'Once Upon a Time in Wonderland'

Once Upon a Time in Wonderland: 8 p.m. Thursday on ABC.

The challenge of creating a successful spinoff is to give the new show its own identity while still reminding viewers of how much they love the older show.

"Once Upon a Time in Wonderland," premiering Thursday on ABC, does that quite well, suggesting it might even be better than the Sunday hit, "Once Upon a Time." The show was created by Edward Kitsis and Adam Horowitz, who created the original show, and Zack Estrin ("The River").

As the name suggests, "Wonderland" uses Lewis Carroll's "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland" as its story base, but then throws in other elements, including Jafar from "Aladdin" (ABC is a Disney company, after all) and a handsome genie named Cyrus who wins Alice's heart. Yes, she's a little girl at first, but that was on her first visit to Wonderland, before it was cursed.

The next time we see her, she's a pretty teenager who has returned to Wonderland to prove to her skeptical father that she was telling the truth about the hookah-smoking caterpillar and the Cheshire cat. That's when she falls for the genie, after taking refuge in his bottle when being chased by the Red Queen's guards.

The pilot is often thrilling, thanks to the appeal of Sophie Lowe ("Beautiful Kate") as Alice, Peter Gadiot ("The Forbidden Girl") as the bottled hottie and especially Michael Socha ("This Is England") as the Knave of Hearts, who rescues Alice just before she's about to be lobotomized by her father's doctors and takes her back to Wonderland so she can find Cyrus again.

Oh, yes, there is a White Rabbit, of course: a grizzled little computerized creature voiced by John Lithgow ("Third Rock From the Sun").

Naveen Andrews ("Lost") plays Jafar well enough to suggest the character can have a place in the hybridized plot, but then there's the Red Queen. There are two problems with her: The less obvious is that the character is just a blond version of the Regina Mills/Evil Queen character played by Lana Parrilla on the original "Once." The second problem is that Emma Rigby ("Prisoners' Wives") is flat-out awful in the role. Her line delivery completely lacks either conviction or credibility. Worse, there's not the slightest hint of credible villainy in her performance, just an annoying whine of petulance.

The plot is a little overstuffed, but the special effects, crisp direction and high-octane performances keep us interested enough to follow Alice down the rabbit hole.

Source: http://www.sfgate.com/tv/article/Once-Upon-a-Time-in-Wonderland-review-4882685.php