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[shadowkat]

Am rather impressed by Once Upon a Time: Wonderland by far the best pilot I've seen this season. A kickass heroine, an imaginative setting, and some rather complex and interesting supporting characters. (Granted it hasn't had a lot of competition in that department, the only other half-way compelling pilots that I've seen to date were Sleepy Hollow and The Back List.)

The plot is fairly simple, Alice journeys back from Wonderland, her father refuses to believe where she's gone. So she goes back and kidnaps the white rabbit in order to provide him with "proof". On the way home with the White Rabbit, she must escape through a maze from the Queen's Guard. To aid in her escape she eats a bit of the mushroom that makes her smaller. And hides in a bottle - which just happens to belong to the genie, Cyrus. Alice frees Cyrus and apparently the White Rabbit, and they have many and varied adventures until the Red Queen finds them and pushes Cyrus into the boiling sea. Believing Cyrus is dead, Alice is inconsolable and returns to her world. Her father - at his wits end - puts her in an asylum. It should be noted that the time period is Victorian Age or the 19th Century. So she's in a Victorian asylum in England, and wearing sort of steam-punk Victorian garb. The design has a sort of pseudo steam-punk Victorian feel to it.

When we see her again - her doctors are convincing her to have a lobotomy. Meanwhile that pesky White Rabbit (voiced quite effectively by John Lithgow) finds the Knave of Hearts (portrayed by the actor from Being Human) in Storybrook and convinces him to help Alice.
The Knave breaks into the asylum just after Alice agreed to the sinister Doctor's operation.
It's not until he convinces Alice that her one true love Cyrus is still alive, that she breaks out of the asylum and saves him. Note Alice breaks herself out of the asylum, she doesn't sit mildly by and wait for him to do it. On the way out they meet up again with the White Rabbit - and the sinister Doctor (who basically resembles Igor out of Frankestein or maybe that bald cousin of the Addams family) - the Doctor tries to convince Alice she'd be better off having the operation until well he freaks out upon seeing the white rabbit.

Off to Wonderland they go. And fall smack dab in the Marshmellow Swamp. Or Mellow Swamp.
Which is literally marshmellow. I find that rather innovative. It also gave me an absurd craving for marshmellows. At any rate, Alice figures out how to get out of the marshmellow quick sand and they search out the Mad Hatter's residence - where the doormouse apparently told the white rabbit that Cyrus was last seen. Along the way, the Knave discusses how he'd rather be anywhere but here. Alice convinces him to help her in return for three wishes which she has in her possession. She explains that she hasn't used the wishes, because they come with strings attached and tend to be rather unpredictable. Cyrus could quite literally be brought back to life with a noose around his neck. (What do you know a smart and kickass heroine). The Knave figures he can plot around that so agrees. And when Alice climbs a tree to find the Hatter's house, the Knave takes off with her three wishes. The Cheshire Cat, who has changed since she was last in Wonderland, appears to be working with the Red Queen, whose agenda has yet to be revealed. The white rabbit is also working for the Queen, but as a spy. (All of this fits the story rather well - the white rabbit was not the most trustworthy or honorable of characters, the Red Queen was hunting Alice, and one was never quite sure what to make of the Knave of Hearts.) At any rate, they find the Mad Hatter's House only to discover Cyrus is not there but Alice finds his magical necklace so all is not lost.

During this we discover two things where Cyrus is being held, turns out that the rabbit was right about one thing - Cyrus is not dead, and what the queen is after not to mention who she is working with. Similar set-up to Once Upon A Time - in that we have two villains, One female - Red Queen, and the other male, Jafar (portrayed by Naveen Andrews of Lost fame), the wizard from Aladdin.

The casting is quite good here - as it was in Once Upon a Time. And Sophie Lowe who plays Alice is a find, she's charismatic and spunky. She gets across vulnerability and wicked intelligence at once. Reminds me a little of Abbie in Sleepy Hollow. The guy who plays Cyrus is attractive, but it is soon to tell how good he is.

This series is a bit of a mash-up of Aladdin and Alice in Wonderland. Yet Alice is more based on Lewis Carrol, and Aladdin on well Disney's Aladdin or so it appears at first glance.
And like it's parent series - OUAT, it provides clever and at times surprising twists on established fairy tales and tropes. Plus the plot is fast moving, with questions being answered quickly. Also it's highly character driven. While the main goal is finding Cyrus (aka the protagonists true love), which as jaded television viewers know as the proverbial carrot which can't be reached until the series ends, the good news is that these writers don't play that game any longer. OUAT Wonderland only has 13 episodes - it's a closed arc miniseries that is slated to wrap itself up by mid-season. (Or so I've read, I hope they stick to that). And as evidenced in the parent series, these writers learned from the mistakes they made with LOST and tend to wrap up story threads quickly, all the while setting up new story threads in the process. As a result you get cliffhangers weekly and climaxes more frequently. Not a lot of boring filler episodes. All of which bodes well for this little series.

Will definitely keep watching.

