What a view | Netflix K-drama Alice takes viewers on a time-warping journey through the wormhole
- Martial-arts sci-fi adventure Alice follows time travellers from 2050 back to 1992 Seoul in search of a sacred book
- Kim Hee-sun, Kwak Si-yang and Joo Won star in the dimension-bending debut series
Author Lewis Carroll must be wringing his bony hands at the thought of the product-placement fortune he could have accrued from all the countless artistic endeavours inspired by his heroine, Alice.
Among the latest is, yes, Alice (Netflix), a time-warping, science-fiction caper taking us through the wormhole, rather than down the rabbit hole, from 2050 to Seoul, 1992. Having been sent back from the future, Yoon Tae-yi (Kim Hee-sun) and Yoo Min-hyuk (Kwak Si-yang) must find an ancient book – why is it almost always an ancient book? – titled The Prophecy, which permits continued time travel.
Quite how the sacred book will do this is unclear, because no one is allowed to read it. But hey, never mind, because there are enough martial arts fisticuffs, choreographed to the obligatory hard-rock soundtrack, to smooth viewers over whatever narrative hurdles crop up.
Flashy new technology clashes with old-school hardware in the 16-episode debut series of Alice, which doesn’t waste much time in suggesting a corporation (fancy that!) is really behind much of what’s going on. Throw in the fears of a well-meaning, genius physicist – why is it almost always a physicist? – concerning what has been unleashed and we’re not far from familiar sci-fi territory.
Or perhaps we’ve just gone back in time, to an off-the-peg plot.