One Season Wonder: Wonderfalls

Series creator Bryan Fuller was primarily known for his previous show Pushing Daisies, but is making headlines with the success of Hannibal. Wonderfalls is his lesser-known project, as it got cancelled four episodes after airing. A disappointment, really, considering Dead Like Me pulled three seasons and Pushing Daisies got two, with Hannibal renewed for a second season. Wonderfalls also deals with the supernatural, enacting through an underachiever. It's quite a charming show despite its surreal circumstances.

Jaye is a Brown University graduate who chooses to spend her time and her wits working at a souvenir store by the Niagara Falls. She belongs to an overachieving family, which is why, despite the love and care of her parents, she is an underachiever. At her spare time, she hangs out at local bar with her high school best friend, and a bartender who stayed at Niagara Falls because his wife cheated on him during their honeymoon. On one fateful day, an inanimate lion comes to life and begins talking to her, giving her riddles while guiding her on exactly what she should do: in other words, to help people around her. Soon she's being sent to a psychiaratrist, and on each episode, another inanimate object talks to her and tells her what she should do. 

I guess it's sort of strange, considering the situations she gets herself in. Strange, but in an entertaining way. While her personal dilemma (the inanimate objects) causes her to forge an actual relationship with her family, she gets herself in between situations that she can't explain her way out of without sounding like a loony. The show doesn't really just focus on Jaye, but brings in the rest of her family and friends. We see her sister struggling with her gender identity and finding her happiness, and her brother who is in a rut. We also meet her friend and how she connects with the entire family, and of course, the story of the bartender/Jaye's love interest. 

The cast itself is perfect. I couldn't imagine any other persons playing the specific roles (although Lee Pace's character was initially played by Adam Scott, but he couldn't commit to further episodes. Same goes for Kerry Washington, whose role eventually went to Tracy Thoms). Caroline Dhavernas was a gem as Jaye. While she was entertaining on her own account, I also have to give credit to Katie Finneran and Lee Pace, who played her siblings. They became very much involved with their youngest sister when she was experiencing the events, even to a point that Lee Pace also had a clue what was going on. 

The show finished abruptly, but watching the season in its entirety, it manages to wrap up the season neatly. If a next season were to happen, there were already possible plot points, but when watching the season, it felt that nothing seems missing or lacking. They introduced the characters' story lines, gave ample amount of focus on them before ending them on a happy note. It was entertaining to see how each event unfold, and what those inanimate objects meant when they wanted her to do something, even if it was on the extent of embarrassing herself. 

The show may not be perfect, but it's entertaining and great. Somehow, ending on one season is fitting for something like this. If they prolonged it, it might have been too absurd or too repetitive, seeing as it really just diverted to her being able to talk to inanimate animals. Still, I'd like to see how everything would play out. This shouldn't have been cancelled earlier; it might have gotten a bigger demographic if all the episodes were played out.