
The production values are also top notch. The sets - from Jaye's Airstream trailer to The Barrel - are imaginative and interesting. The effects that bring the muses to life are superb. And the show's music - both the original compositions and the pop songs chosen to complement specific scenes - also add tremendously to the series' overall mood.
Wonderfalls was created by Brian Fuller and Todd Holland. Fuller also created Dead Like Me, a series which has a similar theme and tone. (For a comparison of the two shows, see the review of Dead Like Me: The Complete First Season.) Years from now, perhaps TV historians can figure out exactly why the zeitgeist of the last few years led to a string of shows - including Wonderfalls, Dead Like Me, Joan of Arcadia, and Tru Calling - in which the Universe (with a capital "u") employs reluctant heroines to mend cosmic fences. Perhaps they can also figure out exactly why the zeitgeist of the last few years led to all of these shows to fail - Joan of Arcadia excepted.
Well, maybe we don't really need the perspective of time to come to a conclusion on the success and failure of these shows. Joan of Arcadia deals in a more direct way with God, thus making it appealing to the Touched by an Angel crowd. Tru Calling sucked, and while that doesn't always mean that a show will fail, audiences rightly stayed away in this case. Dead Like Me ran for two seasons on Showtime. Ratings don't matter much on pay cable, but buzz does, and the series didn't get enough of it.
As for Wonderfalls, it premiered to incredibly glowing reviews, but had several things working against it. Even though they were developed at the same time, Joan of Arcadia beat Wonderfalls to the air by several months. Although it has since cooled, Joan became a surprise hit when it initially premiered, making Wonderfalls seem like an also-ran even before it aired. Even the most flattering of magazine pieces about Wonderfalls included quotes in which Joan's creators sniffed that wasn't as purely Joan of Arc-driven as their show (as if either series would feature their main characters leading a crusade and getting burned at the stake). Plus Wonderfalls aired immediately after a stinkbomb reality series called Playing it Straight in which a clueless bachelorette had to determine which of her suitors were gay and which were straight. Not exactly a match made in heaven. Fox made a last ditch effort to save the show by moving it to another night, but this confused viewers even further since TV listing still showed its original timeslot. The series was cancelled after only four episodes, leaving nine other episodes unaired.
Is Wonderfalls perfect? Not by any stretch of the imagination. After all, Niagara Falls didn't develop into one of the wonders of the world overnight. How could a TV show achieve greatness in only thirteen episodes? While all of the episodes are entertaining, the funniest episodes are the four that were broadcast on Fox. This isn't a flaw - as with most new series, the creators were obviously experimenting with what the show's week-to-week tone would be. All thirteen episodes are creative and engrossing. The final episode even offers fans a little closure. Sure, we'd love to see more, but the conclusion is satisfying enough that we are happy with how the series draws to an end. This is one barrel ride you'll be happy to take.
Guest stars appearing throughout the series include Rue McClanahan (The Golden Girls), Louise Fletcher (One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest), Eddie Kaye Thomas (American Pie), and Spencer Breslin (The Cat in the Hat).
Wonderfalls' thirteen episodes are divided onto three discs. The discs are housed in two slim, clear keepcases. The first two discs occupy a single keepcase. They snap onto hubs on the inside front and inside back cover of the keepcase. When the keepcase is closed, they lie face to face. The third disc is housed in a standard keepcase with a single hub. The front covers feature photos of the cast members. The back covers include episode titles and brief plot synopses. The cleverly designed DVDs resemble View-Master reels. They look incredible, and whoever designed them deserves a raise. The two keepcases slide into a cardboard sleeve which features a photo of Jaye in her Wonderfalls vest, a backwards View-Master covering her eyes.
The menus are whimsical and eye-catching. The main menus employ a "Greetings from Wonderfalls" postcard design. The episode menus pick up the View-Master theme. The scene selection, special features, and language menus use colorful images from the individual episodes. Many of the menu screens are stunning stunning enough to be appreciated as works of art. It is heartening to know that so much thought and effort was put into the DVD release of a series that reached a relatively small number of viewers during its initial run.
