Wonderfalls (2004)

A quirky drama about a young woman who is dissatisfied with her crappy retail job in a Niagara Falls gift shop, especially after her coworker is promoted over her despite him still being in high school. While fuming about it, she somehow manifests the ability to speak to the inanimate animals she sells that begin to ask her to perform odd requests that encourage her to help people, sometimes at her expense and often in funny and oblique ways.

Caroline Dhavernas plays the caustic and anti-social Jaye who at first only reluctantly goes along with the animal's requests while questioning her sanity, but eventually starts to soften up to the people around her like her overbearing parents, lesbian sister and pretty much all people she tries to actively avoid. Eric, played by Tyron Leitso, is the love interest and new bartender at Jaye's favorite bar as he was recently married, but ran off from his honeymoon after catching his new wife cheating on him with a hotel staff member. He drank and cried for three days until the owner gave him a job. His kindness and good nature is the antithesis of Jaye, but he finds her interesting nonetheless and sees her as not as uncaring as she thinks usually because of the good deeds the animals force her to do.

Creator Bryan Fuller continues his trend of shows revolving around special young women in an odd situation except this time he has the added benefit of executive producer Tim Minear who also worked on another great and cancelled FOX show, Firefly. With a cast full of great actors and a fresh and original premise, Wonderfalls gained critical praise and a loyal fan-base despite only airing 4 episodes before being cancelled by FOX. There is great character development especially a noticeable shift in Jaye and weird comedy bits. Plus it's just nice to have a show that isn't a medical drama or police procedural for once.

Episodes to See:
Ep. 8 Lovesick Ass - A quite hilarious plot about a mail order bride with an excellent guest performance by a young Spencer Breslin.

Buyer's Guide:
Thanks to a grassroots petition, there is a DVD set available of all 13 episodes made for season 1 though it is only available in Region 1 so far. Also now through Netflix.

5 smooshed-face lions out of 5

FIREFLY [2002]

“When you can't run you crawl, and when you can't crawl…

...You find someone to carry you.”

Writer/director Joss Whedon was on fire in the entertainment industry.  With an Academy award nomination for the Toy Story screenplay and two cult-hit television series still on the air, Buffy The Vampire Slayer and it’s spin-off Angel, it seemed like he couldn’t be stopped.  So the FOX network gave him the go ahead to produce another television series hopefully with the same appeal as his two previous efforts.  What Whedon handed in was without a doubt the last thing they wanted to see…a space western called Firefly.

They hated it.  FOX gave it the notorious Friday night deathslot and even decided to push the pilot episode aside, because it was too slow and aired the second episode first.  It was very apparent that Firefly was doomed from the beginning.  Without any phasers, spaceship battles or a single alien in sight, it baffled the FOX executives, especially when they found out the characters cursed in Chinese.  What the hell was this show? 

I’ll tell you what it was.  One of the damn finest sci-fi series to grace your televisions sets. 

Firefly sits neatly beside Arrested Development and Freaks & Geeks as the best TV shows no one watched and should all be damned to that very special level of Hell for just that.

Set 500 years in the future, after Earth has been overpopulated, it follows the misadventures of a group a space traveling thieves constantly on the brink of starvation and constantly questioning their own morals and choices. 

The cast is led by the oddly charismatic Castle star, Nathan Fillion as Captain Malcolm Reynolds who pretty much just kicks ass all around with his cranky charms and constant struggle with his own self-appointed morales.  I Robot’s Alan Tudyk , Stargate: Atlantis’ Jewel Staite, Full Metal Jacket’s Adam Baldwin and Barney Miller’s Ron Glass are also notable cast members chewing up their scenes as well.

Littered with freshly executed witty dialogue, original storytelling structures and more than enough moments to make you laugh out loud, Firefly is a must see for any sci-fi fan.  Sadly it was canceled after only airing 11 of the 14 episodes produced.  Thankfully with only 14 episodes made, Firefly never got the chance to ever really suck.  It’s pretty much solid from start to finish. 

14 episodes.  42 minutes each.

Episodes To Watch:

1x06 : Our Mrs. Reynolds: Mad Men’s Christina Hendricks guest stars and makes for some interesting and funny character moments.

1x08: Out Of Gas: Angel/Terriers writer, Tim Minear does what he does best.  Perfect flashback episodes.

1x12: The Message: The emotional impact of this episdoe always takes me off guard.  Wonderful stuff.

Episodes To Avoid:

Nothing really weak here.

However 1x04: Shindig is the weakest of the bunch.

Buyer’s Guide: 

The complete series is widely available in DVD & Blu-Ray box sets for very reasonable prices. 

5 BIG DAMN Heroes out of 5