CS Daily Archive > DVD of the Day > 02/04/05

Inspired by Muses

by jason davis

When inanimate objects start demanding that she carry out their vague instructions, an overeducated retail clerk must skirt the edge of sanity and overcome her narcissism and laziness to be an unexpected hero in a series that builds across thirteen installments to a jigsaw-like finale.

Wonderfalls: The Complete Series

Bryan Fuller, Todd Holland, Liz W. Garcia, Gretchen J. Berg, Aaron Harberts, Tim Minear, Krista Vernoff, Alexander Woo, Abby Gewanter, Dan E. Fessman, and Harry Victor
Created by Bryan Fuller & Todd Holland

Gen-Y slacker Jaye Tyler (Caroline Dhavernas) is perfectly happy with her Ivy league philosophy degree and the low expectation retail job it's afforded her -- until a wax novelty lion speaks to her, setting off a series of incidents that result in the usually self-absorbed Jaye becoming something of a hero. As more inanimate animal knickknacks make demands of the increasingly addled twenty-four-years old, a complicated Rube Goldberg-esque plan becomes apparent in these muses' vague directions. While dealing with her intrusive family, her paranoid therapist, and a freshly married bartender heading for divorce, Jaye must attempt to recapture her sanity while sacrificing her free will to the whim of loquacious inanimate objects.

Character is king in this quirky series populated by colorfully crafted characters. Front and center is the passive-aggressive heroine, Jaye Tyler, who manages to be both narcissistic and self-sacrificing in a wonderful juxtaposition of her own attitudes contrasted by her actions when influenced by the muses. This reluctant hero will do anything she can to avoid what quickly becomes apparent is her destiny, but she grudgingly does the right thing when push comes to shove. The vagueness of the muses' instructions and Jaye's inherent self-centered nature combine to create a formula that often dictates the flow of an episode's story. A muse will offer a cryptic statement with a vague pronoun and Jaye will immediately apply what she's heard to her immediate situation, pursuing a course of action based on this assumption. Too late, she'll realize that the muse was referring to a situation outside her immediate scope and only then will she succeed in accomplishing the mission she's been assigned by the powers that be.

The episodes themselves range in tone from the outright comedic to the dark and suspenseful, with the majority carefully straddling the divide between comedy and drama in a fashion that allows a joke to send the audience into paroxysms of laughter before flooring them with a dramatic gut punch. The season-ending arc that aims Jay's love interest (Tyrone Leitso) back toward his estranged wife is a particularly emotional example, and the creators' contention that pain makes an audience love a character can have no greater evidence than Jaye's emotional self destruction in the arms of her best friend (Tracie Thoms).

In structuring the series, showrunner Tim Minnear (fresh from the swiftly cancelled Firefly) sought to create a complete narrative within the thirteen episodes that Fox ordered to allow for a sense of completion, while leaving the series open-ended for a second season. This foresight is evident in the measured build of the plot toward the finale's final moments, where much of the preceding episodes' incidents are paid off. As pointed out in the commentaries, there are plenty of plot points seeded throughout the season with an idea toward harvesting them in later seasons, but they are unobtrusive to the narrative of season one.

- Commentary on "Wax Lion," "Crime Dog," "Lovesick Ass," "Safety Canary," "Cocktail Bunny," and "Caged Bird" by co-creator/writer/executive producer Bryan Fuller, co-creator/executive producer/director Todd Holland, actors Caroline Dhavernas, Katie Finnerman, and Scotch Ellis Loring (on "Cocktail Bunny")
- Wonderfalls making-of featurette
- Wonderfalls ILM music video
- Special effects featurette

Co-creators Bryan Fuller and Todd Holland convey a wealth of information in their six commentaries. While the actors occasionally chime in with anecdotes or recollections of production, Fuller and Holland provide an almost constant stream of narrative minutiae focusing on such matters as the noir style narrative of "Crime Dog" or the standards and practices baiting of "Lovesick Ass." Great attention is paid to the crafting of the ongoing narrative, and plot points for two more seasons are discussed, giving a real sense of the forethought with which the series was imbued. The making-of featurette covers the show's origins in detail along with the changes that were made in its journey to the air.

An excellent extras package sheds light on the creation of a series that perfectly balances a difficult cocktail of comedy and drama populated with wonderfully quirky characters. Wonderfalls illustrates the failing of the American system of commercial television -- imagination, no matter how skillfully harnessed, is nothing without figures to back it up in the ledgers of advertising revenues. While it points out the flaws in TV, it highlights the value of DVD which allows an otherwise lost series to reach its audience in its complete form.

Wonderfalls: The Complete Series
Fox Home Entertainment
Not rated; 588 min.
$39.98

Buy it now for only $27.99 (save 30%)

At the age of 21, Jason Davis was hit in the face with a car. He has since devoted his life to writing. His words have appeared on TBS, MSN.com, and CS Daily, where he serves as DVD Coordinator. He lives in Burbank

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