Feel the wonder! WONDERFALLS on DVD December 7!

According to a report on Ain't It Cool (yeah, yeah, typical AICN naysayers need not respond) the short lived, but very entertaining series, Wonderfalls will be coming to DVD on December 7th, with a complete set of all 13 episodes (only four or five aired on FOX before they kneecapped the show), 6 episodes with commentary!

Whhooooooo-hoooooooooooo!

[tazer floyd]

I read this earlier, and this is GREAT news!! This show never got the respect and attention it deserved, when it was one of the best written and acted shows to come along in a long time.

I think this just became my most eagerly awaited release of the fall/winter season, even more so than the Star Wars Trilogy.

[manicsounds]

wow, here's a fox show i seriously dont recall.....
when was this one on?

so when is FOX giving us some of their early material?

Tracy Ullman, Mr. President, Women In Prison, Second Chance, Booker, etc
(although 21 Jump Street from Anchor Bay sounds nice)
anybody remember those?

[Moose]

Great news!!!!

[tazer floyd]

Originally Posted by manicsounds

wow, here's a fox show i seriously dont recall.....
when was this one on?

It only aired for 4 episodes in March/April of this year. Started out on Fridays, then moved to Thursdays, but I believe only 1 episode aired in the new Thursday timeslot.

[Damitol]

To the uninitiated, Wonderfalls was the brainchild of Todd Holland (Lots of TV directing including "Twin Peaks" and "My So-Called Life" which are two of my favorites), Brian Fuller ("Star Trek Voyager" and "Deep Space Nine", as well as Showtime's "Dead Like Me") and Tim Minnear (Writer and/or Producer "X-Files", "Angel" and "Firefly"). Needless to say, with that brain trust "quirky" was a prime ingredient of the show. I for one like "quirky".

In a brief description (that falls way short of doing the series justice), Jaye is a very sarcastic (and very cute) Gen Y slacker who is over educated and under employed, with little motivation to live up to her successful family's expectations of her. One day, inanimate animal objects (e.g. a wax lion, a brass monkey) start talking to her is short cryptic sentences - leading her to get involved in stranger's lives just to shut them up.

It was originally supposed to be on FOX's fall line-up (so 13 episodes were produced and ready), but was held back to mid season to avoid comparisons to CBS's "Joan of Arcadia". When it did finally air, in typical FOX fashion it was given a Friday night death slot but told to find an audience quickly. In other words, it was doomed from day one. Quirky shows take a while to find an audience - a universal truth TV programmers forgot a few year's back. Since the show's core demographic was not home on Friday night (in my defense I mainly saw it thanks to my VCR) and (again, a typical FOX move) it was moved to Thursday then back to Friday night (meaning I missed taping one of the four episodes aired) - it died quickly.

It was a fun and unique show. The writing was clever, the star funny and there were plot twists every few minutes leaving you guessing until the end of each episode. I'm not going to say it was the best show ever or that it will be remembered as "classic" TV, but it was one of the very few shows recently that held my interest for a full hour and left me wanting more. I feel by spending the $35-$45 the set will cost, I'll get much more than that in entertainment value. As such - I'll be at Best Buy day and date for this one.

[tazer floyd]

Originally Posted by Damitol

...Jaye is a very sarcastic (and very cute) Gen Y slacker...

Yes... very cute indeed.

[EricMontreal22]

Originally Posted by tazer floyd

It only aired for 4 episodes in March/April of this year. Started out on Fridays, then moved to Thursdays, but I believe only 1 episode aired in the new Thursday timeslot.

Actually I think only *3* episodes aired--talk about giving a show a chance.

Great show although personally I think it's been overated a little bit--it's REALLY good but somehow has become more than It hink it was by people who tried to save it.

Manicsound I don't think all those shows are owned by Fox--Wonderfalls wasn't--it was just aired on Fox (sorta like how Buffy and Angel are shows made by Fox--but never aire don the network) so a dvd release is probably not up to them.

E

[TheDarkling]

I really hope this is true. Wonderfalls was one of my favorite new shows of last season, and I was so very disappointed (but not surprised) when it got cancelled. I wonder if the huge fan outpouring had something to do with such a speedy release.

Originally Posted by Damitol

I'll be at Best Buy day and date for this one.

I liked this show enough that I just may be taking the day off when it streets and indulging in an all day orgy of television goodness...

[Mike386]

Count me in for a purchase when this becomes official. I loved the humor and the quirkiness of this series, and it has what is potentially one of the most addictive, trapped in your head for weeks on end theme songs. Jaye was so adorably cute in her cynical, pessimistic way. I heard Jewel Staite (Kaylee from Firefly) was slated to appear in a good number of episodes mid-season as well, so there's one more reason to see what else I was missing.

