It's a mild crowd pleaser for people who are exhausted by blockbusters.

It's easily one of the freshest, sharpest and most enjoyable films of this year.

The movie's not perfect, but it sticks the landing of its message. It was engaging - thrilling at times - and I personally thought it was a great time.

This movie feels like it was made purely to piss off people who want good shows

I watched the first two episodes on Direct TV's 101 network and they're showing the rest in case you didn't know. I felt all the same emotions people commented on here, even though its 9 years later. It really shows you it was a great show that held up over time and would have been big if it didn't get banned. I didn't think it was that controversial. I loved it and the characters and want to see what happens next.I volunteered in mental institutions twice and the people are more calm not shouting as much and not as uncontrollable as much as in the TV show, but thats not saying that all people with mental illness are like that, since the show is more about the extremes. Every episode of House has the strangest most unlikely illnesses possible, but no one points out how unrealistic it is. I thought the show was quite realistic.

I saw the pilot of this show six years ago, and when it crossed my mind a few minutes ago, I had to see if I could find out why the series didn't continue. I recall thinking at the time that it was probably the finest pilot I had ever seen. When the show didn't materialize, I was so disappointed. I don't recall details, after all this time, but now I read that it was canceled because of pressure from advocates for the mentally ill. This is interesting, because I donate regularly to NAMI, and NARSAD, and am very much concerned with the wellbeing of victims of mental illness, as two very close, very beloved family members have died as a result of mental illness.It seems to me that this series could actually have been used to educate the public about mental illness. If there were issues with how mentally ill persons were depicted, it seems to me that it would have been more beneficial to address those issues within plots rather than cancel the series. I feel certain that the writers were up to the challenge of keeping the show entertaining, dramatic, and not overly "politically correct" while actually making the public MORE aware of the plight of mentally ill people, and possibly removing some of the stigma and "otherness" which we add to the burden of their disease.

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.