ORBzine - TV Review September 2005
Wonderfalls [Season 1, Episode 1]
Wax Lion
Shown 5th July 2005 - Tuesday
The heroine is Jaye, a 24 year-old slacker-chick who works at a gift-shop near Niagra Falls. Non-living things talk to her [only she can see them], and make her perform good deeds. Her father is played by William Sadler [ Roswell ].
This was exec-produced by Tim Minear, part of the team behind Angel .
Wonderfalls [Season 1, Episode 2]
Karma Chameleon
Shown 12th July 2005 - Tuesday
This week - the heroine is stalked by a Single White Female.
It's delightfully ironic that the stalker is drawn to the slacker's ... slackness. Instead of wanting to copy someone who has an interesting, exciting life, she deliberately copies a person with a dead-end job and no Life to speak of!
Wonderfalls [Season 1, Episode 3]
Wound-Up Penguin
Shown 19th July 2005 - Tuesday
A homeless woman is living in the historical barrel. In a series of coincidences straight out of Strange Luck , our heroine sorts out her problems.
This ep has some disturbing religious overtones, but also mocks religious fervour. Plus, there's a nice twist.
Wonderfalls [Season 1, Episode 4]
Pink Flamingos
Shown 25th July 2005 - Tuesday
Our heroine is roped into helping to organise the 10-year Highschool reunion. The class bitch has pulled it forward by 3 1/2 years.
Meanwhile, the elder sister [a double virgin?] is left babysitting their father [Bill Sadler - Roswell ]. She tries to arrange a liaison with a lady friend ...
Wonderfalls [Season 1, Episode 5]
Crime Dog
Shown 3rd August 2005 - Wednesday
The nanny gets deported back to her home country - Quebec! Our heroine and her brother try to get her back. However, the lesbian lawyer sister is up to something ...
This ep allows our heroine to assess her relationship with her sister.
Wonderfalls [Season 1, Episode 6]
Barrel Bear
Shown 10th August 2005 - Wednesday
Our heroine helps a woman [Rue Mclanahan - Golden Girls] who, 50 years previously, went over the Niagra Falls in a barrel. However, she shares a secret with Louise Fletcher [Kai Wynn from Star Trek: Deep Space 9 ].
This ep allows our slacker characters to assess their lives, and their potential futures ...
Wonderfalls [Season 1, Episode 7]
Lovesick Ass
Shown 17th August 2005 - Wednesday
Jay tries to help a Russian mail-order bride. As a result she ends up being stalked by an emotionally-disturbed 13-year-old boy. But at least she gets to sort out her relationship with her not-boyfriend.
Wonderfalls [Season 1, Episode 8]
Muffin Buffalo
Shown 24th August 2005 - Wednesday
Jay's obsessed with her neighbour in the Trailer Park, an obese shut-in she labels Fat Pat. She tries to get him out of his shell, exposing him to her family and the crazy muffin-cooking lady who lives in the trailer park with them.
She should be concentrating on her relationship with her brother. He discovered in a prior ep that she thinks inanimate objects talk to her, and now he's talking to a psychiatrist. He's a Theologist who doesn't believe in gods, and his sister's apparent mysticism frightens him!
Wonderfalls [Season 1, Episode 9]
Safety Canary
Shown 31st August 2005 - Wednesday
Jay has to help the lovebirds - a couple of exotic wildfowl in the local zoo. They're meant to mate ...
This mirrors Jay's relationship [?] with her sorta-BF. Also included are her brother with her best friend. And her sister and GF.
Watch out for Jewel Staite at the end. Not content with becoming a movie star [ Serenity ] she's helping out in genre TV!
Wonderfalls [Season 1, Episode 10]
Lying Pig
Shown 7th September 2005 [Wednesday]
Jay decides to get rid of all the animal-faced items in her home. Unfortunately, one manages to tell her Mend what is broken. .
She assumes it means returning her sorta-BF to his estranged wife [ Jewel Staite ]. Especially when the wife develops amnesia.
There are other relationships involved, as well. Jay's brother and her best friend are still ... whatever. And her parents need to sort a few things out, as well!
Wonderfalls [Season 1, Episode 11]
Cocktail Bunny
Shown 14th September 2005 [Wednesday]
Jaye's sorta-ex and his bitchy wife [ Jewel Staite ] are going to be in town for a couple more weeks. Just long enough for Jaye to get totally distraught and paranoid.
Jaye winds up back at the office of the psychiatrist she was sent to see in the first episode. Worse, she also comes to the attention of the local police. She thinks she has to prevent a murder, but everyone thinks she's crazy ...
The feel of the episode owes more than a little to Hitchcock - the extended climax is more parody than homage, but it's wonderful to watch. Far above the standard of average TV shows.
Wonderfalls [Season 1, Episode 12]
Totem Mole
Shown 21st September 2005 [Wednesday]
Jaye, Mahandra and the wicked blonde sister visit a Native American reservation. Jaye discovers that the totem pole can talk to her in complete coherent sentences, and the locals have a tradition of using a Seer to talk to spirits. Which explains Jaye's power.
Jaye must help the tribe find their new spiritual leader, and help the old lady's grandson find his destiny.
Meanwhile, her sister's rival from Law School turns up - as the tribe's megalomaniac lawyer.
Poor old Mahandra is there only as a plot device to get the story rolling. Her relationship with Jaye's brother is not explored, meaning that the episode has loose ends and questions skipped over instead of answered.
Wonderfalls [Season 1, Episode 13]
Caged Bird
Shown 28th September 2005 [Wednesday]
Jaye is trying to get over splitting up with her sorta-boyfriend. She arranges for him to meet with her, while the wife and best friend talk over their problematic love-lives.
Things take a turn for the worse when Jaye ends up in a siege at gunpoint. She, her boss, the security guard and the lesbian lawyer sister are held hostage by a trigger-happy bank-robber.
The inanimate objects don't make things any better with their cryptic advice - Give him heart.
However, the episode comes to a satisfactory conclusion. It ends the Season's story arc, luckily because the writers expected that the show would only last 13 eps, and planned accordingly.