[Wirehed]

Count me in as a friend of the show. I thought it was pretty well written and, like has been said above, the lead was WAY cute.

If it's cheap enough I might buy the DVD set, as good as it was for TV, it's still only "good TV."

[mrcoaster]

I've heard enough raves about the show to consider blind buying it when it's released on DVD. The premise sounds fun, but I hope it's not too Joan Arcadia. Joan helping people solve their personal issues isn't really my cup of tea.

[93curr]

especially if you read the scripts for the unaired episodes (they were online for awhile).

eventually she starts to get frustrated because she's only doing what she's told to shut the inanimate objects up, then finds that things get better (for others, anyway) when she just does what she's told without asking questions. then she gets depressed by this realization and starts doing the opposite, then finds that THAT also makes things get better. so whether she does or doesn't follow orders makes no difference. even whewn she tries to intentionally screw things up, there's happy endings all around. which just makes her normally sunny and cheery disposition (ha!) fade into the distance. her brother, the theology student, however, finds it fascinating.

this show goes SO much deeper into the potential nihilism of existence (real life existence and the existence of a TV show necessitating happy conclusions to the problems of the week) (but in a funny, quirky way) than 'Joan' ever could. it don't answer a whole of of questions, natch, but it does admit the existence of them. and has fun playing with 'em.

they're really on opposite ends of the spectrum. 'Joan' is over in the 'Seventh Heaven' camp, whereas 'Wonderfalls' is philosophically closer to 'Buffy.'

[ccounsil]

Everybody buy this. It is WORTH the blind purchase. I promise you!!!

[Mikado]

I read up on Wonderfalls. It does sound pretty good. I might have to blind buy this one. Thanks for the suggestion everyone, i've never heard of it before.

[leeving]

Juat made my blind-buy purchase. Gonna have to watch it this week....can't wait to here Andy Partridge's theme song.

[corndawg]

Got my hands on a copy today. I love this show, but I'll have to find the time to sit down and watch it. And the discs are pretty uniquely designed

[esc]

Originally Posted by Damitol

... but was held back to mid season to avoid comparisons to CBS's "Joan of Arcadia".

I tried to watch Joan when it first aired and I never got into it. it just wasnt wierd enough. If God starts talking to me, I demand that my life get a whole hell of a lot stranger. after seeing the first 2 episodes of Wonderfalls I said that it was everything I was hoping for out of Joan of Arcadia. It had a Twin Peaks-light / Dead Like Me feel and now I know why.

I forgot that this was out. Thanks for the reminder!

[Mikado]

Picked this up today. I like the artwork. The viewfinder theme is cool. I better enjoy this. I bought this blind because you guys raved so much about it and it sounded like it might be interesting.

[Damitol]

I was good to my word and bought Wonderfalls last Tuesday, but didn't have time until Saturday to actually sit down and watch - planning on getting through an episode or two this week and the others later when I had time. After a year, I no longer "needed" to see the other episodes, but I still wanted to.

Lucky for me - it as rainy and cold this weekend.

Long story short, I ended up watching all 13 episodes over Saturday and Sunday AND listened to all six commentaries, meaning I "Wonderfalled" over 14 hours this weekend (at 45 minutes per episode without commercials). I didn't even do that for the Hobbits.

A couple of the episodes were less interesting than the others, but I so wish "Crime Dog" and "Cocktail Bunny" could have aired and given this series a chance to win over the audience. They were possibly two of the most entertaining hours of television I have ever watched.

The main point of this post to to assure anyone skeptical about purchasing a quirky short lived TV show because they may be left hanging after the last episode, that Wonderfalls ends well in a satisfying way. Whether it was planned from the start or added when they knew the series was headed south, they tied up the major story arcs at the end of the 13th episode. I would love to know what happened to Jaye and friends the next day (and they drop lots of hints in the commentaries), but it doesn't diminish the effectivness of that final shot as a great ending to the story.

Spend the $30 on Wonderfalls and enjoy. I promise you have spent more on other DVDs for much, much less.

AICN had a little bit on where the series would have gone had it lasted into season two and three...

[Mikado]

It's pretty good so far. I've seen the first 4 episodes. It's quirky and fun.
The show actually makes living in a trailer park seem kinda cool. And Jaye's constant drinking makes me want to drink, haha. I liked the one with the stuttering stalker, it was pretty funny.

I still can't figure out Jaye's accent which comes out when she starts to whine. Maybe it's not even an accent, I dunno, her voice changes though.

[Sword of Whedon]

I still can't figure out Jaye's accent which comes out when she starts to whine. Maybe it's not even an accent, I dunno, her voice changes though.

The actress is French-Canadian