Strangely Socialised

It may not be the best practice to review something when you missed the first ten minutes of the show and haven’t made time yet to download it from that wonderful magical place known as the Internet, but it’s not like I ever let petty little details like that stop me. I wanted to watch Wonderfalls and I wanted to talk about it and that, as they say, is that.

Wonderfalls is not Joan of Arcadia. Joan of Arcadia is not Wonderfalls. No matter what comparisons anyone might make about them — and believe me, there have been many, and there will be more — the two shows are less alike than any two sitcoms chosen at random. Both are compelling in their own ways.

Here’s me being honest again: I missed the part where we find out why inanimate objects are suddenly talking to Jaye, the snarky, slacker, central character of the show. So I can’t comment on the plausabilty, or lack thereof, but then I’m not sure I would have wanted to anyway. Wonderfalls isn’t about plausability — it’s about character and fantasy and a high level of stylism that just works.

I can see where it might begin to wear and get annoying with time — everyone is quirky and mostly unsubtle; the suddenly-animated inanimates are annoying to Jaye, and are thus annoying it us, too; there are moments where the show is very much style over substance. For for right now, that’s okay. It’s still one of the better things on the air, funny, entertaining, and compelling from almost-start to finish.

While the repeated noises of “critically acclaimed” didn’t hurt the appeal, the real reason I tuned into this was Donnie Wahlberg. Yeah, the guy who used to be in New Kids on the Block. And there’s nothing shameful about that, I might add. Nothing at all.

The hook of this show, what’s supposed to set it apart from the 438 other cop dramas on tv right now, is that it shows the same series of events from different points of view. Or rather, what happens is that the pov changes from character to character to further the story, with bits that overlap, and not always in chronological order. It could have been a big mess, but it’s not. It works.

The first thing I notice about it is the leeching of colour from the scene, giving it a bit of a bleak cast, like pre-dawn or post-sunset (an effect that I appreaciated in Push, Nevada, too, though they used it for different reasons). We’re introduced to the city before we’re introduced to any of the characters, giving the gut impression that that plays as big a part of the story as any of them. There are a lot of shows on tv where I couldn’t tell you where they’re set. Somewheresville, U.S.A. But this one makes it important.

I’ll admit, I’m usually really conscious about the use of colour on television and in movies. I probably talk about it too much, but it fascinates me. The continue to use it on this show, highlighting those “overlap” sequences where two points of view converge. It highlights the sequences without setting up a big neon flashing sign, and it’s appreciated.

I remember from my youth that Donnie Wahlberg is left-handed. That’s incidental, but I found it interesting and funny that the first time we see him in this show, he’s writing something down.

The acting, in general, is exceptional (and I write this having seen the first three episodes already, so it’s beyond a first impression). I’ve watched a lot of tv so far this season, even more than average for me, and these are some of the best performances I’ve seen — complex and nuanced and never overblown. I believe in what I’m watching, believe in the emotions of the people. And appreciate that not everyone is young and beautiful. I would even go so far as to put it on par with Homicide: Live on the Street for me, though only time will tell if that comparison holds up. i do hope so.

So there was a wedding, and everything surrounding a wedding, and I got awfully behind. Much to say, so I’m going to start at the most recent and work backwards.

The fourth season premiere of Angel aired locally last night, a lovely birthday present for me. Like a lot of people, I was getting more and more disappointed in the series as last season wore on. And while watching Angel sink to the bottom of the sea was cool visual, the whole plotline leading up to that lost me, more often than not. And let’s just not even start on Cordelia, who kicked ass getting her demonhood and is a lousy higher power. I mean, Cordelia?!

But I digress.

This season, it started out right. Wesley, who has truly become the badass he wanted to be in the first season, is my new hero. And I’m even not missing Doyle so much anymore. I love how this show doesn’t feel the need to make its heroes pure and without fault and vice. Wesley is a hero, and he’s sleeping with the enemy, and who knows what’s going to come of that, but I hope it’s something.

Fred and Gunn — individually, I like both characters. I love Fred when she’s being a geek and I love Gunn when he’s being … Gunn. But seeing the two of them in this picture of demon-fighting domesticity, bringing up baby, is just wrong. The whole dynamic was just off off off. You have some great characters here, play up their strengths, don’t suppress them to fit them into your plot. Rewrite the scene — it could have still worked without turning them into pod people.

And now to Angel himself. I really like how the madness and rescue and recovery were handled. There wasn’t anything where I wanted to say “Oh, as if.” Meaning, of course, it worked withing the logical boundaries of the character and the show, not that I expect to go out to the water’s edge and see a vampire welded into a coffin being pulled out. We knew that he would have had to be rescued, in order for the show to go on, but we didn’t know how or by who and I’m really pleased with the direction they chose to go in this particular part of the show.

