Abigail Westing is a sharp-witted modern day professor of World Literature when she meets a strange man who introduces himself as Dr John Watson, friend of Sherlock Holmes, and then offers her a job. The borders between reality and fiction are breaking down and it is up to the agents of The Fourth Wall, a steel bunker situated in its own dimension, to prevent fictional characters from crossing over and wreaking havoc in the real world.
The thing that struck me about The Fourth Wall is how deliriously geeky it is. It's not just that it has a League of Extraordinary Gentlemen / Ready Player One-style team-up of beloved fictional characters, although that's a big part of the fun. When the solution to episode 1 came together, I laughed out loud at the geek cred. It's also an affectionate ribbing of the writing process itself, since the characters know that they were made up and written down by a writer. Some of them, like the Raven of Nevermore fame, spend their time complaining about how little depth they were given. Some of them rail against being left unfinished or being stuck as cliches. All of these jokes are delivered with a twinkle in the eye.
Yet strip away the meta jokes and The Fourth Wall is about solid, pulp storytelling with fun, likeable characters at its rousing best. Modern or classic, a great yarn is a great yarn.
