Wonderfalls



I can almost see the pitch meeting the producers of Wonderfalls (airing during Fox’s death slot, Fridays at 9:00 pm) had with the executives of the various networks. The producers probably tried to use the word “quirky” a lot, because that sounds better to TV executives than “surreal,” “strange,” or “odd.” TV executives hear those words as “low-rated,” “cult appeal” and “canceled after five episodes.”

Wonderfalls is about Jaye Tyler (Caroline Dhavernas), a 24 year old woman who graduated from Brown with a philosophy degree (“I may even still have it here somewhere…”) who works at a cheesy souvenir store at Niagra Falls and lives in a trailer. This is a source of much consternation to her family, who are all aggressive go-getters.

One day while she's doing her best to avoid work, a small wax lion begins talking to her. Soon all kinds of small objects are talking to her, telling her to do certain things in a odd quirky mixture of conversational cliches and lines from TV commercials. Simply worn down by how surreal quirky the situation is, Jaye starts following the objects' advice, and she makes the lives of random strangers better despite herself.

In the second episode a young woman named Binky comes to the store and begins to model her look and attitude on Jaye, and Jaye becomes convinced that it's a Single White Female type situation. The talking tchotchke's don't have much to do in this episode, suggesting that they will just be an excuse to get Jay involved in all kinds of unrelated strange quirky goings-on.

I enjoyed Wonderfalls, even though does seem to be trying a bit too hard. The tone is somewhere between Northern Exposure and Twin Peaks, but with lots of showy editing. The best thing the show has going for it is the dialogue. Here's a few pithy exchanges from the first two episodes.

Mahandra: "Disappointing your family is an extreme sport for you."
Jaye: "Well just look at them. They all work very hard every day and they're dissatisfied. I can be dissatisfied without hardly working at all."

Mahandra: "And what happens when we repress things?"
Jaye: "They go away?"

Karen: "You tell people we aren't related."
Jaye: "It was just that one time."
Karen: "It was Grandpa's wake!"

Eric: "Does the little wax lion ever tell you to burn things or hurt people?"
Jaye: "No... he's probably working up to that"

Mahandra: "She's sitting on your stool!"
Jaye: "There are just so many things wrong with that sentence."

I'll keep watching Wonderfalls, but I'm concerned it will be canceled after five episodes it's too quirky to last.

Posted: Wed - March 24, 2004 at      

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