Once Upon a Time in Wonderland

Once Upon A Time In Wonderland

Alice (Sophia Lowe) &
 Knave of Hearts (Michael Socha)

Cast:

Sophia Lowe: Alice

Michael Socha: Knave of Hearts/Will Scarlet

Peter Gadiot: Cyrus

Emma Rigby: The Red Queen/Anastasia

Naveen Andrews: Jafar

John Lithgow: The White Rabbit

Episodes:

1. Down the Rabbit Hole: Alice's stories about Wonderland get her admitted to an asylum.
2. Trust Me: A flashback reveals how Alice and Cyrus fell in love.
3. Forget Me Not: Will Scarlet convinces Robin Hood's Merry Men to steal from Maleficent.
4. The Serpent: With the Knave's life in danger, Alice must decide on whether to use one of her wishes; Alice learns more of the Knave's backstory through her friendship with Lizard; Jafar's plan puts the Red Queen in a difficult position.
5. Heart of Stone: Will Scarlet and Anastasia pass into Wonderland only to discover it isn't what they imagined; the Red Queen gains her royal status.
6. Who’s Alice?: The Knave is awakened by magic with the help of an unlikely ally and he goes in search of Alice only to find her in terrible danger, and Cyrus does his best to evade the Red Queen.
7. Bad Blood: Alice learns her father is in Wonderland and they start healing their relationship; young Jafar is distressed by his mother's death.
8. Home: In flashback, we learn about Cyrus' origin story while Alice seeks out the White Rabbit for answers involving his actions in Wonderland
9. Nothing to Fear: Cyrus and Alice reluctantly work with the Red Queen to find Will but must also be prepared to defend themselves from Jafar. Will has troubles of his own when Lizard finds the bottle.
10. Dirty Little Secrets: Cyrus remembers the events that led to the binding price he and his brothers have to pay; the Red Queen and the Knave are faced with the Jabberwocky.
11. Heart of the Matter: Knave must choose between his friends and the Red Queen when Jafar threatens her life. Alice and Cyrus launch an attempt to rescue Jafar's prisoners. In the past, Anastasia makes a new friend-Cora, who Will confronts with a request.
12. To Catch A Thief: In a flashback, the Knave hunts for Alice, while in the present, the Knave does Jafar's bidding; the Jabberwocky tries to get free.
13. And They Lived…: After a successful plan, Jafar imprisons the Jabberwocky; Alice and the White Rabbit form an army to fight Jafar.

Review:

The Red Queen (Emma Rigby)

            I love Once Upon a Time, but I never got behind Once Upon a Time in Wonderland. I admit that it got a little better as time went on. The action got better, but I can see why the creators wanted this to be a summer series. I think that ABC wanted too much too soon from OUATIW. Given the success of OUAT and the response to the Mad Hatter on the show, they probably had good reason to believe that.

            Alice was convincing as a woman in love and wanting to find Cyrus, her true love and her Genie. She is so believable in her conviction that true love conquers all that you want her to find him. You want Alice to be with Cyrus, despite the bit of chemistry between her and the Knave of Hearts.

            Cyrus was an okay character, but I think that the actor was miscast. I think he would have been better suited as the Knave of Hearts, because he and Alice didn’t have as much chemistry as Alice and the actor who portrayed the Knave of Hearts. It seems to me that if Cyrus and Alice were supposed to be so in love with each other that it would radiate off the screen; however, I felt the actor portraying Cyrus and the actress portraying Alice weren’t suited for each other.

            At first, I admit that I hated The Red Queen, but I came to love her! She was like, Regina, you love to hate her. In this instance, I just loved her. She wore her costumes well and portrayed the character with so much emotion that it was a great fit.

            Overall, I think this was a decent attempt to bring more life into an already amazing ratings beast. I think that if they want to try this with a different Once Upon a Time realm then maybe it should just be a summer thing. A limited run series; maybe then a Once Upon a Time spin off will do better.