And once again, Buffy is cited as the paradigm for all these new helping-the-helpless tv shows.

wren | March 19, 18:55 CET

I think this reviewer didn't get it. Or only had the pilot to go on, maybe.

Allyson | March 19, 19:07 CET

Neal:

Dude. You SO missed the point.

"Slacker" Jaye is the starting point of the series, not the point itself. The concept of WF is to show how Jaye reconnects with the universe, the world, her family and herself (not necessarily in that order). Maybe she went out to help people a little too quickly for your taste, but I take that as a necessary bit of narrative shorthand. We couldn't have three episodes of Jaye tossing chatty wax lions and teddy bears into the Falls, muttering "Whatever, man," before the cumulative impact of the visitations finally sank in.

They had to get the girl going, you know?

cjl | March 19, 19:37 CET

On a side note; last nights ratings for Wonderfalls Thurs night encore - wow - hit the same numbers as it's first airing ... eek not a good sign (would have expected perhaps a bit higher maybe even a tenth of a point) ... the critically acclaimed series seems to be swiftly moving to the critical list of soon to be axed shows. If FOX is reall behind the show maybe it will be merciful and shelve it after a month and wait for the summer schedule to hit and air it in a early weekday time slot, the way it did the OC.

Last Fridays numbers : FOX's "Wonderfalls" debuted to a 3.4/6 and a 2.0 rating among adults 18-49.

Thursday nights numbers : "Wonderfalls" encore (households: 3.4/6; adults 18-49: 2.0)

PS - Tru and Wonderfalls were beat out by WWE wrestling on UPN how sad is that.

RavenU | March 20, 05:35 CET

It's a good sign. Fox was cheerfully optimistic. The deal is that they lost a miniscule amount of its lead-in, and held.

That's a huge, huge deal.

It kept the audience, which meant that no one flipped, they were intrigued enough to stay to see the end. Firefly always lost an enormous portion at the half. That's what ultimately killed it so soon.

What we don't know (and what I intend to find out) is who Fox sold, and what ratings they promised. They get a huge chunk of a key demo, which is also optimistic.

Wonderfalls only has to go up a tiny bit, or hold, tonight, to keep Fox optimistic. If it stays this level by the third ep, that's when I'll sock away some cash for the DVDs.

What this all means is that folks like me (and anyone else with the Minear Love) need to shill a little harder and get word out to the masses.

Also? The chameleon in tonight's ep was voiced by Tim. Which makes me happy.

Allyson | March 20, 07:32 CET