MANIA: TV Wasteland: Before the Boys Were Lost
By Rob Vaux
November 28, 2011
Syfy does rather well for itself when it re-tasks or reinterprets popular favorites. They scored big ratings for Tin Man and Alice, and despite a few rocky elements, those efforts succeeded in finding new wrinkles to their timeworn stories. Syfy is attempting it again with Neverland – set to premiere this Sunday – and it may be on stronger dramatic ground than ever before.
The basic idea holds great potential, charting how Peter Pan first came to Neverland and the origins of his conflict with Captain Hook. He begins life as a London street urchin before finding himself in Neverland: a place where he can never age and which will provide him the childhood his mortal life presumably denied him. We learn more about peripheral figures like Tiger Lilly and the Lost Boys in the process, as well as meeting Hook’s paramour Elizabeth Bonny (a relation to Anne?), who turns him into a bloodthirsty buccaneer.
The cast gives further cause for hope. Keira Knightley plays Tinkerbell and future Spidey villain Rhys Ifans portrays Hook. Perhaps most promising, Bob Hoskins returns as Smee: a role he originated with Steven Spielberg’s Hook and which he used to absolutely steal the show on that otherwise misbegotten production. None of them can guarantee quality, of course – and this is Syfy we’re talking about, so there’s always the chance of a massive screw-up – but the names are much more high-profile than we could have imagined, and with some good screenwriting, Neverland could easily become a grade-A winner. We’ll keep our fingers crossed and tune in Sunday, December 4 at 9:00 PM EST, when it premieres on Syfy. The conclusion runs Monday the 5th...
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