4 out of 5

Created by: Matthew Baynton, Simon Farnaby, Martha Howe-Douglas, Jim Howick, Laurence Rickard, Ben Willbond

covers season 1

Housewife finds a portal in the cupboard that takes her to ‘Yonderland,’ a fantasy land with evil rulers and wise elders and castles and strange cultures and dragons and… puppets.  The team behind ‘Horrible Histories’ (hence all the creators) crafts a deliciously odd ‘family’ comedy, taking the general vibe of ‘Histories’ and applying it to an ongoing narrative.  Visually, this translates to a ‘Dark Crystal’ vibe, with cute and strange characters popping up all around Yonderland, seeking our housewife’s – Debbie’s – assistance, as some sacred tome or other tells of her coming as a savior of the land from a terrible evil.  Scriptwise, its a fun mix of pleasantly chuckly interactions that kids will enjoy, mining a lot of humor from how clueless (but generally friendly) the inhabitants of Yonderland are, and then a good dose of wordplay for our more mature viewers… and then a surprising amount of risque humor / conversation topics that, to me, is pretty plain to see.  I suppose some of it can fall into the category of toilet humor that can pass as kid fare, but some of it – while generally funny and occasionally hilarious – makes me curious how many people are actually watching this with their kids.

Most episodes are composites of Debbie solving several problems in Yonderland while maintaining the front, at home, of being the bored housewife (with the reasoning that explaining Yonderland will only make her seem insane), but what edges the show into something more than distraction is the way it does hold on to a couple general plotlines – Debbie struggling to determine whether or not her travels are distraction or actually meaningful, and then the approaching evil – generally represented by prince Negatus and his demons, forever scheming – and the way it doesn’t just toss out Debbie’s homelife.  While one of the conflicting elements of the show is figuring how to take her relationship with her husband (seems he’s played as half-dunderhead sometimes, which seems selling Debbie’s judgment awful short), he is an actual part of the show and the writers are mindful of reminding us that Debbie’s balancing time between two worlds.

The production design is generally pretty great: colorful, expressive, but not overwhelmingly kitsch.  Using what looks like a relatively minor budget, the puppets look great and move well, definitely becoming ‘real’ characters, and the sets all have the same sorta staged look, so it works for casting Yonderland in a particular light.

‘Yonderland’ is pure charm, with a good dose of laughs and goofs to make it much more than nostalgia viewing.  While the tone can get a little muddled sometimes, each episode eventually steers us in the right direction, and season 1 develops its plotlines cohesively to stop us on a fun cliffhanger.