Whedonesque : Comments on 3171 : Wonderfalls to fill the Buffy Vacuum

This show sounds great and I can't wait to check it out. And of course, all of these shows were inspired by the success of BtVS. There's just no question about that.

Firefly Flanatic | March 04, 21:43 CET

"People need a little more right now than reality shows.

Too true. I am looking forward to this show. Too bad it is on friday nights.

RootBoy42 | March 04, 21:49 CET

Does anyone watch Joan of Arcadia? I haven't seen even a single second of it. I'm strangely resistant to it. Maybe it's what I think will be the religious overtones, which can make an agnostic like me uncomfortable at times. But I'm certainly willing to have my eyes opened as to Joan's quality and I'll give it a look see if enough of you Whedonesque people say I should check it out.

Yes, I am desperately casting around here for something to watch on tv once Angel is gone. I can't wait for Wonderfalls. That's my number one pleasure to be televisually, I've already decided. Sight unseen! I usually don't watch much tv anyway so I don't need a slew of new shows to watch. But boy will I feel the Angel void.

phlebotinin | March 04, 21:50 CET

Yes, I love Joan of Arcadia -- which scares me because that surely means it will be canned. I was resistant to it as well (I think the notion of "Touched by an Angel: The Teen Years" had me scared). But I feel like Joan does a good job of staying out of the overtly preachy realm while still having something good to say.

And a big Wonderfalls "yay!" Calendar marked and all that. It's the only reason I'd tune in to FOX again after Firefly.

chasa | March 04, 21:58 CET

Joan is actually really very good. Also good is Nip/Tuck. The OC is brilliantly funny.

I have an email from one of the producers of Wonderfalls with a flyer attached, asking people to sort of street team and forward to everyone they know.

Need to email Prolific so not to self-post. Blargh. Too. Much. To. Do. Today.

Allyson | March 04, 21:59 CET

Cool, Allyson. I'll forward the hell out of the Wonderfalls flyer. Also, just wanted to say, you must have been mighty pleased that you were described as "yamma mamma" by the ME PTB on the Bronze for all the world to read! I'd be all Cloud Niney if someone said that about me in such a forum.

phlebotinin | March 04, 22:02 CET

Tim said I was hot in the same night. Yeah. I saved those posts for when I need an ego boost. ;-)

Allyson | March 04, 22:15 CET

I think if Tim Minear told me I looked hot I'd die right away -- out of sheer, basking joy. (I'd also triple archive all the Bronze posts in case an earthquake, fire, ruinous power surge and breakdown of computers worldwide happened on the same night. Right on, Allyson. Continue to go forth and be a hot yamma mamma. And I'll try my best not to be insanely jealous. :)

phlebotinin | March 04, 22:23 CET

i wish i was a hot yamma mamma....it may help if i knew what one was but meh...lol

willowzbitch | March 04, 22:36 CET

I got corrected by Tim Minear once, does that count :)?

Simon | March 04, 22:42 CET

You bet it does. I'd loooooove to be corrected by Tim Minear. It means he knows you're alive. Can you tell us what you were corrected on?

Jealousy mounting dangerously here. Must find a chill pill to take. :)

phlebotinin | March 04, 22:46 CET

I think it depends upon his method of correction, Simon ;) Was there any type of...implement involved?

chasa | March 04, 22:49 CET

I believe JOAN has been renewed for next year (it's been mentioned as a bright spot for Sony, the studio who produces it). I enjoyed the first 1/2 season a lot -- very tight writing; but it's been considerably more variable since January.

Last week's episode (Joan is cellphone-photoed in her underwear) was, by far, the worst ever. Might have been a new writer...

bookrats | March 04, 22:51 CET

Oh I posted something about Wonderfalls last year on the ASSB and he corrected me. Obviously he doesn't know me from adam but it was nice, I was buzzing for hours. There's a mention of it here.

