Once Upon a Time in Wonderland

Wonderland grabs elements from the Lewis Carroll classic, throwing them down a rabbit hole and lets them land willy-nilly. [28 Oct 2013, p.42]

Wonderland has no nuance. It's not elegant or metaphorical at all, and many of the scenes would be at home on an episode of Mighty Morphin Power Rangers.

The main storyline isn't strong enough and the incongruous peripheral elements just confuse rather than engage the viewer.

Lowe's job of selling Alice's yearning for Wonderland is all the more remarkable for the fact that her world-spanning love with Cyrus comes off a little bit limp in the premiere.

There is plenty of that--the good, the beautiful and the etc. Some of it is conjured by CG magic (the Red Queen's palace is splendid, and the White Rabbit's ears a masterwork), and some by just good storytelling and performer chemistry, which Lowe and Socha have in abundance. Add to that a smattering of witty dialogue, clever character twists and, of course, the Victo-goth steampunk look, and ABC has another shot at redefining the family hour.

As our wanderer through the rabbit hole, Lowe lacks conviction, but Socha is a true charmer as the Knave, and fans will be making wishes for Alice to dump the dreary genie for the rogue. With the mothership’s leads on a similar quest for a missing boy, Wonderland seems like an exercise in magical redundancy.

Without taking anything away from “Once Upon a Time”--this one is cleaner and seems to require less cataloging of multiple plotlines.

The visuals help distract from the hokey sampler-ready dialogue: "When you really love someone, you don't need proof. You can feel it."... but I'd be happy to follow this White Rabbit just about anywhere. On a less busy night.

A slick effects extravaganza whose pilot episode kept me looking instead of enjoying.

The plot is a little overstuffed, but the special effects, crisp direction and high-octane performances keep us interested enough to follow Alice down the rabbit hole.

Alice’s battles with various computer-animated and live-action threats are entertaining and, usually, rather witty, though her traveling companions, the White Rabbit (voiced by John Lithgow) and the Knave of Hearts (Michael Socha, the proletarian werewolf in the later season’s of the BBC version of Being Human), get most of the best lines.

I can't help but believe that if this new series focused on the dark, foreboding tone in its asylum scenes, it could become a powerful, trippy 9 p.m. drama.

In “Once Upon a Time,” the multiple time streams were clever at first but proliferated to a point of wearying confusion. Wonderland skips straight to bewilderment.

Every creature and person is a threat to Alice and vice versa. Characters like the rabbit and knave are uppity and untrustworthy; they steal and lie. There are no ready-made friendships here like there are in, say, Oz. As soon as you get there, you feel like you’re ready to leave.

Children will enjoy some of the stunts, and adults may appreciate some of the love-conquers-all messages. But all ages may fear that, as with the original, there's less here than meets the eye.

There's too much going on to tell what might ultimately stick, other than the contents of the Mallow Marsh.

Once Upon A Time In Wonderland is very nice to look at, particularly in homes that have upgraded from rabbit ears. Its speaking parts, though, are sometimes better heard at low volume.

The show's real power resides in Lowe herself, whose screen presence makes even the silliest bits of Wonderland work better than they probably deserve to.

Ultimately, the story doesn’t really matter because the characters are paper thin and efforts to make Alice more than a damsel in distress--she’s a skull-crushing, tree climber--don’t really add much depth.

The series seems equally pitched between good--Lowe, a solid writing staff, and that mournful tone--and bad--Michael Socha as a helpful rogue who joins Alice on her quest and is already wearing thin by the end of the first episode--but for those who’ve enjoyed the parent series, even ironically, it stands as just enough of an improvement to recommend.

Lowe and Gadiot make convincing lovers, Socha provides the comic relief and Rigby is suitably sinister as the Red Queen.... Good family fun.