Round Two: Once Upon a Time in Wonderland

Once Upon a Time in Wonderland: Season 1, Episode 2 “Trust Me” (C-)

I watched this second episode only because I was genuinely interested to know what similarities this show would bear to the original series which shares part of its title. After seeing Alice escape from the miserable real-life world of an insane asylum in the pilot, there’s no trace of any sort of other universe in which Alice exists without Wonderland being a reality. Instead, this show is bogged down by flashbacks to happier times with Alice and Cyrus celebrating their human-genie love so that they can pine over each other in the present time. It’s understandable that the Knave of Hearts is meant to be a heartbreaker, but the fairy’s casual attitude towards him and excited attempt to send him to his death was irritating. It’s also annoying to see so much time and energy exhausted on the power struggle between Jafar and the White Queen, since both are entirely unlikeable people whose villainy is based on how much each of them can overact and try to chew scenery. Ultimately, Alice and Cyrus are just pawns on their chessboard, and it’s not nearly as fun a game as this show seems to think. Implicating the White Rabbit as the one who sold out the location of Cyrus’ bottle to the White Queen is unfortunate, and it makes him just as detestable as the actual bad guys. The ratings aren’t looking good for this one to live a long life, but I’ve had more than enough already to be done with it.