Friday Flashback: Rec. #2: Wonderfalls, season 1 and only

I decided to start doing Friday Flashbacks in case you missed some early posts the first time around. You're busy; I understand.

What: Wonderfalls is 13 episodes of snarky quirk about Jaye Tyler, an overeducated, under-motivated store clerk who starts hearing voices after getting conked on the head. Animal figures (a smoosh-faced wax lion, a plastic flamingo, and a stuffed donkey, among others) begin giving her cryptic instructions. Somehow, writer/creator Bryan Fuller manages to make the talking animals neither cutesy nor creepy, which is an accomplishment in and of itself. Caroline Dhavernas does a bang-up job as the sulky, sarcastic Jaye, using a heavily-nuanced lip curl to great effect.

Comparable to: Other television shows by Bryan Fuller. He takes the young-slacker-put-to-the-test idea from Dead Like Me and combines it with the candy-colored coating that ratchets up exponentially in his later series, Pushing Daisies.

Representative quote:
"Is this fun for you? Torturing a wayward nun?"
"Oh, yeah. This is a laugh-riot. There is where I would most like to be --- standing in the freezing cold being called a liar by a nun and coerced by a wax lion to commit crime. It's so much fun!"

You might not like it if: You are soooo not a fan of magic realism.

How to watch it: Buy it or Netflix it. You should probably buy it. It's only one season, after all. Plus, Fuller knew the series would be canceled, so you get closure at the end, something you can't always count on with an imperiled series (ahem, Pushing Daisies).

[Originally posted 1/1/11.]