What to say about "Wonderland"? After watching two episodes I think it has some good one liners and a few of the actors are compelling-- Alice, Knave of Hearts (who I'm calling Eyebrow Guy) and Jafar (Sayid from "Lost").
The producers have said that each season will be self contained (a la "American Horror Story"). I think that works much better than extending characters past their normal life expectancy just to keep the show going.
"Wonderland" doesn't have that special "oomph" of the original though. And by "oomph" I mean the Evil Queen (Lana Parilla) is missing. Without her, I wouldn't be watching OUAT.
The spin-off does have a queen (the Red Queen) but she's just a teenage girl with pouty lips who kinda reminds me of Jessica Rabbit. She doesn't have a commanding presence that makes your spine tingle when she comes on screen. I get the Red Queen and the Queen of Hearts confused. I think Regina's mother Cora was the Queen of Hearts. What are the odds of Barbara Hershey (Cora) showing up on "Wonderland"? Naveen Andrews (Jafar) is her long time partner. If so I would definitely be watching that!
Much of the special effects are laughable. And y'all should know by now to never trust a White Rabbit? I think the show would be much more interesting if I took LSD while watching it. Didn't Lewis Carroll do some serious drugs while writing the original?
And since most of the main characters have British accents, I feel like I'm watching something on BBC instead of ABC (not that there's anything wrong with that since I watch BBC a lot). Just an observation.
Guidelines for granting Genie wishes (per Cyrus to Alice):
- No killing anyone
- Cant anyone back from the dead
- Cant make anyone fall in love
- Cant wish for Cyrus' freedom.
- And its better to stick with specific wishes (big stuff usually goes bad).
Episode 1: "Down The Rabbit Hole"
From Wikipedia: Alice's tales of her adventures in Wonderland have her placed in a mental asylum where she's to undergo a procedure to cure her pain, but the Knave of Hearts and the White Rabbit rescue her and bring her back to Wonderland when they reveal that her true love Cyrus is still alive. As Alice begins a quest to find him, the Red Queen and Jafar plot against her.
Episode 2: "Trust Me"
From Wikipedia: Alice (Sophie Lowe) develops a plan to find Cyrus (Peter Gadiot) and uses his genie bottle as bait to find out who she is up against and who she can trust.
Observations and quotes:
- Knave: "Where'd you get the new outfit?" Alice: "The clothes horse came by". Knave: "Yeah right."
- Alice: "The bottle is buried under the Yum Yum Tree". Knave: "Where are the Care Bears?" Alice: "What's a Care Bear?" Knave: "Never mind".
- As we learned from this week's OUAT, never piss off a fairy (Tinkerbell had a grudge against Regina). Knave had apparently treated Silvermist (I'm just calling her Silver) badly when they dated. This prompted her to drop him in the ocean (and he couldn't swim). Luckily he was saved by a giant turtle.
- Clue to upcoming shows: Who is Anastasia and did she take the Knave of Heart's heart?
Grade: 3 1/2 Monsters (out of 5). I may check in from time to time but wont keep reviewing this one.
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