Tomorrow morning I am getting up at 6am to go and study. This is wrong on so many, many levels. However needs must. Because in the wildlands of the Highlands (not really that wild. Or high.) Scottish teenagers all over are gearing up for Prelims (which are our version of Mocks, as I believe those south of the border call them?) This is not pertinent to anything in particular, aside from the fact that I might have a nervous breakdown...
Time, I think to distract myself with a review! Unfortunately, I've reviewed all the Primeval episodes that have come out so far, albeit in my own rambling way. So instead I'm going to review (albeit in my own rambling way) Syfy's Alice.
Most people who are of the same mind as me will have already seen this on the Syfy channel when it came out in 2009. However, my funds only run to one cheap freeview box, and I can't afford all your fancy channel nonsense. And up until recently the only DVD available on Amazon was USA region encoded. Even the internet failed to deliver on this occasion, and until last month I basically gave it up as a bad job. Then, one day by chance, my Amazon account suggested to me... A region two DVD! At last! Drawback. It was from Holland. However, as I am a determined young lady I didn't let this phase me, and the removal of some strange Dutch subtitles finally got me watching the miniseries as it was meant to be seen.
The original attraction to Alice was, I fully confess, curiosity. I've only seen Andrew Lee Potts (Connor Temple to Primevelians!) in Primeval, and some odd drama about a woman who has an affair. I was intrigued to watch him flex his acting muscles, and he didn't disappoint - he is an excellent Hatter, perching on just the right side of deranged. And Hatter was already my favourite character in Alice in Wonderland anyway...
It might (or might not) have done Alice some good in coming out not long before Tim Burton's extravaganza, but that's by the by. This Wonderland is very different to the Victorian hallucination we're used to. The show fully takes into account the fact that 150+ years have gone by, and Wonderland has well and truly grown up. Alice is no little girl either - she's a black belt in karate who fell through the looking glass by chance after chasing a man called the White Rabbit who was mugging her boyfriend (SPOILERS: Jack isn't what he seems). Before she knows it, Alice is off trying to rescue Jack and somehow bring down the Queen of Hearts who rules Wonderland through Casinos and instant pleasure.
If there's one thing which never fails to draw me into a story, it's colour. Maybe that's a little childlike, but it's true. If something is richly coloured, vibrant, has good production values, I'm there already. And Alice has all these things in spades. Add to that, compelling characters, funny moments and intriguing ideas and I'm in entertainment heaven! If you're a total stickler for tradition, this might not be a Wonderland that you would want to indulge in, but personally I got really involved in connecting the modern slant to the original Lewis Carroll story (and they aren't all as obvious as you might think). It's a 5/5 from me on this one.
Sassy xx
PS Why is a raven like a writing desk?
PPS Did I mention ALP was excellent?
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