Being both weak-willed and hard up for cash, I allowed myself to be persuaded one summer in high school to pursue a seasonal position as a door-to-door salesman. A friend dragged me to a meeting at an office building a couple miles from my house, where we filled out applications and waited. We were led down a narrow, low-ceilinged hall that smelled like the '70s to a tiny conference room where a few other people, also applicants, were sitting around a table. The head of the small company came in and told us we'd be selling home security systems; as he talked, three or four of the eight or so applicants drifted out, though my friend and I, too dumb to leave and too fascinated by the whole experience, stayed. Other salesmen came in and joined the presentation; one of them was a jerk about 26 years old who disagreed with me when I voiced the opinion that people could always so no to what we were selling. He enlisted me in a role-playing exercise, where he tried to "sell" me while I kept refusing. He eventually said, "Your family's safety isn't worth a few dollars a day?" And I said, "Not right now, it's not." He said my response wasn't reasonable. I don't know where that guy is now, but I hope he's stuck in a dead-end sales job and weighing his suicide options.

Anyway, my friend and I actually went on a ride-along with these guys the next day, and it's only the fact that we were both strapping young males that probably kept us from getting assaulted in all kinds of heinous ways. These guys must have been pretty desperate to build their sales force, too, since there's no way a pale, sweaty, weak-voiced high schooler is going to close the deal on a stranger's porch; I couldn't sell a candy bar, so intruder alert systems were definitely out of my league.

Anyway:

The best part of the whole stupid ordeal was that first awkward meeting when we filled out applications. We were there for quite a while, and they ordered pizza for me, my friend, and the two or three other people who were dumb enough to stay. I'd noticed the secretary on my way in: Cute in an adult way. So when the pizza arrived, the oldest salesman there (think Shelly "The Machine" Levine) took some pizza out to her. Upon his return, the boss inquired, "Did you give her a slice?" And the old man grinned a little, mimed a humping gesture, and said, "Oh yeah, I gave her a slice."

And that's when I realized I'd rather swallow a knife than be a salesman.

Based on a few recommendations, and the fact that it's from Bryan Fuller with Tim Minear listed as executive producer, and that I can't seem to buy enough canceled TV shows on DVD, I picked up Wonderfalls a little while ago and worked through all 13 episodes in a week or so.

It's no Dead Like Me, which is kind of like Six Feet Under without the pretension, but Wonderfalls is still worth the time. It follows the exploits of a sardonic 24-year-old girl named Jaye, who works in a Niagara Falls gift shop and hears voices from small fake animals who counsel her to perform random acts that usually wind up helping people.

"Hold on, now," I can hear you all saying. "That's a chick. Is this a chick show? Is this a show about chicks with feelings? Is this a quirky comedy? Does the chick have supernatural powers with which she fights the forces of darkness? If the answer to any of these is 'yes,' I'm walking, okay? I'm out."

To which I should say, shut up. If you really can't handle anything even mildly different than Dr. McDreamy or whatever pile of crap Ray Romano is bound to release upon us soon, then this show isn't for you. It's not brilliant, but there are some genuinely well-made moments here. After only a few minutes, it's easy to see why only 4 episodes ever made it to air. The show would have been better off on a premium cable network, but even there, things are tough; Fuller's Dead Like Me only lasted two seasons on Showtime.

I get that maybe my synopsis maybe isn't that clear, but the show's worth watching, anyway. Add it to your queue, or keep an eye out for a used set. With only 13 episodes, it exists as a kind of stand-alone story or miniseries, neither completely open-ended nor perfectly contained. Just see it, okay?