Here’s a Friday evening TV watching tip: the second episode of “Wonderfalls” on Fox. I wasn’t expecting much last night. But Laurel had noticed that the pilot episode was being repeated, and the show got a positive mention in the newspaper’s television section yesterday. Both of us liked it a lot. Original, quirky, honest, philosophical. A recurring theme in the first episode was “embrace your destiny.” And also, “what is real?”
Can animal figurines talk? Are you crazy if you can hear them? Are you crazy if you can’t hear them? Why do things happen the way they do? Is it better to be (1) certifiably sane, yet blind to the (usually) hidden connections between everyone and everything, or (2) walking on the edge of Wacko, yet able to perceive what is unseen to others?
At the end of our first “Wonderfalls,” as I was saying how much I liked it, Laurel observed, “But it is so negative, and you’re such a positive person.” “True,” I replied. “However, I like negativity with depth more than shallow positivity.”
Jaye, the twenty-something main character, is a philosophy major who finds herself working in a Niagara Falls gift shop after graduating from college. She looks at life at it is, which can be encapsulated in the bumper sticker slogan, “shit happens.” But why does it happen? And is it really shit, or is something else happening? Great questions. So far, a great TV series. We’ll see if Fox screws it up, or, as so often happens, cancels it.
Hrm. I'm still entirely uncertain what it is that everyone other than myself finds so compelling about this show. I made sure to watch the rerun of the pilot so as not to base my reaction on only one viewing, but I still don't get it. The visual style seems forced in a "hey look we're quirky and hip" kind of way, and I can see the lead actress thinking about her acting.
I'm told, regardless of what one thinks about the pilot, that the show kicks into gear as it moves along, so maybe it's just not grabbing me from Day One. But it's been a very long time since I've been on the opposite side from all the buzz.
Posted by: The One True b!X | March 19, 2004 at 08:47 PM