Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #33143 in DVD
• Released on: 2005-02-01
• Aspect ratio: 1.78:1
• Formats: Closed-captioned, Colour, Dolby, Dubbed, DVD-Video, Full Screen, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC
• Original language: English
• Subtitled in: English, Spanish
• Dubbed in: English
• Number of discs: 3
• Dimensions: 1.00 pounds
• Running time: 570 minutes

Customer Reviews

Wonderful Wonderfalls
A superb, quirky, inventive piece of television, this unjustly cancelled gem is worthy of a place in any discerning viewer's DVD collection. Wonderfalls details the trials and tribulations of Jaye Tyler (the sublime Caroline Dhavernas), a philosophy graduate wasting her life in a Niagra Falls gift shop that gives its name to the title of the show. Jaye's life plods on, drinking with her friend Mahandra, managing with her go-getting family until one day a defective toy, wax lion starts talking to her. After this one inanimate animal object after another gives Jaye abstract advice sending her on a series of adventures that see her begin to make progress in her life and touching those around her. Parts of this may sound clichéd but honestly, you've never seen anything quite as unique and original as this. Wonderfalls is simply a delight to watch, from the pitch-perfect acting to the superb writing, nothing is amiss. An absolute must buy.

Wonder-fall
"Wonderfalls" was one of those outstanding cult shows that burn bright and briefly -- it lasted only four episodes before being yanked, with nine more as yet unaired. Now fans of this cult show are rewarded with the full series, in all its witty, quirky glory.

Twentysomething Jaye Tyler (Caroline Dhavernas) is an underachieving slacker. She has a philosophy degree from Brown University, but now works as a shopgirl at Niagara Falls and lives in a trailer. Needless to say, her ultra-successful family finds this galling and disturbing, even though they themselves are far from the Cleaver clan -- her sister Sharon (Katie Finneran) is a lesbian, her parents are splitting, and her brother is just a weirdo.

Then weirder things happen to Jaye. Suddenly toys are talking to her, and prompting her to help the people around her -- returning purses, dealing with ghosts, helping an old enemy from high school, and deal with a long-dead Indian girl. Following the instructions of her "muses," Jaye begins to learn a few things about other people, and the quality of kindness.

It's an unusual idea for a TV show -- an embittered young woman hears "muses" talking to her, including a stuffed lizard, lawn flamingos and a brass monkey. Most people would just check themselves into a padded cell, but that doesn't make for scintillating TV watching. So instead, it becomes a deeply warped inspirational series.

What sets it apart from other series is the surreal touch and wicked sense of humor. It's never made clear why Jaye hears toys and bookends talking cryptically to her -- is it God? Aliens? Her own mind? Pantheistic souls in everything? Nothing is made specific, which makes it all the weirder and more intriguing -- especially since the toys give her advice even when she doesn't want it.

And the humor can be beyond weird, but is always funny, such as Jaye arguing with a cow creamer (shades of P.G. Wodehouse?) that she doesn't want a pancake. Another example is a solemn, intense moment after she scatters a deceased person's ashes.... and promptly gets fined for littering. The dialogue is witty and well-written -- not in a laugh track way, but in a smile-and-chuckle-softly way.

Caroline Dhavernas does a phenomenal job as Jaye. She narrowly avoids the sullen teen/twentysomething cliche, making Jaye's dissatisfaction with her family and life seem realistic. She can be nasty and incisive and angsty, but can also be sweet and even vulnerable. The supporting cast, such as nice-guy bartender Eric (Tyron Leitso) and Jaye's bizarro overachiever family, are surprisingly well-rounded for such quirky characters.

"Wonderfalls" is destined to remain a cult hit -- delicate, weird and thoroughly original. It didn't last long, but now everyone can enjoy what there was of it. Absolutely wonder-fall.

"Are you the evil cow?"
I don't wish to sound harsh but whoever cancelled this needs a slapping. I watch a lot of TV of many varying degrees of quality (Charmed take note) but this is the first time I've purchased DVDs of a cancelled show based on reputation alone. A friend drew my attentions to the tireless efforts of the savewonderfalls.com website and the way they and the creators of the show talked about it had me intrigued. Suffice to say, it was a good risk to take, this is my favourite ever television show. Wonderfalls as a premise does sound a little strange (over educated and unemployable graduate working in retail store gets told to do things by small cuddly bears and smush faced lions... thankfully it is the damn funniest, most heartbreaking (and warming) peice of art (there I said it, TV can be art) I'v ever encountered. The delivery of the show feels (at least to me) like somewhere between My So Called Life and Dead Like Me. If you could give more than five stars I would. I have a favourite new missanthrope and her name is Jaye Tyler.