Stage 17 | One Last Word

Kieran Turner’s Wallflowers is fast becoming one of my favorite web series. Smart and funny are a combo that I find very, very hard to resist. And, if you like that, too, you should definitely be watching.

New guy Wade (Daniel Abeles) throws himself on the grenade that is Janice to win a job at Hunter Casting in Wallflowers, now on stage17.tv.

Episode 3 of Season 2 debuted last week and featured plenty of earnest wackiness from Janice (Christianne Tisdale) and the continued pursuit by Martin (Gibson Frazier) of his married and pregnant co-worker. I think this is going to be a sweet — albeit a bit twisted — plot and I’m eager to see what transpires here. It may end up being a complete train wreck for poor Marty, but either way, I’m strangely invested.

Daniel Abeles debuted as Wade, the eager new receptionist at Bryce’s agency. He’s a “fresh piece of lamb,” according to Janice, who announces that it’s quite obvious that he’s gay and “it’s carefree; I like it.” Tisdale owns this little scene and it’s a treat to watch her work, especially playing against such an excellent ensemble.

As I said, everyone is so well-drawn and crispy performed, it’s really hard to find much fault here. Marcia DeBonis, as Bryce’s office manager, Leslie, is dead solid perfect, if underutilized and her line, “You need to be more afraid of me,” is delivered with so many layers, you know it’s the truth!

John Halbach and Patch Darragh fog up the lens in episode 3 of the second season of Wallflowers.

Alex (EastSiders’ John Halbach) and Bryce (Patch Darragh) button the episode with a short scene that artfully uses a monitor to add depth to the moment. It is awfully damn sexy for being very much a PG scene. Whatever is happening under those end credits?

P.S. — Mad props to Mr. Turner for the episode names.

Catch up on back episodes at Stage 17 and watch this episode below.