Wonder No More
So I was all set to do a piece on Fox’s charming Wonderfalls, in which I would have said that, while the show is hardly the Second Coming of Shining Televised Glory that the critics made it out to be, it was pretty darn good. A little too hyper, not quite funny enough for my tastes, but smart and surprising and blessedly free of sentiment. Also, star Caroline Dhavernas’ thousand-watt smile makes me all weak in the knees. But that’s beside the point. Anyway, I was going to say that, given enough time to find its legs, and find its audience, Wonderfalls could be a really great TV series.
But I won’t now, because Fox cancelled it. After four episodes. Three of which aired in what executive producer Tim Minear lovingly called “the Friday night death slot,” with the last competing against a couple of obscure, little-watched series called CSI and The Apprentice.
I wonder: do Fox executives throw newborn children into tanks full of hungry sharks, and then pretend to be shocked when the little tykes don’t survive?
The answer: Yes, probably. And then they pitch the whole thing as a new reality series.