List Price: $39.98 Our Price: $22.97YOU SAVE $17.01!
Buy it
DVD Wonderfalls - The Complete Series
Wonderfalls is probably the most hilarious show you've never seen. An hour-long "dramedy" about a young woman who hears the voices of inanimate objects--which instruct her to help out total strangers--the show aired on Fox in early 2004 to critical acclaim and dismal ratings. After airing four times in terrible time slots, the show was quickly canceled, but not before a hue and cry from a small but fervently devoted cadre of fans went up, begging for all 13 episodes to be released on DVD. Thus, the highest-profile DVD release of a canceled show was born, and the nine unaired episodes of Wonderfalls are finally seeing the light of day.
You may be wondering: is it worth it to check out a show that was axed so quickly? The answer is an unqualified yes, as Wonderfalls is quirky without being precious, sardonic without being bitter, and smart without being a show-off about it. Jaye (Caroline Dhavernas) is a graduate of Brown University who's opted not to put her education to work, and instead lives in a trailer and works at a tourist shop in Niagara Falls, to the consternation of her affluent, successful family. All seems to be going well for this self-proclaimed slacker, until one day a small toy lion speaks to her in enigmatic epigrams, commanding her to help people. Loath to deal in any compassionate way with the rest of humanity, Jaye warily obeys, if only to make the voices stop. Soon, though, she finds herself to be an unwilling humanitarian and accidental hero when more inanimate objects start talking to her, and more people turn out to need her help.
The premise may sound a bit too off-the-beaten-path, but Wonderfalls' meddling with the ethereal was grounded in a keen awareness of post-college life and the travails befalling young twentysomethings who had no idea where their life was going. And instead of being sanctimonious or inspiring, the show was instead a complex mix of the heartfelt and the angsty, and Dhavernas was one of the most cynically hopeful heroines to grace the small screen. The rest of the cast was also topnotch, including Kate Finneran as Jaye's high-strung sister, Diana Scarwid as her caustic mother, and Tyron Leitso as bartender Eric, whose tentative romance with Jaye was both affecting and hilarious. Think of Wonderfalls as less of a failure and more of a rare opportunity to see some of the most creative television in recent memory. --Mark Englehart
I will admit, I had no idea this show even existed until my friend loaned me the entire series a few weeks back. "Wonderfalls" is a quirky, cutsie show about a girl who works in a souvenir shop in Niagara Falls when the inanimate animals begin talking to her. It has a nice misanthropic streak, which I enjoyed, and a love of family values, which I did not enjoy. Unfortunately not enough people jumped on the bandwagon when it was originally aired as it only lasted one season. It's a shame too because I could see the show getting better as it went along.
In the early part of the season the show is very episodic. Characters are introduced only when they are going to be used and then they disappear forever. Story arches are nonexistent. These episodes do have their charms. Jaye (Caroline Dhavernas) our main character has a girl show up who tries to take on her entire personality. It works on a Twilight Zone level. I also enjoyed the episode where a young boy orders a mail order bride and then turns to view Jaye and her friends as a blockade to his true love. Then, about two thirds of the way through, the show slightly changes tone. The talking toys play less of a role and we begin to dig deeper into Jay's personal life. The emergence of Heidi, the cheating wife of Jay's love interest, brings a dark edge that makes the show stronger. Suddenly plotlines continue from one episode to the next. We don't get a true ending, but it's no big loss. This show isn't about complex stories. It's about sitting still for an hour with the company of Jaye and having a fairly decent time.
Dhavernas does make a loveable Jaye. She is at times too stiff (but that goes for the whole production) and too theatrical, but I still thought the casting was impeccable. There's probably a little too much acting going on with her mouth, but this is a minor complaint. It is interesting that a network would be so bold as to build a show around a retail worker (they prefer doctors), but they just can't help but to judge her. There are tons of people in this country who do work in retail and live in trailer parks, and they certainly don't need to be condescended to by a show that purports to be about them. For Jaye to move away from those traits would be to move towards her parents traits. But in my eyes being rich, Republican, and unlikable is no real prize. Besides isn't the theme of the show "Surrender to Destiny"? Jaye listens to the animals, but they only talk to her because she listens. Point being that the number of things in this world that you actually have control over is so small there is no use is fighting for control of your destiny. Most things work out for us in the end anyways. And if you are in the retail industry just think of it as your destiny, and count your blessings that your destiny isn't digging coal in China.
Wildly Wierdly WOW!
I had expectations that this show would be a bit different and it is.
As a fan of Joss Whedon's shows (BuffyTVS, Angel and Firefly) I was quite familiar with just how good Tim Minear's writing can be ("Out Of Gas" - Firefly for example). Knowing Tim was exec producer on this show was enough for me to purchase it sight unseen and without reading a single review.
