Alice in the Acid Age

Andrew-Lee Potts

WARNING: I have an unhealthy obsession for this show or more specifically for this man. There may be some gushy fangirl ranting in this article.

Alice is the second sci-fi (syfy for you conformists) miniseries directed by Nick Willing. Alice has the added bonus of also being written by him. The first was a science fiction style adaption of L. Frank Baum’s Wizard of Oz entitled Tin Man. This series is also exceedingly good, but I’m here to talk about Alice. Anyway, Tin Man won an Emmy and got exemplary reviews on the premier. So two years later they ask Willing to pull another masterpiece out of the hat and he did with a contemporary version of Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland.  

Alice is set in the modern day and ten year old Alice is now twenty year old Alice. She is living somewhere in the US, runs a karate dojo, and has dark brown hair. She is dating an Englishman who presents her with a ring in the fist half-hour of the two-part miniseries. When she rejects him he slips the ring into her pocket and disappears. She discovers the ring and runs after him. She catches up with him in time to see him abducted by some suit wearing men and a van. Enter mysterious man clad in white (a.k.a white rabbit). He says some cryptic things then demands she give him the ring. She refuses. They struggle. She drops the ring. He grabs it and runs off. She chases him, trips, falls through a looking glass and lands in the revamped wonderland.

Alice’s wonderland bears a remarkable resemblance to the 1960’s and the mad hatter is now a charming and devious teashop owner with a thing for Alice. The queen of hearts keeps the rabble in check but siphoning feeling from humans she’s abducted from the real world through the looking glass and converting them to drugs.

Now, here’s the glitch the key to operating the looking glass is the ring of wonderland and the white rabbit didn’t see Alice pop the ring out of the box before she dropped it. So Alice has got the ring and the queen has got Alice’s boyfriend, who she has decided she has feeling for after all. What follows is a story of action and romance all filmed in a tripping 60’s fashion that was meant for Alice in Wonderland.

Minerva