Sunday, March 28, 2004

Because I am, deep down, a nice person...

Here is an entry for those of you who don't care/can't help with my computer traumas. (If you can help, though, I beg you to scroll down.) Of course, if you are Kirk, you disagree with everything I am about to say, so you might want to just keep scrolling or go away...

I am just loving Wonder Falls. I am not so very devoted to the Buffyverse that I've watched every show that involved Buffy alumni. I watched Firefly because Whedon's first two shows were pretty fine and because I liked the premise, and I was not disappointed. Well, not by the show - Fox made me see red over their treatment of the series. I never watched Jake 2.0 because as much as I liked David Greenwalt, the show had two major strikes against it - it was on against Angel and its producers had failed to give my friend Sean a writing job (though that is just as well, because I love Everwood, which he currently works for). I did watch Greenwalt's previous project, Miracles - see Firefly, replace Fox with ABC. I haven't watched any of the made-for-TV movies starring assorted ex-cast members, because they were all on cable, which we don't have. I haven't watched Miss Match, because Charisma Carpenter may be neat but I never did figure out when the show aired, and anyway I'm pretty sure it's on Fridays, which is not a good day of the week for me to remember to turn on the TV.

We missed at least two episodes of Firefly, which aired on Friday nights, because we just forgot. I didn't catch the pilot of Wonder Falls because...well, I don't remember if we were out or just didn't remember it was on - that whole Friday thing - but it re-aired the following Thursday and we caught it and it was great.

The lead (Caroline something-or-other) is just so charismatic and believable. I don't feel for one second that she is some stereotype of my generation (the actress and I are almost exactly the same age, and I believe the character is meant to be about a year younger than me), and while I have the advantage of never having seen her in another role, I never remember that she is an actress while I am watching her.

The show is shot in Canada and it shows. Not specifically because it takes place on the "wrong" side of the falls, but because actors from Nero Wolfe keep showing up. This pleases me immensely.

I haven't recognized any of the writers' names yet, but they all write clever, snappy dialogue without making it seem unrealistic, and the plots have all been coherent and interesting so far. The absurdity of the premise becomes charming in the hands of the actors and writers. And I recognized a Minear-ism in this past week's dialogue - he has either influenced the writers or taken a pass at the scripts. Either way, I approve. So far, Firefly's "The Message" is the only Minear-penned script I've hated, and I think the blame for that one lies with Whedon.

This coming week's episode airs on Thursday, which either means that Fox is fucking around another show I love or trying to give it a better chance. Either way, I am going to try my damnedest to remember to watch it.