With a kiss, a smile, and an admonition to shut up, Wonderfalls turns out the lights on its first and only season, and it’s hard to imagine a more fitting conclusion for this series. While there have been more road bumps along the way than I’d previously remembered, Wonderfalls really found itself in its last run of episodes and it’s gratifying to see it go out with such a strong, involving hour of television that so effectively wraps up the stories of these characters. That it does so while telling a satisfying story isn’t a coincidence either.
What I finally realized is that what makes for a good episode of Wonderfalls is the collision of believable character development and random plot coincidences. At its worst Wonderfalls felt like it was pushing pieces around a chess board so that a required ending could be reached, but at its best you had moments where characters make decisions based on emotional revelations that then contribute to the Rube Goldberg machinations of fate. The first option rings hollow, but when you get a moment like the one where Heidi ends up being the driver of the car that t-bones the escaping Bank Robber and thus saves Jaye’s life, it lends a weight to the events that makes everything feel more important. Even if the crash is just happenstance it feels like important, necessary happenstance and the best episodes of Wonderfalls understood this.
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“Totem Mole” doesn’t engage with the plot developments that the past two episodes utilized so well, and because of that it ends up being more in line with the general alrightness that permeated the middle of Wonderfalls run rather than the improved show that emerged of late. It’s an above average example of a Wonderfalls done in one, mostly because the things that creep up around the edges of the episode tend to be pretty damn funny, but it’s a significant step back in terms of the characters and complexity that the show had begun to build.
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The Bryan Fuller penned “Cocktail Bunny” is another strong episode for Wonderfalls late in the game. The show seems to really be finding itself here in the last few episodes of its run and its sad to see everything starting to take shape with so little time left. On the other hand, it’s a whole lot of fun to actually watch the episode as it features a good bit of misdirection in its mystery, plenty of snappy dialogue, and a solid emotional and psychological center.
The thing “Cocktail Bunny” gets the most right is that it showcases just how crazy Jaye can get thanks to her muses. Most of the time the show plays these little outbursts of Jaye’s for laughs, and it’s right to do so, but in the cold open we end with the sight of a deranged Jaye snapping and using the purloined monkey from Dr. Ron’s office as a tool to destroy a chorus of deformed wax lions. It’s not a sight that’s without comedic value, but there’s a darkness to the moment as Karen and the mouthbreather attempt to restrain Jaye’s violent outburst. This darkness remains through the entire episode thanks to the fact that much of it deals with Jaye no longer trusting the muses so implicitly after they break her heart in “Lying Pig.” It’s also helpful that Dr. Ron figures prominently in the episode as a way to bring a little doubt into the equation.
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“Lying Pig” has a few of the problems that have been nagging at me during this re-watch of Wonderfalls, but I also think it’s one of the strongest episodes of the show yet. The reason why, Jaye loses at the end. Well, she loses the battle at least, but for the first time, the advice she’s been given doesn’t end up in a moment where everyone comes out ahead, and that sadness truly hits hard because we’ve been so expectant of a happy ending when it comes to this show. It also helps that Dhavernas sells the pain Jaye is feeling for all she’s worth, so much so that I question your humanity if you don’t just want to give her a big hug when you see her shed that final tear.
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We’re only four episodes away from the end of Wonderfalls and sadly, I don’t think the show will manage to live up to the lofty reputation I afforded it in my memories. Many of my recent write ups have focused on the fact that the show hasn’t done much more than be affable and “Safety Canary” doesn’t buck this trend. This is all the more disappointing because half of the writing team, Liz W. Garcia, wrote one of the best episodes of the show up to this point, “Wound-Up Penguin.” I want to find out why though, why does a show with such a promising premise and a strong cast just not quite deliver?
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“Lovesick Ass” proves to be yet another problematic episode of Wonderfalls. It’s another episode where the plot feels perfunctory rather than elegantly designed but the real problem is that it’s an episode that focuses heavily on the relationship between Jaye and Eric, a relationship that just isn’t very interesting. Their back and forth/will they won’t they dynamic feels forced in a way that I’ve never managed to buy into. Jaye fawns so deliberately over Eric that when she then pulls away later it feels like the show telling us that it knows these two attractive people are going to end up together, but we’ve still got more time to kill before that can happen so you’re just going to have to wait.
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I enjoyed “Barrel Bear,” but I can’t say I was overly fond of it. It didn’t have the same overt problems that made “Muffin Buffalo” frustrating, but I feel like something just didn’t quite click here. The problem is, I’m not quite sure what it was. Perhaps it’s the fact that this episode was written by Bryan Fuller and Tim Minear, who are by all accounts heavy hitting TV writers, but it never managed to be much more than a fun diversion. There are some nods towards Jaye’s inability to move forward with her life and Eric finally managing to do just that, but it didn’t feel like any of these character moments told me anything new.
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“Muffin Buffalo” is an episode that I wanted to like a whole lot more than I actually did. It’s got some interesting ideas and does some character development that I felt was well handled, but the main plot just feels underdeveloped. When the end of the episode left me questioning the logic of what had just occurred rather than being surprised at the ways that Jaye’s actions and their effects dovetailed into a perfect conclusion it’s obvious that something has gone wrong with the Wonderfalls formula.
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Early on in “Crime Dog” there’s a moment that really bugged me, at least at first. The Tyler’s have just had their housekeeper, Yvette, deported after it was discovered that she was an illegal immigrant. Darrin Tyler is furious, he’s a Republican after all and many of his golf buddies feel strongly about the evils of illegal immigration so having unwittingly employed one makes him a potential laughingstock. This reaction felt wrong though, while characters obviously shouldn’t react exactly as we would like them to in every moment this character turn felt counter to the tone of the show. Wonderfalls has been a light, enjoyable romp so far and its always been anchored by the genuine affection the characters have for each other. As such it just seemed strange that a character like Darrin would be so callous when he discovered that someone who was essentially a member of his family was taken away against her will. Happily, the show knew this and when it was revealed that Darrin very quickly recanted his position and compromised his principles for familial love it made the conclusion of this episode all the more emotionally satisfying.
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Just when I was starting to get worried Wonderfalls pulls out the strongest episode of its run so far. “Wound-Up Penguin” is a funny, tightly plotted, and touching hour of television, and it’s also an episode I’m really happy has stood the test of time. I remember being incredibly moved by the ending of this episode when it originally aired, enough so that I still remembered the plot of just about the whole hour after only one viewing close to a decade ago, but I had grown wary that in the intervening years my cynicism might make me view that final twist as a needless and cheap tug at the heartstrings. I was very excited to find that it still played just as effectively as it did the first time, well it sold the final twist one or two times too many but that initial moment of revelation is just as powerful as it ever was, and actually helps deepen the thematic questions this episode poses rather than existing solely as an emotional sucker punch. To get into why I think it works so well though means we have to look at the episode and how it builds.
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