Down the Rabbit Hole

Now that the Christmas rush is over, I've had a little bit of down time before the spring semester starts. So I'm using that time to, as any sane and rational person would, clear up the space on my DVR. I never fully understand how the DVR gets so backed up (at its most perilous, I think we were 96% full) since I feel like we watch a fair amount of TV during the week.

I will freely admit that we spend a good deal of time watching House Hunters and Big Bang Theory reruns. But still. I suppose its because, as a pop culture nerd, I set up so many series records at the beginning of the TV season -- shows which my Prince Charming  doesn't always want to watch. So, stuff just tends to back up--not necessarily because its not any good, but just because we're usually watching TV together.

Long story short: I caught up on Once Upon a Time in Wonderland over break. And loved it.

I love the original series of course; I'm presenting a paper at conference in March on the shift from purely romantic love to more family-centered love in Disney, and the original OUaT is great evidence for this. But more than that, I love new takes on fairy tales and I particularly appreciate the complexity of Regina's backstory.

Wonderland is not quite as family-centered -- the plot is driven by Alice and Cyrus's love and efforts to get back together -- but I don't mind as much given the power of the narrative. I'll admit--I was very skeptical at first. When they announced the casting of Lost favorite Naveen Andrews as Jafar, there was much eye-rolling on my part. "Ugh," I thought. "Merging Alice and Aladdin has a very high probability of EPICFAIL."

Well, never let it be said that I'm too proud to eat my words.

Because it worked. (In my opinion.) It actually worked and made for a compelling, engaging storyline -- the kind that made me stay up late in order to watch the next episode and find out what happened.

And, much like Regina and Rumple are the most interesting characters on Once Upon A Time (although Hook is a close second, but for much the same reason), I found Jafar and The Red Queen to be the most interesting characters in Wonderland. That, I think, is what the writers do so well: they give a complexity and a backstory to the villains that are so often portrayed as one-dimensional in traditional fairy tales. Why is Wicked Queen in "Snow White" evil? Well, she's jealous of Snow White, and jealousy is bad, so she's bad. There's no greater reason than that -- and, in the fairy tale, we don't need one.

But the writers of OUaT give us that reason -- let us see the motivation behind the actions -- and that, to me, is where the power of the show truly lies. Yes, Sophie Lowe is excellent as Alice and I appreciate that she can wield a sword in Victorian dress and isn't always a damsel in distress. I like the nods to the original story. But, perhaps because I have a child's optimistic faith in happy endings, I just assume that, yes, she and Cyrus will get back together and that's enough of them, thank you very much, can we get back to the villains?

We already knew Naveen Andrews was great at playing conflicted characters -- Sayid was one of the greats on Lost. And here, he truly gets to tap into his inner baddie because Jafar is not one of those villains who started out good and then, after a series of crappy things happened to him, he just gave up and turned to the Dark Side. Nope. He was a pretty good kid, and yes, some crappy things happened to him, but he went dark, and he went dark fast. Of his own accord: there was very little tempting him to the Dark Side; he actively sought it out. A villain through and through, and I kind of like that. (Although, the Sultan did still threaten to cut his hand off for stealing, so there's that.)

But the character/actress I was really impressed with was Emma Rigby's Red Queen/Anastasia.

She is, in a way, very similar to Regina -- and, like Lana Parilla, has the hardest job on set. When you first meet her, she is, unequivocally, the villain and your sympathy lies with Alice and Cyrus. But then there's the plot twist, and you see her as Anastasia, and it's increasingly harder to keep disliking her. I mean, you may not agree with and like her decisions, but you kinda get it.

Plus, she has the most kick-ass wardrobe on the set. And look at those cheekbones!