Normally I try not to read anyone else’s comments before talking about a show, but I happened to in this case, mostly because I get it three days after it airs in the U.S. And so I want to add that I agree with what almost everyone else has said — he should have killed Justine. Not only because you know she’s gonna be coming back but because I just don’t like her. She’s very one-dimensional and while I can appreciate the horror of a single-minded villain (T2 comes to mind. So does Les Miserables, for that matter.) it doesn’t work in this case. I don’t buy her justification for what she does and I don’t buy that she can’t be at all swayed by the facts in front of her face. I’m not sure if it’s the writing or the acting or the set-up, but now.

That’s how I felt about the whole Holtz arc, though, so take that for what it’s worth. I think I’d be happiest if that whole thing just went away — Justine and Connor included. Then I’d have my show all the way back again.

Somehow the very existence of this show managed to slip entirely under my new-season radar. I wouldn’t even have caught it if it hadn’t been for the fact that I called up the online TV listings to see what time I would be getting Buffy, and saw it was the alternative to me sitting through yet another season of ER.

It would have been a shame if I’d missed it. Speaking as objectively as I’m able, I think this is the best new show I’ve seen this year.

While the names of the characters never really registered with me (certainly not an uncommon thing, with me) I was still thinking about the show and the case it presented long after it was over. In the vein of Law & Order, the original, the main characters are important, but the focus of the show wasn’t on them, it was on the missing person they were trying to find. Procedural dramas are nothing new, but this one really worked for me.

The show follows the process the Missing Persons Squad of the FBI, from notification of the disappearance to the ultimate outcome. What struck me most about the show was the pace it went at, jumping from lead to lead as the investigators quickly developed scenarios around each of how the disappearance may have taken place. In another show, the “flashbacks” used to visualize these scenarios might have slowed the pace down but in this one they served as a kind of shorthand, allowing us to jump right into the next lead without having to slow down for explanations.

I like shows about smart characters, and shows that don’t underestimate their audience. This one expected you — or challenged you — to keep up with the thought processes of the investigators as they raced against time (and they stress that in a missing persons case it really is a race against time) to find the missing persons before they’re dead or gone forever.

I’ll definitely be tuning in for the next ride.

The trick to watching the new season’s crops of medical/crime/court dramas is to go in with rock-bottom expectations. Because let’s face it, nine times out of ten they’re going to be retreads, or retreads of retreads, and the best we can hope for is that they will be entertaining retreads.

So yes, MDs is a classic retread, but it kept me watching. For now.

I probably would have skipped this one entirely if it hadn’t been for a man named John Hannah. Who I love to pieces and would watch in just about any shit show, right up to the day it was cancelled. (Which may well be what I’m doing right now.) I can be honest about it and say without shame that I can be hooked by a name I know just as much as I can be hooked but a good, well, hook.

To the premise. (Stop me if you’ve heard this one. Or actually, don’t.) A couple of maverick doctors are bucking the system to see that the patients matter more than the rules and more than the money. The comparisons to M*A*S*H were being made before the ink was dry on the press release. And the’re absolutely warranted, though this is no M*A*S*H. The humour is often thin, the characters are — so far — pretty two-dimensional and the city hospital setting is already way overused on my television.

We have our cast of cliched characters — the new, fresh-faced intern, the stony nurse, the alternately helping and hindering supporting cast, the hospital administrator who has no business being in a hospital, the ex-wife who can’t handle the doctor husband. There’s not much more than that to them right now, and though I’ll be the first to admit it’s hard to build a cast of well-rounded characters in an hour-long pilot, most people manage to do a better job than this.

What does hold up to comparison are the two leads — William Fichtner and John Hannah. They are the saving grace of this show, and may manage to hold it above water until it finds its own footing.

This is one of those shows that I was determined to make up my own mind about, and not be swayed by the legions of disenchanted Joss fans who were drifting over from Buffy and Angel. Of course it was impossible to escape their influence, but I’d like to think that what they said didn’t have much of an effect on how I felt in the end about the pilot episode of Firefly.

Of course, I’m a bit of a disenchanged Angel fan myself, and I won’t say that didn’t.

The show starts out with a monologue giving enough backstory to the universe that we know why things are the way they are. And despite my natural aversion to that sort of thing, I appreciated it — as long as it’s a one-time thing. Because that’s not the kind of thing I need to hear week after week (after week after week). Good visuals with it, too. I could stand those visuals under a credit sequence without the voiceover, actually.

Moving right alone, we go into the inevitable introduction of the characters. Which was clumsy and obvious, but could have been worse. The problem is trying to cram in all of the main characters, and then get a plot going, and then wrap it up all in one hour. There’s a very good reason why pilots of SF, large-cast series are two hours, and it’s not just creative indulgence. The good news is, I like just about all of them so far. And I did appreciate that we moved into the plot so quickly, even if it meant that the introductions were clumsier than they could have been otherwise.

