By JIM BAWDEN

STARWEEK MAGAZINE
January 2004​

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We first spot the bright, young female lawyer standing outside Toronto's Old City Hall as a performance artist entertains the crowd. Then she hears the grave tolling of 9 a.m. bells and rushes inside.

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It's Alice De Raey's (Cara Pifko) first day in court as a lawyer, but she hasn't a clue where she is going.

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And so begins CBC's hour-long drama series This Is Wonderland, a taut but engaging account of a novice attorney's mental and physical journey as she discovers the difference between what she learned in school and practical, everyday experiences.

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On the sprawling sound stage on Lansdowne Ave., it really looks as if the show is right at Old City Hall. The five main courtrooms are copied down to the last detail — the floor of the original was photographed and the exact pattern stamped on the sound stage.

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"The only detail left out is the high ceiling, which seems hundreds of feet up. We have our lights up there," explains director of photography Gerald Parker.

 

But the drama behind the making of This Is Wonderland is almost as exciting as the drama being acted out in front of the cameras.

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The CBC fall press book lists the series as "pending financing," which executive producer Bernie Zuckerman translates as "we didn't get all the money needed" from various Telefilm Canada funds. Consequently "I'm shooting each episode for $200,000 less than planned."

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What does that mean? "We shoot three episodes at once," Zuckerman says. "All scenes in this court are done one after the other. It means I need the most experienced directors around. The first three episodes Bruce MacDonald (Twitch City) directed, the next three Anne Wheeler (The Investigation) is directing." Wheeler tells crew members it is the first time she's ever directed in Toronto. "Without block-shooting, we couldn't deliver the show," Zuckerman says.

 

The way Zuckerman, himself a trained lawyer, remembers it he was chatting up writer George Walker and his partner Dani Romain, and they began discussing the kind of legal series they'd like to see on TV.

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"Forget the shows where the lawyers wear Armani," Zuckerman snorts. "George would wander into the courts on College Park and it was so different from what you see on The Practice. The writers built their stories from real material."

 

With his background (Love And Hate, Chasing Cain) Zuckerman knew if he hired the best actors and shot almost everything indoors on sound stages "we could squeak by. I've got actors in here like Eric Peterson," who plays Justice Declan Mallone. He points to Peter Outerbridge, his Chasing Cain co-star, as an example of the calibre of guest actor he has been attracting.

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If lead Cara Pifko sounds and looks more than a little like Ally McBeal, who is complaining? Pifko relaxes for a few minutes in one of the darkened courtrooms and agrees this is her TV moment.

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Last week she had one of the big leads in the CBC miniseries Human Cargo, this week it's another lead in This Is Wonderland. "If people don't know me after that, it's their fault!" she jokes.

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Pifko says her character "is very naive. She thought a senior partner would be there to show her the steps. Instead she has to learn everything and at first it's rough for her. But by the first episode's end she's already helping her clients."

Alice (as in Wonderland: get it?) represents the eyes of the audience who are drawn into this world they probably know little about. "And they learn how it works along with her," Pifko says. "It's not the big criminal courts, its the day-to-day stuff. And it can be a brutal place."

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Over in his trailer, Michael Riley, the other big star, is wondering when the cold rain will stop. He has a dazzling turn in Episode One as brilliantly erratic lawyer Elliott Sacks, the one who, despite scraggly long hair, a disheveled suitcoat and baggy pants, exudes a certain charismatic quality. Wonderland marks Riley's return to series TV after winning what seemed like an armful of Geminis for Power Play.

 

"Brett Parker (his Power Play character) and Elliott are two very different dudes," Riley cautions. "First of all, one doesn't turn down a George Walker script. I read the first one and it just all made sense. My character lives and breathes the legal system, understands its complexities as well as anybody can, and just loves this kind of law. He'll jabber with anybody about everything, he's got such energy."

 

And in more ways than one he becomes Alice's mentor. Is there a hint of romantic tension, too? There always is to keep viewers tuned.

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"It's the best material I've ever had on TV," Riley says. "The scripts are all that way and it gets an actor like me going." He's referring to his penchant for pasting script pages all over his dressing room to plot the arc of each story. On the day we spoke, Riley's big scenes involved a confrontation with a rambunctious character played to the hilt by Jennifer Dale.

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Riley says with most law series "it's murder and murder. I think these stories are more dramatic because they depend on the lawyer's finesse. The stories are everything and anything you go looking for."

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Walker says he went to court for a year-and-a-half to study trials. "It's a great place to witness real drama. The volume is amazing. It just comes upon you as you're watching: small lives are at stake. At times it can be unnerving, what you're watching. It's never a comfortable place to be."

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Back on the set, Zuckerman says he's "gone into overtime for 15 minutes. There's no safety net here. The actual filming has almost been restful, watching all these excellent actors at work." It's 4 p.m. and there are two more scenes to be shot before a lunch break. "When you hire the best they won't let you down," he says, rechecking his watch. This Is Wonderland debuts Monday at 9 p.m. on CBC.