Wonderland

Imagine my disappointment earlier: I sat down to watch Wonderland via the VCR, and rather than Wonderland, I had taped some slickly-produced canned news program.

Yes my fellow reviewers worries about Wonderland have, unfortunately come true. E! online reports that ABC has pulled the show, faced with a drop in the ratings, and an apparent campaign against the show by a group who felt that Wonderland unfairly stigmatized people afflicted with mental disorder.

Was this show too gory? There were some scenes depicting violence and its aftermath, e.g., The shooting of bystanders in Time's Square by an actively-psychotic man; later, a struggle that ends when a pregnant psychiatrist is stabbed with a hypodermic needle which may have impacted the unborn's cognitive functioning.

Any gore was incidental to the storyline which was intense and compelling throughout. Writing and directing were superb. The viewer is horrified by the atrocity of a killer, yet cannot help but identify with Dr. Banger's (Ted Levine of The Silence of the Lambs) guarded empathy for this man who is likely to be committed for many years to a secure psychiatric hospital.

The staff and the patients were subject to the same stressors in life, to varying degrees. Anger, impotence, fear, self-loathing --all are possible responses to stress. When slapped by the news that his unborn child would most probably be grossly impaired, Dr. Neil Harrison (Martin Donovan), the consummate professional, nearly strangled the perpetrator. He later thought he saw his wife exposing her abdomen to this same man.

This was the show at its most powerful. Dr. Bangor refers to this as the "dark side" of the human psyche. We all walk a line of "normalcy." At stressful times that path is narrow and razor-sharp. At such times it is our ability to adapt and to transcend that keeps us from falling off.

Sure the shooting in Time's Square was disturbing, but slasher flicks on TNT or TBS toss gore by the bucket load, rendering this violent act all but tasteful. Viewers are made to identify with the travails of "normal," even trained people who are nonetheless subject to the same experience as their patients. This casts "sanity" in a particularly fragile light.

This very exploration of fragility is what crystallizes Wonderland's greatness. It also may be alienating to a demographic that wants to be entertained rather than made anxious.

Then again maybe Wonderland's ratings would have been better had some numb programming executive (speaking of cognitive impairment) not have placed a program of this magnitude in a time slot opposite ER.

When people would ask what I wanted to do for a living I used to have to explain what forensic psychology was and that it did not involve gathering hair at a crime scene. Now I can just tell them to watch this truly amazing show. After just two episodes I already find myself wondering if this could be the best show I've ever seen. Both episodes left me emotionally drained and wishing for much, much more.

Ditto AltonMann review. This new presentation is almost "too good" for TV. It does follow in Homicide's quality footsteps. I'm a psychiatrist by trade and can attest to the show's accuracy and realism in the chaotic ward/emergency scenes and the feeling tone generated in the action (which wondrously persists as a realistic backdrop to the personal conflicts of the principal charactors in the drama). The group therapy sessions were terrific and revealed even more depth in terms of the principal's personality and professional attributes. These are great actors, and I'm extremely impressed with Peter Berg's writing and directing skills. I wish to add my appreciation for the inclusion of Ted Levine to the fine cast. I sincerely hope this show can outlast the scheduling maneuvers and dilemmas. NYPD BLUE finally made it, Homicide died too fast (and never found a large audience), and the superior West Wing apparently is finding an audience and may surprise us by sticking----perhaps Wonderland will survive--hope so, but experience tells me not to hold my breath.

I am a sufferer of major depression. I am on a medication that is very effective and am fine now with a full time job a loving relationship and a very satisfying life. However six years ago, after a suicide attempt I was admitted to the CPEP unit at Bellevue, the place that Wonderland depicts. After one day people with mental illness are diagnosed and treated with medication and a day or two later they are no longer suffering from the delusions that are so common in such a chemically imbalanced illness and are no longer violent as the patients in Wonderland were potrayed. I spent three months at Bellevue before my release and I NEVER saw anyone acting out like the patients of Wonderland. This show only continued to further the stigma that haunts all of us suffering from some form of mental illness and keeps us from finding fulfilling gainful employment. I am lucky since i work in the field of treating those with mental illness and i can understand what many are going through.

i must add that i did enjoy some of the best acting TV has ever allowed us to see. Especially Ted Levine (Jame Gumm in Silence of the Lambs) who is one of my favorite character actors but as a first hand observer the storylines were not an accurate portrayal of the reality in the CPEP Unit at Bellevue.

I'm not sure how long this series was on abc...but it was brief. The problem? This series was way to intense for prime time. The writing was top-notch, and the characters were involving, but I don't think America was ready for something like this. I almost broke into a sweat just watching it. Its in-your-face style constantly assaulted the viewer, and its gritty images and dark themes challenged mainstream television. People would rather not break the happy little bubble that is network television. And that really is a shame, because this show had a lot of potential.