Fairy tales jump down the rabbit hole

By Sean Previl

One can’t be late for this very important date. Once Upon a Time In Wonderland, the spin-off series from ABC Network’s Once Upon a Time premiered Oct. 10 with high expectations, given the success of the original series.

Featuring one of the other “realms,” Wonderland, viewers are taken to the land of the White Rabbit, The Red Queen and Alice.

The show begins with a young Alice (Sophie Lowe) returning from Wonderland to her shocked father who believed she had died because of her prolonged disappearance. She is later put into a psychiatric ward because of her continued chatter about Wonderland. Before she is to receive a lobotomy to make her forget, the Knave of Hearts (Michael Socha) arrives to take her to Wonderland to save her love Cyrus (Peter Gadlot), a genie from Agrabah.

Wonderland is different from what many Once fans remember as the land ruled by Cora, the Queen of Hearts. Instead we are presented with a land ruled by The Red Queen (Emma Rigby), a ruthless woman bent on capturing Alice. She and Jafar (Naveen Andrews) work together to steal the wishes Alice has so that Jafar can use them for himself. Rigby plays a queen who has two sides to her, one she portrays to Wonderland and the other being a scared woman controlled by Jafar.

Lowe gives a rousing portrayal as Alice, giving the character a strength many do not relate to the character because of the innocence shown in the Disney film. Not only can she fight but her personality also has a mixture of humour and passion, as a woman clearly love struck by the genie. Oddly enough, in her second fight scene she rescues the Knave from ward employees and proceeds to beat them senseless while the Knave comically watches nearby.

The other powerful performance is by Socha. Although the Knave is considered to be a servant of the Red Queen in other tales, this one weaves the character as a man whose heart was saved by Alice. Throughout the pilot episode it is unclear if he at first rescues her to repay his debt but, in the end we see he truly cares for Alice by rescuing her from the Cheshire Cat and agreeing to go with her to find Cyrus.

Once Upon a Time In Wonderland throws viewers into the action without as much deceit as its predecessor. Unlike Once which made viewers question if the world really was full of fairytale characters, Wonderland makes it clear the realm exists and does so by having the White Rabbit (John Lithgow) show himself to one of the psych ward’s doctors. When a character that is clearly a rabbit reveals himself, you know it’s going to be a crazy ride in Wonderland with this series.

4/5 stars.