08:52 AM EST on Friday, March 12, 2004

BY ANDY SMITH
Journal Television Writer

FOX Caroline Dhavernas plays a tourist-shop clerk who listens to what inanimate objects are telling her on Wonderfalls.

Ever wonder what happens to philosophy majors from Brown?

On Fox's new show Wonderfalls, Brown grad Jaye Tyler (Caroline Dhavernas) becomes a cynical underachiever selling tacky souvenirs in Niagara Falls. If that's not bad enough, inanimate objects -- a wax lion, a brass monkey, a pink flamingo -- start giving her cryptic orders.

Rather than immediately checking into the nearest mental hospital, Tyler goes along, setting into motion a series of events with unforeseen consequences.

The orders usually force our heroine to become involved with other people's lives, whether she wants to or not. And she generally does not.

Wonderfalls, which airs tonight at 9, has obvious similarities to another Friday night show, CBS' Joan of Arcadia.

Both feature young women who receive supernatural messages, much to their exasperation. The messages have a hidden purpose that's (usually) revealed at the end of the show.

The primary difference is one of tone.

In Arcadia, Joan receives her messages from God, who appears to her in a variety of guises -- cute boy at school, little girl on the playground, telephone lineman.

The mood is more earnest on Joan of Arcadia than Wonderfalls. And the plot lines involving Joan's family tilt that program towards drama, not comedy. (Her father is a police chief, her brother has been paralyzed in a car accident.)

Wonderfalls, on the other hand, plays things more for laughs.

Jaye is the black sheep of her family -- her mom's a high-powered author, dad is a doctor, sister's a lawyer, and her brother is getting a doctorate in comparative religion. (One episode finds the siblings arguing over how many words each of them got in the cover blurb of mom's latest book.)

The exaggerated camera work -- lots of dizzying cuts and zooms -- reinforce the show's offbeat tone.

When Wonderfalls breaks for a commercial, the scene changes are designed to look as though they're coming from inside a tourist's plastic viewfinder.

The show has an acerbic wit and lots of pop-culture references. One episode, for example, pays tribute to the 1992 Bridget Fonda flick Single White Female.

Dhavernas manages the neat trick of making us care about a character who is deliberately alienated, defiant and sarcastic.

Part of that is because the people around her -- including her customers, boss and family -- give her plenty to be alienated, defiant and sarcastic about.

The other part is that there's a sweeter person lurking not far beneath Tyler's surface. That's most obvious in her banter with cute bartender Eric (Tyron Leitso), which threatens to become a romance if Tyler would let it.

Wonderfalls is a promising show, although its mood of hip whimsy is going to be hard to maintain. More threatening is the proximity of Joan of Arcadia, which is already a hit, on the same night.

While the two shows are different in mood, the basic ideas are pretty similar, and the show that got on the air first has a built-in advantage.