I was not disappointed ... well maybe just a little .... I wanted to see more! One season was not enough. :-(
Just what do you have to do to be recognized for the quality of your work?
A Fabulous Flash-In-The-Pan!
Buy it ... borrow it ... steal it ... (not really :-D ) ... but watch it what ever you do!
Hilarious sarcastic comedy
Not much to say - funny show about a girl who can talk to inanimate objects with faces that tell her to do weird stuff that makes sense usually by the end of the episode. And it's good since they usually add a new "talking face" every episode. I know it's not a full season, but I think it's a great show. And just in case nobody else mentioned this, if you liked Firefly or Arrested Development I think you'll like this...
In the second season of Showtime's Dead Like Me, teen grim reaper George (Ellen Muth) returns just as she left the first--dead. (Technically, undead.) That isn't about to change, but some things will. In season premiere "Send in the Clown," she'll get a promotion at the Happy Time temp agency (a dead ringer for Office Space’s soul-sucking cubicle maze). Meanwhile, Roxy (Jasmine Guy), a tough-talking fellow reaper, will make the move from meter maid to police officer. After all, even reapers have to eat.
There are other changes. George's parents, Joy (Cynthia Stevenson) and Clancy (Greg Kean), finally throw in the towel on their foundering marriage. The other reapers experience their share of good and bad luck. Sweet, if narcissistic Daisy (Laura Harris) finds... More Info about this DVD Director(s): James Marshall (III) - Tony Westman - Milan Cheylov - David Straiton DVD Release Date: Released the 19 July 2005 Usually ships in 24 hours
List Price: $39.98 Your Price: $34.99YOU SAVE $4.99!
Buy it
The smartest high school drama since Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Veronica Mars is The O.C. as penned by Raymond Chandler. Veronica (Kristen Bell, Deadwood) is Nancy Drew by way of Lauren Bacall, while Neptune makes Peyton Place look like Mayberry. The first season begins in the aftermath of a dizzying array of cataclysmic events: Her best friend, Lilly (Amanda Seyfried), was murdered, her sheriff father was fired over his handling of the case, she was sexually assaulted, and her mother left. Since then, Keith Mars (Enrico Colantoni, Just Shoot Me) has become a private eye and drafted Veronica as his assistant. She may lack Buffy's physical prowess, but the "tiny blonde one" turns out to have a special talent for sleuthing. In the wake of her sophomore... More Info about this DVD DVD Release Date: Released the 11 October 2005 Usually ships in 24 hours
List Price: $59.98 Your Price: $29.99YOU SAVE $29.99!
Buy it
Combine elements of The O.C., Dawson's Creek, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and Desperate Housewives, to name just a few, and you have the slight but diverting Point Pleasant. And for those frustrated by Fox TV's decision to cancel this 2005 series after just eight episodes, the good news is that this three-disc set includes the five episodes that never made it to the airwaves. The show centers on blonde teenager Christina Nickson (Elisabeth Harnois), who's pulled from the surf off the beach at Point Pleasant, New Jersey, and is soon taken in by one of the town's troubled families. It's not for nothing that Christina is, well, a bit mysterious; we learn that she is "the child of darkness," daughter of Satan himself, endowed with malevolent powers that she... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): Grant Show DVD Release Date: Released the 25 October 2005 Usually ships in 24 hours
List Price: $39.98 Your Price: $29.99YOU SAVE $9.99!
Buy it
Lives were upended--and some co-opted--in the fifth and final season of Angel, as the denizens of Angel Investigations found themselves taking on one of their scariest endeavors ever: corporate life. After making a literal deal with the devil (or something distinctly devil-like), Angel (David Boreanaz) moved his team from their crumbling hotel to the high-rise digs of law-firm-from-hell Wolfram & Hart, his reasoning being they could better fight the forces of evil from the inside, and with more resources to boot. Clever maneuvering or easy rationalization? Not a few members of Angel's team accused him of selling out (as did a number of viewers), but as with most of the show's previous four seasons, Angel somehow took a dubious premise and mined it for gold. And with one core... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): David Boreanaz DVD Release Date: Released the 15 February 2005 Usually ships in 24 hours
List Price: $59.98 Your Price: $44.99YOU SAVE $14.99!
Buy it
Pay cable's "other"show about life and death, Dead Like Me takes a darkly comic look at mortality through the eyes of someone stuck between this life and the afterlife. "Bail bondsmen for the disembodied" is how Rube (Mandy Patinkin), the often exasperated Reaper foreman, explains it to disaffected 18-year-old George (Ellen Muth) after she’s vaporized by a falling toilet seat from the Mir space station and drafted into the ranks of the Reapers. It's now her job to take the souls of the doomed, preferably before their mortal coil is damaged beyond recognition by the devilish machinations of the gremlin-like gravelings.
