The first episode of a new Refinery29-produced fairy tale anthology series, Fabled, premiered during the 2018 Tribeca Film Festival this past week.  Titled “Anodyne,” the series offers us another take on some of the beloved fairy tale characters of all time.

The series, created by Evan Jonigkeit and Girls alumnus Zosia Mamet, imagines a world in which Alice in Wonderland‘s titular Alice (Mamet) meets The Wizard of Oz‘s Dorothy (Gugu Mbatha-Raw) in a mental institution.  With Once Upon A Time coming to and end and Grimm already canceled, there’s going to be a void on television with regards to fairy tales.  This series, assuming it gets picked up by a network or streaming provider, could help fill that void.

With the mental institution angle, it opens up a lot of opportunities in which direction the series decides to go.  Having only seen the pilot, it’s hard to say but there’s a lot of potential.  Coming off of Girls and her strong performance in The Boy Downstairs, there’s no doubt that the future is bright for Mamet.  Gugu Mbatha-Raw was superb in Fast Color and is becoming solidly reliable in her work.  The two have great chemistry in their brief screen time together.  Women can do a lot when they put their minds to it but combine the forces of two strong women and a lot can happen in that regard.

Best known for her portrayal of Emma Swan in Once Upon A Time, Jennifer Morrison directs the first episode.  The first episode introduces us to Allie (Alice), Dee (Dorothy), Dr. Beard (Norbert Leo-Butz), and Josh (Paul Wesley) in the first episode.  Without having to say it, there’s a sense of knowing that they want to get back to Wonderland and Oz, respectively.  Once they make a run for it, there’s a feeling of wanting to see the direction in which the series continues.

Much in the way that the aforementioned Once Upon A Time did over the course of its run, Fabled will change what we know about our favorite characters.  When the series does get picked up and hopefully soon, the anthology will have a strong female bent in its storytelling.

DIRECTOR: Jennifer Morrison
SCREENWRITERS:  Evan Jonigkeit & Zosia Mamet
CAST:  Zosia Mamet, Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Norbert Leo-Butz, Paul Wesley

An official selection of the 2018 Tribeca Film Festival, Fabled premiered as a part of the Tribeca TV: Indie Pilots program.