Pilot? A

Comments

[liliaeth]

Glad to know I'm not the only one who loved Alice :-)

I was starting to wonder looking at the tag on tumblr*grumble*

[shadowkat67.livejournal.com]

You've reminded me of why I don't follow tumblr all that closely, well that and I find it impossible to keep track of or follow.

It and Twitter do not work for me.

[buffyannotater.livejournal.com]

I loved it, too! Last I heard the writers told ABC they needed more than 13 episodes but less than 22, and ABC are allowing the writers to take as many as they need to tell the story, whether that's 14 or 17 or whatever.

[shadowkat67.livejournal.com]

Oh good..I like the concept of a self-contained tv series. CBS is attempting the same thing with Hostages. Although we can thank Ryan Murphy/Brad Falchuck and F/X for coming up with the idea - in American Horror Story.

Personally I think the OUAT universe is a perfect platform for launching these self-contained tales. You can also ...after the series concludes, allow the characters to pop up on the original series in cameos.

I love OUAT...most innovative thing I've seen on TV in years.

[buffyannotater.livejournal.com]

Yes, I'm all for that sort of thing with this show. It's such a rich, huge universe and, with the amount of still-unexplored fairy tales and fantasy stories out there, the possibilities are really limitless. OUaT/Wonderland are both so precisely my tastes/interests that it sometimes feels like the shows were written for me. There are many shows I love, but only a handful that I feel that way about. I think the only other series I've ever felt that for, to this extent, were Pushing Daisies and the first season of Glee, but OUaT of course has much more consistent writing and worldbuilding than the latter, and has been able to maintain its quality much longer.

[shadowkat67.livejournal.com]

I agree. There's been very few tv series that felt written for me. OUAT definitely is written towards my interests, storyline kinks, etc. (I do wish it was a little better ...but, it is tv and on ABC, so I'll take what I can get. Also so far it's been pretty consistent in the world-building and characters are quite complex. I do adore it to pieces.) Buffy was the other series that felt at times written for me - particularly the latter seasons (although again wish it was written just a tad better than it was.) Farscape - also felt that way. (God, I loved Farscape).

I thought SMASH was going to be that way, but damn, they screwed it up. And Glee..sigh, it started out okay but sort of went off-kilter.

Pushing Daisies came fairly close to hitting the mark...it was just so much fun, and light yet dark at the same time, plus musical numbers.

[buffyannotater.livejournal.com]

Oh, yes, I forgot about Farscape. Definitely a show I felt was written for me. Unlike a lot of people, it was the puppets/Henson that initially sold me on it. As well as Ben Browder/Claudia Black. In many ways, I think the richest space opera that's ever been filmed - that really makes full use of the "operatic" part of the equation.

Buffy - it's funny. I always loved it, as you know, but I also never quite felt it was written FOR me, except ironically in S4, when it seems most people had trouble relating to it. I was Buffy and her friends' exact age and was going through a hard time adjusting to college at the same time that they were, and I really felt like it was speaking directly to me at that moment. My HS experience, otoh, was very different than theirs, so while I always enjoyed the story, I never felt that Sunnydale HS hell mirrored the exact HS hell I was going through. And so it was really only 1 year that I felt connected to the show on every level, as opposed to very much enjoying it and loving to dig into its deeper levels.

SMASH - such a disappointment, although the original musical numbers rarely let me down. Honestly, if they started doing musical numbers on ONCE, it would be my favorite show of all time. ;)

[shadowkat67.livejournal.com]

Agree on Farscape. The puppets/Henson attracted me to it. And I adored Ben Browder/Claudia Black - who are still in my opinion the best romantic relationship that I've seen on tv. They are also incredibly kind actors. I loved their commentary.

I always loved it, as you know, but I also never quite felt it was written FOR me, except ironically in S4, when it seems most people had trouble relating to it.

For me it was Seasons 5 and 6. Post college, when she was struggling with jobs, illness, and depression. Particularly S6. Season 6 felt written for me - in a metaphorical sense that was difficult to explain, although I tried through an insane number of essays.

Although I did identify quite a bit with various episodes in S4. And Buffy's inability to drive - endeared me to the character forever. LOL!

The first three seasons I didn't relate to at all. It didn't mirror my HS Hell either.

Agree on SMASH - the musical numbers were great. (I'm actually having similar issues with Glee - great musical numbers, but gah.) I'm not sure the rest of the audience could handle musical numbers on ONCE, but I'd certainly adore them. (A lot of people, I've noticed, don't like musicals. Never understood this.)

[atpo-onm.livejournal.com]

You and I are usually pretty much in sync when it comes to TV, but this one fell flat for me-- I ranked it as a 5 out of 10 on first viewing, bumped to 6 of 10 on a second viewing. Three comments, and perhaps the last one frames a question you might be able to answer for me:

1. I like the actress playing Alice, and the actor playing the Wizard. The Red Queen actress seems very uneasy in her role, nowhere near as threatening as I'd think she needs to be. Perhaps I'm just spoiled with Lana Parilla's excellent work as Regina, but it did take me out of the moments where the Red Queen appeared.