And so I’ll say now that I really liked this. I’d heard that it was a space western but hell, Star Wars was a space western, too. I thought it was just going to be a metaphoric kind of thing. But no — the old west oozed out of every aspect of this show, from the visuals — the dustiness and the colours — to the logistics — the train robbery and the gun holsters — to the music, which was twangy all the way. Before this I would have said that I don’t particularly like westerns, but the SF aspects of this make it for me.

There were some other choice details that I liked. First of all, there are no aliens. And there will be no aliens, or so says the creator. (Should I capitalize that? The Creator. The Joss.) Without aliens, I think we’re going to see a different kind of space-set show than we’re used to, and that appeals to me. Also, I loved the language-droppings. They didn’t make any attempt to subtitle what was going on, the different languages — I’m guessing it was a mishmash of current languages — was just a natural part of communications.

I know what to expect from Joss Whedon because I know Buffy and I know Angel and I know the kinds of characters he likes to create. And there was some of that here, some of the wit that I love. There were a few fabulous moments (“Is his job open, then?” with the Sherriff, and the money scene at the end) but I wanted more of it. I wanted crackling dialogue. Now that the exposition episode is out of the way, maybe we’ll get more of that next week.

And damn did I love when that guy got sucked into the engine. I’m a sick, sick bastard.

I hadn’t really planned to watch this particular show, but it came on after Firefly and I’d heard of it and the premise seemed intriguing. And it was nice going into a show blind, having no idea what to expect. So I left the tape running and figured I’d see what would come of it.

Turns out, I liked it, more or less. Who knew? Sure, it had its problems and its opening night jitters and its bad casting choices, but what new show doesn’t? Like most (with a few notable exceptions that you’ll probably never hear about here, mostly ill-conceived sitcoms) I’ll at least give it a few episodes before I make a final call.

The episode didn’t quite come together for me, which I think in a lot of ways was intentional. He doesn’t know who he is, he doesn’t know where he came from, therefore the audience doesn’t either. John Doe appeared into the world out of nowhere, knowing all kinds of trivial things for who knows what reason, but nothing about himself. It’s an interesting set-up, to be sure. For someone like me, anyway, who likes that sort of thing.

It does come across as a little gimmicky as well, with him rattling off obscure facts at every opportunity — not something I can see going away any time soon — and showing flashes of how he sees everything in black and white, except when it’s important. The thing is, though, that both of those things worked for me. Little pseudo-intellectual me likes trivia, and people who can spout it off at a moment’s notice. And visually, the black and white bits were really striking, really crisp.

The biggest problem I think I had, though, was with the lead actor. I just could not get into his performance, everything seemed to be a little bit off to me. The delivery of the lines didn’t ring true (though admittedly there were a few real clunkers of lines) the facial expressions were strange, and the intensity he had at all times just seemed … well, wrong. I’m not sure I’m gonna warm to him. I’m going to have to see.

So overall it was interesting, but uneven. Again, pretty typical for a pilot episode — it’s hard to think of too many outstanding pilots, even for shows that turn out to be phenomenal. I’m holding out hope it’ll grow into itself.

Is it wrong that I giggled at the Emerald Cove reference? (Careful, your pop roots are showing.)

It’s entirely possible that I’m the only person watching this show who is not interested in getting the money (I’m not even sure I can) and am only mildly interested in solving the mystery. I’m guessing, however, that this is gonna be the most taped show in America this season, with legions of fans scouring the episodes for clues. They started doing it when the commercials started airing over a month ago, and it can only escalate from here.

It’s my misfortune that I’m watching it as a drama/adventure, though, because it’s certainly being filmed as a contest.

This is not to say that it’s bad, no. It’s certainly interesting and has some engaging characters — Jim in particular; who knew I had a preference for tightasses? — but when every bit of dialogue, flash of a computer screen and even every gesture can be a clue as to the whereabouts of the money, the build and flow of a traditional television narrative is sacrificed. Your eyes are drawn to the potential clues, rather than to the storyline.

It helps that they’re playing up some of the obvious bits for their camp value, adding very pointed camera zooms and cheesy music. (Case in point, the warning about the north wing.) I’m hoping at least some of these things are red herrings or it’ll be just no fun at all. It might actually be just as much fun watching people trying to solve it as it would have been to solve it myself.

It’s definitely got a quirkiness to it, but I can’t help but feel that it’s a little forced and a little awkward. With any luck that’ll smooth out some in the next few weeks and everything settles into place. The thing about being quirky is you can’t really doing it halfway. Either you really go for it and tie everything together, or you play the thing straight. Playing it straight and dramatic and inserting random bits of quirk just doesn’t seem to work.

It was good enough to keep me watching for now. It remains to be seen if it’ll keep me going right through to the end.