I didn’t buy the box set. But I did rent it from Netflix after reading a brief description of it. It sounded totally off the wall and kooky, something right up my alley. And it is. And I love it. And I’m sad Fox cancelled it, but hey, we’re talking about Fox here. Those bastards. At least I was able to discover it and see the first and only season.

Wonderfalls is a quirky little show that takes place in Niagara Falls. The story revolves around a girl named Jaye Tyler, an apathetic college graduate who wants to have as little responsibilities as possible. She lives in a trailer park away from the rest of her successful family and works at the souvenir shop at Niagara Falls as a clerk. One day, a tourist buys a souvenir from a vending machine that makes wax lions. The machine produces a fucked up lion and the woman demands her money back. This is when the wax lion speaks to Jaye and tells her not give the money back. Jaye, thinking she is losing her mind, gives the woman her money back. This starts a whole series of things that the wax lion (among other items in the shop) tell her to do. She tries very hard to refuse, but they have a special way to make her comply (like, singing and keeping her up all night). They objects tell her to do things, she doesn’t know why, and in the process she discovers that the things she’s been doing has been helping people. Though the things she does seem to have no rhyme or reason and she follows them, there is always a reason that you don’t learn until later.

The writing and the actors on this show are refreshing. You just don’t see shows like this very often, especially amidst the whirlwind of reality shows asking you to vote for singers, pick briefcases to make a deal, and to swap wives. My description doesn’t really do the show justice, but it's fun, quirky, funny, and original. If you’ve got Netflix, I recommend adding it to your list for a few nights of fun entertainment. I want to own the box set one of these days so I can enjoy it again and force it upon others.