2. The CGI work often really, really looks like CGI, and again instantly takes me out of the moment. Sleepy Hollow and the Orignal OUaT have used it far better. (Oh-- I did like the chess-set castle decor bit, that was pretty neat visually.)

3. The time shifts bother me more than they usually do in a magical series. Alice is a little girl when she first goes to Wonderland. When we see her next she's a young woman. Are we to assume she visited Wonderland many times in between, or went back once and stayed for many years? Even more bothersome is that the Knave of Hearts is in present-day Storybrooke, the Rabbit appears, and they return to Alice in the asylum. Is the asylum in Neverland, which time-wise is like Victorian England?

Nevertheless, I'll tune in next week or two before making a final evaluation, out of respect for the show's creative team. I disliked the Crazy Ones pilot also, but the following two shows did improve. Still not a fave, but definitely better.

[shadowkat67.livejournal.com]

Well not always. You liked the Buffy comics and Agents of Shield more than I do. ;-)

The CGI work often really, really looks like CGI, and again instantly takes me out of the moment. Sleepy Hollow and the Orignal OUaT have used it far better. (Oh-- I did like the chess-set castle decor bit, that was pretty neat visually.)

They do appear to be using various types of special effects. Unlike OUAT and Sleepy Hollow which use green screen and CGI infrequently or very little, OUAT Wonderland is using it all the time, which is difficult to do. We're advanced but not that advanced. As a result, at times it looks a bit like they are walking through a videogame. But the lead characters are so captivating to me and their interaction, that the CGI doesn't bug me.

Besides - it's Wonderland.

The time shifts bother me more than they usually do in a magical series. Alice is a little girl when she first goes to Wonderland. When we see her next she's a young woman. Are we to assume she visited Wonderland many times in between, or went back once and stayed for many years? Even more bothersome is that the Knave of Hearts is in present-day Storybrooke, the Rabbit appears, and they return to Alice in the asylum. Is the asylum in Neverland, which time-wise is like Victorian England?

It took me a few minutes but I figured it out. Alice goes back to Wonderland to find "proof" and it takes a long time to get "proof" - as you might expect.

Remember - the little girl overhears her father saying she's crazy, and states - "it is true. I'll get proof." So she goes back to get "proof". Which apparently took a while. The White Rabbit isn't that easy to catch.

Once she got proof, she got sidetracked and fell in love with Cyrus.

Re: Knave of Hearts? Remember he goes through the White Rabbit's porthole - and porthole's take you wherever and whenever you are thinking of in time. (That's how Regina got the apple she used to attempt to poison Emma in OUAT. She reached in and grabbed it from a specific point in time through the Mad Hatter's portal.) So, the White Rabbit took the Knave from modern day Storybrook to Victorian England through a similar "portal".

The Red Queen actress seems very uneasy in her role, nowhere near as threatening as I'd think she needs to be. Perhaps I'm just spoiled with Lana Parilla's excellent work as Regina, but it did take me out of the moments where the Red Queen appeared.

Well our mileage varies here. I'm as you know not crazy about Parilla. I think she over-acts or has an overly broad acting style. Which is odd coming from me. But seriously she can give daytime soap actors a run for their money.

[atpo-onm.livejournal.com]

I think (Parilla) over-acts or has an overly broad acting style.

I agree that such often appears the case in OUaT, and I haven't seen her work in any other films or TV shows, so perhaps that is her style. But after watching the DVDs of the first two seasons, I've fairly certain that she is giving the writers what they want. She is capable of subtlety when they allow her to exercise it. One of my main gripes about the series, especially in the first year, was the uneven writing, and Regina's parts were one of the worst offenders, IMO. (Snow's and Charming's was pretty iffy too at times.)

I don't know anything of Parilla's acting background, either, and if she came from a stage career, many of those people have a hard time dialing things back for the film or TV medium.

I do like Agents of SHIELD, but after three eps in I have successfully adjusted my brain so that I process it as a well-crafted comic book for TV that would be at its best on a REALLY BIG TV. In other words, it's not a layered, thinky piece like previous Whedon efforts. You tune it in, you watch, you're entertained. The network makes money, Whedon makes money, in future Whedon gets to do pretty much whatever he wants. I can live with that.

[shadowkat67.livejournal.com]

My difficulty with Whedon is, in my opinion, he hasn't really done anything remotely interesting since possibly Dollhouse. His strength was psychological and emotional arcs of characters not plots or big themes.
He's no Philip K. Dick or Ridely Scott, he can't handle the sheer scope of a David Lean, or the political gymnastics of an Orson Wells and the guy who wrote Watchmen.

But he does handle dicey emotions and psychological arcs really well, and for some reason he stopped doing it. As a result, everything he's done since Firefly, Buffy, and Angel - I've found a bit...hollow, like it is missing that "emotional" connection.

Granted mileage varies on this. And I've nothing against handling the big themes - but that's not Whedon's strength, in my opinion. He's a character guy, yet he's not building characters. As a result, his stories fall flat and feel a bit like eating a cream puff as opposed to the savory steak.

I haven't seen Whedon's Much Ado About Nothing - but keep in mind he was directing someone else's story and script not creating his own. And a story that has been done to death.