The Spinoffs: "Wonderland" and "Originals"

Two ongoing genre shows that I've been hearing good things about, but haven't had the time or the interest in really getting into have been CW's "The Vampire Diaries," and ABC's "Once Upon a Time in Wonderland." Both shows have spinoffs that premiered in the past week, "The Originals" and "Once Upon a Time in Wonderland" respectively. I decided to take a look at both, to see how well they worked without knowing all the backstory and to get a sense of what people liked so much about the original shows. I've only seen one episode of "Once Upon a Time" and none of "The Vampire Diaries."

"Wonderland" was fairly straightforward and easy to follow, though I'm not clear on what time period the show exists in. Alice (Sophie Lowe) returns from her adventures in Wonderland as a little girl to discover that no one believes her explanations of where she's been. She resolves to find proof, and grows up into an adventuress who falls in love with a genie named Cyrus (Peter Gadiot). However, after Cyrus appears to be killed by the evil Red Queen (Emma Rigby), Alice goes home brokenhearted and ends up in an insane asylum. Well, that is until the Knave of Hearts (Michael Socha) and the White Rabbit (John Lithgow) come to take her back to Wonderland, when rumors spring up that Cyrus may still be alive.

The first thing that struck me about "Wonderland" is how it's absolutely smothered in second rate CGI effects. The set design and costuming look great, but the CGI overkill is very distracting. Secondly, the show plays its ridiculous premise completely straight, not trying to inject any sort of modern irony to the works at all, in spite of a very revisionist attitude where the young heroine can beat up guards better than her rescuers. In short it's very light and very Disney, also sharing some DNA withe old syndicated action-adventure shows I watched in the '90s like "Hercules" and "Xena."

It's amusing, but honestly not as much fun as I was hoping for. Lowe and Socha are pretty good, but the rest of the actors are flat, and the show isn't making very good use of the Lewis Carroll material. "Once Upon a Time" is known for mixing characters from different fairy tales and Disney properties together, so Jafar (Naveen Andrews) is going to be a major villain here. If I hadn't known in advance about it, and wasn't familiar with the franchise, I'd have been completely baffled by all the Arabian Nights elements. For some low grade spectacle, this might be okay, and it would probably be good for kids, but this one is definitely not for me.

"The Originals" has a steeper learning curve, but it's also more interesting all around. I've seen two episodes so far. First Klaus (Joseph Morgan) and then his sister Rebekah (Sarah Holt) come back to New Orleans after long absences, joining their brother Elijah (Daniel Gillies). These three are the Mikaelson siblings, the first vampires ever created, who are called the Originals. Thanks to a lot of past acrimony that we get quick glimpses of through flashbacks, the siblings split up and New Orleans is now under the control of one of their old vampiric offspring, Marcel (Charles Michael Davis).

The world of "The Originals" contains witches werewolves, various factions of vampires, and a few odd human beings too. Marcel controls all of them at the moment through a a complex underground organization and many rules for cohabitation. There's also clearly a lot of history that has gone on amongst many of these characters that has already been explored on "The Vampire Diaries." The goals presented are fairly straightforward - Klaus and Rebekah intend to wrest control of New Orleans from Marcel - but the relationships are not.

Remember "Angel," where every one of the crossover characters from "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" was trying to get a fresh start in Los Angeles, and the show could go whole episodes without acknowledging anyone's past? "The Originals" is all about the past, and coming back to face all the messy, unhappy consequences of regrettable past actions. Apparently there are several other Mikaelsons we haven't met yet, and all kinds of former love interests and enemies waiting in the wings. What's nice though is that these actors have clearly been playing these characters for a while, so they already have a lot of the performances and chemistry well established.

"The Originals" is going to turn into one big soap opera inevitably, but its genre flourishes are much more fun and there is an intriguing universe supporting the works. I especially enjoy the use of flashbacks, which reminds me of how "Highlander" used to do them. However, the downside is that I'm a little wary of watching further before I figure out what I missed of the Mikaelsons' story from multiple seasons of the "Vampire Diaries."
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