"Once Upon A Time In Wonderland" Series Premiere Tonight

The Once Upon A Time "limited series" spin-off Once Upon A Time In Wonderland, begins tonight. Although some of the story lines and their players will be familiar, none of the actors from OUAT will be reprising their roles. We will, though, be treated to a whole new host of (quasi) familiar characters, most of them behaving somewhat differently from what we've seen in past versions of their stories (eg. Caterpillar, Jafar (as a genie), the White Rabbit, the Red Queen and lots more to come).

There has been a continual stream of teasers and spoilery leaks since ComicCon so there's plenty to find on the web if you're having trouble waiting for tonight.

Initial test screenings report a lot of soap-like drama and (what people hope to be incomplete) below-average effects but "Alice" (Sophie Lowe) has been given a lot of praise for her acting chops and is said to portray a very refreshing version of Alice so we'll just have to see how it goes.

With the limited episode aspect, Wonderland is going to be a test case for series spin-offs so viewer response will be closely watched by the networks. I'm curious to see if this is the start of modern-mini-series revival.  If so, the case is good for other fairy tale projects  - and possibly more independent ones as well - to come to TV. While I'm reserving judgement on Wonderland for the moment, I'm excited for the potential this programming model makes (and it will all have started with a fairy tale).