This show may be one of the most jaw-droppingly silly programs I’ve ever seen on a broadcast network. It looks like it would fit right in on the Syfy channel after a re-airing of Sharknado, and is somehow even goofier than the show it spun off from, “Once Upon a Time.”
Maybe it’s because almost the entire cast looks like they were wooed away from a CW show (apparently, Wonderland has a “No Ugos” policy), and one of the few exceptions to that rule is the single most ridiculous villain in recent memory: Naveen Andrews’ Jafar. [Jafar is a villain in Aladdin so I guess the show is promising (or threatening) to introduce other Disney characters into Wonderland as well.]
Andrews famously played Sayid on “Lost” but also famously said he didn’t watch the show and always seemed a bit arrogant in interviews, as though the show was beneath him. Well if an Emmy nominated Drama like Lost was beneath him, I wonder what he thinks about starring in a real piece of shit like this. Maybe the fact that Andrews thinks he’s slumming is why his Jafar looks more bored than menacing (just try not to laugh when he’s nearly killing someone and you can practically see Andrews thinking about what he’ll be eating for lunch that day), and the passionless portrayal is even funnier since Jafar is, inexplicably, styled up to look like Prince in Purple Rain.
For a certain type of audience member, watching the Cheshire Cat transformed into a cartoon panther stalking Alice in treetops is unintentionally hilarious. For a different type, it’s scary and riveting TV. The problem is that the second type are ABC executives. Grade for pilot: D