Alice (Nick Willing) - Syfy mini-series - 2009

The Syfy Alice is an athletic, strong-willed, brunette woman played competently by Canadian actor, Caterina Scorsone.  Many of the Lewis Carroll (1832-1898) characters are here but in a different guise, including White Rabbit, Mad Hatter, March Hare, Dodo, Caterpillar, Tweedledum & Tweedledee, Jabberwocky, Queen of Hearts and the rest of the deck, etc.  There is some attempt to honor the classics: Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass, and What Alice Found There.  In modern times, these two works by the Reverend Charles Lutwidge Dodgson (aka Lewis Carroll) have been lumped into one story usually known as "Alice in Wonderland."  The stories are dreamlike and absurd but contain many moral truths. 

The Syfy mini-series diverges from the Carroll works in one major way in that the looking glass is an actual link between the real world and a Wonderland ruled by the evil Queen (Kathy Bates).  The Queen and her cohorts are harvesting the emotions of real-world citizens (known as "oysters") to serve their selfish addictions.  However, there are forces within Wonderland who oppose the Queen, including her own son, Jack of Hearts.  Jack travels through the magic mirror to woo Miss Alice but he is kidnapped and Alice follows his trail back to the parallel universe.  The rest is predictable but entertaining. [JAM 12/8/2009]