Simon | March 04, 22:56 CET

Cool, Simon! I'd be buzzing for hours, too. It's a nice little correction from Tim. The fact that he read through your post enough to correct (in a nice way, to boot) is something else. The only way I wouldn't be buzzing is if an ME person said they'd want to strike me dead. That'd bum me out a tad. Heh.

phlebotinin | March 04, 22:59 CET

Say, hot yammma mam- uh, Allyson are you, what was it 'veggiesomething'? I remember that person put the evening's summary on the net with pics and quotes and everything. Don't want to pry, just wondering. If it's none of my beeswax, just tell me.

veggiebelle? Was that it?

EdDantes | March 04, 23:00 CET

I'm not veggiebelle, no. But she said some lovely things about the party and is also pretty damn hot. I'm always Allyson, wherever I go, except on LiveJournal where my name was taken (paperdol) and at TWoP where my name was also taken (merciless).

Allyson | March 04, 23:03 CET

Who are these writer people you all are speaking of?

Caroline | March 04, 23:13 CET

Steve DeKnight and Tim Minear?

Allyson | March 04, 23:21 CET

Sorry, I was trying to be funny. Obviously without much success.

Caroline | March 04, 23:46 CET

Obviously Whedonesque needs a sarcastic font. Let's add that to Prol's To-Do list :-)

wren | March 05, 00:30 CET

we could use the fark.com method, ie slash your post at the end and add the tone of voice

/contempletive

RootBoy42 | March 05, 00:33 CET

What a classic article though.

Wonderfalls is great because it stars a canadian and the falls show the much nicer Canadian side and by the way did we mention Canada yet? :)

/jokingly

Mort | March 05, 01:17 CET

Fark takes over Whedonesque. France surrenders.

/snarky

wren | March 05, 01:34 CET

I hate Joss Whedon.

/lying

ringworm | March 05, 01:36 CET

I only ever caught one ep of Joan - the one where she doesn't get to go see the White Stripes with this guy she likes because god told her to stick with her schedule with these little kids.
I watched that one because daddy Russ Tamblyn was making a guest appearance (I'm a Peaks Freak).

Was that one particularly off or do I just not like the show? Mr. melsta really hated it. I just disliked it.

Not that I'm prejudging Wonderfalls on that basis. Really looking forward to Wonderfalls. Just curious about JoA.

melsta | March 05, 02:05 CET

Melsta: I started watching Joan because Russ Tamblyn's daughter was on it at the beginning of the season. I'm a Twin Peaks fan too and I know Russ dropped a ton of acid in the sixties so I wanted to see what his offspring would be like. The show is incredibly uneven, cutesy, creepy and ultra-violent at times. I like it but I don't know why.

vpecoraro | March 05, 03:37 CET

I would watch JoA but I can't get good enough reception on that channel. I think I saw one episode, a rerun of the pilot, and I liked it so I am disappointed I can't watch it anymore.

electricspacegirl | March 05, 03:42 CET

Note: Since we're talking about Joan of Arcadia, before Amber Tamblyn got this role, She was in the otherwise forgettable All the Way as Dawn's friend (can't think of her name now). I cannot wait for Wonderfalls, my vcr is set already!

tvmoobunny | March 05, 03:45 CET

The friend's name was Janice.

lalaa | March 05, 04:47 CET

Ooh -- Cool trivia item tvmoobunny & lalaa!

Thanks vpecoraro, you've confirmed my impressions.
As for liking it without knowing why, I think we've all been there with some show or other. ;-)
Heck, not just shows -- songs, people, religions...

[ edited by melsta on 2004-03-05 02:53 ]

melsta | March 05, 04:53 CET

thank you :). The scary thing was I knew that info without going to IMDB.

tvmoobunny | March 05, 05:09 CET

The only one I know is that Dawn's friend in The Body is now on Bernie Mac. She said "in lieu of" very little.

Tangent alert: Anyone else puzzled by Lorne's use of "in lieu of" in last week's Angel? Surely he meant to say "à propos of" absolutely nothing. But such a glaring error in a JOSS ep.? I can't even conceive of it.

melsta | March 05, 05:35 CET

Yeah, thanks melsta. That line totally bugged me. I was wondering if I missed a word in there or something. It didn't make any sense.

