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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (March 30, 2004)
INTERTAINMENT HE BATTALION Tuesday, March , 2004 29, UCH “Wonderfalls” Thursdays 8 p.m. Fox Network “Wonderfalls” is the story of a woman who, with the help of an Iitside supernatural force, performs acts of kindness and helps J rangers to improve their lives. Does this new show from Fox sound I te “Touched By an Angel”? How about “Joan of Arcadia”? The difference between Jaye Tyler, “Wonderfalls”’ leading lady ' I faroline Dhavernas) and angels with an affinity for physical con- ^^1 ct or modem day martyrs is that Tyler doesn't want anything to do ■L liththe metaphysical or supernatural. Tyler is an overeducated, underqualified woman stuck in a ™ fj enial job as a cashier for a tourist shop at Niagara Falls. Not that | ne minds. In the pilot episode she remarks that her parents work I ird and are still dissatisfied with their lives. Tyler figures she can 1 “dissatisfied with her life by hardly working at all. HB9 Her life changes when a wax lion suddenly advises her not to B ve a customer her change back. Shocked, Tyler attempts to ignore elion and gives the customer her $5. Minutes later, the customer’s rse is stolen. Tyler discovers that she can hear voices. Whether ie voices are from God, Satan or who knows where, they all come om objects and knickknacks that are shaped like animals. The monkey statue in her psychiatrist’s office tells Tyler it loves r. A trio of synthetic representatives from the animal kingdom renades Tyler with a throaty rendition of “99 Bottles of Beer on e Wall.” Tyler discovers that if she does not follow the com- ands of her hallucinations, they will not stop talking, chatting id/or singing. The problem is the animals do not simply tell her to help people, icy use her as a vessel to set things in motion that will eventually id to happy endings. In the pilot, what starts off as an attempt to return the stolen purse the customer ends with her setting up the neighborhood UPS man /ith a nurse. The reason the UPS man was in the hospital? Tyler ad set up a date between the delivery man and her own lesbian sis- lordingikb ;r. Due to a mishap involving an allergy to peanuts, the delivery nan is put in the hospital where he meets the new love of his life - fly iis nurse. Meanwhile, Tyler’s sister finds love of her own in the ^ JPS man's ex-wife. Twisting plots that begin in one spot and end ney andii ^ wa y f ew people would predict help drive the nature of the show, butflissii achepisode is a puzzle with audience members attempting to piece push ami j O oetherthc larger picture. tow. rail saves t | lc s i low from becoming preachy is the biting sense that isi Lfh umor j n the script. Clever dialogue and bizarre situation pieces dothett. ^reminiscent of early Tim Burton films. Each show hosts a cache Is politial Lf bizarre actors. Tyler’s WASP-like family attempts to help their often voti vayward member, but they are ultimately clueless. “Wonderfalls”’ production is highly original and creative, re, edua iach scene is edited so it appears to be emitted from a etherigts fiewmaster (a bright red goggle shaped toy in which slides are Americilirojected for viewers to behold). The acting is all highly watch- ible. Dhavernas’ performance as Tyler is a joy to watch. Imagine in adult version of MTV’s “Daria” and you will have Tyler, iwimming through life on the back of a giant life preserver con structed of sarcasm and cynicism. PAPA HO, and waiii and up In record I.S. ton “Wonderfalls” is a clever show with great potential. Expect future shows to continue in the fashion as Tyler, righting wrongs - protesting all the way. Hopefully, the larger mystery of the voices that torment Tyler will slowly be revealed as the series progresses. As long as the writing stays as top notch as it currently is and the actors and funky editing style continue to evolve and grow, “Wonderfalls” may easily become Fox’s best new show. - Robert Saucedo “Stephen King’s Kingdom Hospital” Wednesday at 9 pm Reading a Stephen King novel can be compared to being friends with a highly intelligent bipolar fifth-grader who watches too much TV. King has many great things to say and some very clever thoughts, but occasionally he’ll get caught up in spouting off need less amounts of profanity and unoriginal ideas. Part of the reason so many people have grown to love King’s literature is because of the higher ratio of cleverness in his books as opposed to trash. Unfortunately, When translating a Stephen King story to a visu al medium, perhaps the best part is left out, his voice, leaving only the trash behind for viewers to clean up. Whether it’s his use of word play or his interior dialogue. King’s narrative voice is the prime cut of his novels, not the ideas. Transferring his voice to screen has always given screenwriters a hard time. That’s why the promise of a 15-hour mini-series, ABC’s “Stephen King’s Kingdom Hospital,” has so much potential. Unfortunately, if “Kingdom Hospital” is going to live up to its potential, it's going to have to rise above the initial impressions left behind by the two- hour pilot. The series is a remake of the Danish mini-series “Ringet.” In the pilot, viewers are introduced to the doctors and patients of The Kingdom, Maine’s premier hospital. In traditional ghost story fash ion, the hospital is built upon the grounds of an ancient graveyard. Among the spirits haunting the hospital are the ghosts of a little girl and a seemingly vampire-like teenage boy. While ghosts haunt the state-of-the-art building, the really strange people are the people who work at the hospital. Ed Begley Jr., Andrew McCarthy and Bruce Davison play doc tors and surgeons with various personality quirks. From Begley’s Dr. Jesse James who’s more interested in promoting the facilities with buttons and stickers and separating patients with their check ing accounts than actually saving people, to Davison’s Dr. Stegman. an overtly angry surgeon who has recently taken lead of his fellow doctors, the staff is full of eccentric characters all played by talented actors. The real oddities though, are the fringe players such as Julian Richings who plays the nearly blind security guard who has a pen chant for talking to his German shepherd. Along for the ride are also two mentally retarded yet apparently omnipotent dishwashers who are seemingly telepathic and serve as a Greek chorus for the epic mini-series. Among the hospital’s patients, Jack Coleman plays a hit-and-run victim who is trapped in a coma throughout most of the pilot. In a scene that was obviously inspired by King’s own misfortune, artist Peter Rickman is hit by a van while jogging along a country road. Left for dead, he is confronted by a creepy giant anteater that taunts the paralyzed victim throughout his ordeal. Diane Ladd also appears as Sally Druse, a psychic who begins to sense the brewing trouble the hospital has in store for it. What exactly the trouble is has yet to be revealed. As of the pilot, it’s apparent the tectonic plate activity is a bit shakier then most other hospitals and one elevator has a tendency to get stuck in tran sit. What this has to do with the ghosts and ghouls that haunt the hospital will be revealed throughout the remainder of the series. An aspect of the mini-series that really carries through from Stephen King’s printed writing is the use of inner thoughts of ani mals and people to convey the general oddness of the hospital. Some examples are when Rickman lies bleeding at the edge of the road, a crow lands on his chest and the audience begins to hear the crow’s plans for eating Rickman's eyes. Rickman meanwhile has been resounding thought after thought of why nobody has seen him and stopped. With so much general weirdness going for it, “Kingdom Hospital” seems set to have an interesting run throughout the spring season. If director Craig R. Baxley lays off the fancy special effects and camera techniques long enough to work with Stephen King to bring an actual sense of suspense and horror once the series gets into high gear. While sheer quirkiness may bring a fresh smell to a stale television landscape that’s cluttered with an overload of reality, eccentricity can only last so long. 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