I was wondering if Amber Tamblyn was Russ Tamblyn's daughter. Though I can't remember now where I saw her name recently. I didn't know there were any Russ Tamblyn fans. The only things I know him from are "Twin Peaks" and "West Side Story"--though he was fabulous in both. Actually I thought it was really funny that both Russ Tamblyn and Richard Beymer were in TP.

marmoset | March 05, 06:31 CET

Glad I wasn't the only one, stakeholder.

I thought it was really funny that both Russ Tamblyn and Richard Beymer were in TP.
It was. And then Warren Frost (Dr. Hayward) and Grace Zabriskie (Mrs. Palmer) ended up husband and wife on Seinfeld. Small world.

(OK, so this is my night for tenuous connections.)

melsta | March 05, 06:56 CET

As long as we're doing a six degrees type chain from Buffy to Joan of Arc to Twin Peaks to Seinfeld, let's tie Seinfeld back to Buffy: Mark Metcalf, who played the Maestro in Seinfeld, played The Master in Buffy. I know, I know, this is tired old obvious news but I couldn't help compulsively bringing things full circle again.

I've always loved the fact that "Maestro" means "Master." Coincidence? Most certainly not!

phlebotinin | March 05, 07:18 CET

I watch Joan of Arcadia and love it. I think it's a great show but agree that the last episode aired was it's worst. It kind of reminds me of Buffy but with not as good writing. Amber Tamblyn has a lot of charm and the cast is really good together. I kind of feel that Joan is in a similar position like Buffy was that she has a secret that no one knows about (and in her case it really is no one) and that she has to do a lot of stuff she doesn't want to do. The show doesn't always tie things up in a nice little bow in the end. I don't find it particularly religious,which is weird to say because God gives her assignments but that's my take. God comes across as being believable and for all religions and cracks jokes about "where do you people come up with these things" in reference to Joan asking if she'll burn in Hell if she says no.

I also loved Nip/Tuck and can't wait until it's back on the air. It is an extremely unique show and really hard to explain. I just hope the second season is as good as the first.

And I don't think there is any chance that JoA will be cancelled because it's getting rave reviews as the best new show on the air.

Firefly Flanatic | March 05, 07:26 CET

Ouch! I just saw that Seinfeld -- and I had no idea! I SO would have been watching/listening more carefully!

So I should maybe give JoA another shot, blwessels? OK. Esp. if daddy Russ will be in again some time. We'll see how it goes.

melsta | March 05, 07:42 CET

I watch JoA and like it most of the time. It's as secular as a show about God can possibly be. Sometimes I worry that it could easily teeter into the realm of Touched by an Angel, but so far they've stayed away from that. Besides- this God is really snarky! As long as God appears in the guises of moody goth kids and snerks at Joan, I'll be okay. There's also things like premarital sex involving Joan's older brother and so far they haven't preached against it (although he was a total dog last week). I don't think it's written well enough to reach its potential, but there's really nothing else to watch in that time slot.

I am looking forward to Wonderfalls waaaaay more than I probably should. I love the quirky premise and I love Tim Minear. With my luck, FOX will kill it out of the gate, but I'm sure I'll love it and obsess over it for as long as it's around.

lalaa | March 05, 07:44 CET

phlebotinin--I love that one. Actually, it is really funny to watch the eps with the Master once you know he was also the Maestro because you can totally recognize his voice. To me the scenes came across differently once I knew.

marmoset | March 05, 20:22 CET

Try watching Animal House and seeing that's the master. HAHA. But i never realized he was the maestro. But if you're going to do the degrees of separation with Buffy and Seinfeld. Saturday Night Live parodied Buffy as a Seinfeld episode, it was really funny.

tvmoobunny | March 05, 20:48 CET

I watch JofA too. I am also agnostic and not exactly organized religion friendly. Like lalaa I also love that God is snarky.

Favourite lines (probably not 100% accurate)

Joan: So if you are God show me a miracle
teenage hunk god points at a tree
Joan: So?
God: You make one

God says something to Joan
Joan: Are you being snippy with me?
God: You understand snippy

I thought this would be nauseatingly sweet like Touched by an Angel - no toothache so far.

redfern | March 05, 22:19 CET

March 04 2004