Wonderland (Australian TV series)
Wonderland is an Australian television romantic comedy drama series. It was first broadcast on Network Ten on 21 August 2013. The series was co-created by Jo Porter and Sarah Walker. The series is set in an apartment building and focuses on four couples as they navigate love, life and friendships. Wonderland features an ensemble cast and is filmed on location in Sydney. Three seasons of Wonderland were broadcast, before it was announced on 26 October 2015 that the show had been cancelled. The series has also aired in Europe and the United States. Premise Wonderland focuses on the lives and loves of four couples, who live in an apartment block in Sydney, Australia. Womaniser Tom Wilcox (Michael Dorman) places a bet that he will not have sex with a female flatmate for 12 months – otherwise he will lose his beloved car. However, his ideal woman, Miranda Beaumont (Anna Bamford) soon moves in with him. The other couples are the recently married Steve Beaumont (Tim Ross) and Dani Varvaris (Jessica Tovey), teacher Colette Riger (Emma Lung) and husband Rob Duffy (Ben Mingay), and lawyer Grace Barnes (Brooke Satchwell) and her new lover Carlos Dos Santos (Glenn McMillan). Production Conception On 23 October 2012, Network Ten announced its slate of new programming, with Wonderland being one of five new dramas commissioned for the channel. Michael Idato from The Age reported that Ten hopes the series will "tap into" Offspring's established audience. Wonderland is billed as "a contemporary romantic comedy" and was co-created by Jo Porter and Sarah Walker. The drama has drawn comparisons to The Secret Life of Us. The 22-part project is being produced by FremantleMedia Australia. Of the series, Ten's executive producer of drama, Rick Maier, said "Wonderland is an escapist treat with a great production team and with a perfectly-balanced ensemble cast. As the song says: the world really is wonderful and we can't wait to showcase this new series on Ten." The first series of Wonderland began airing from 21 August 2013. After 13 episodes, the finale aired in November 2013, with the remaining nine episodes scheduled to air as season two from 13 August 2014. Wonderland was commissioned for another 22 episodes, taking the episode count to 44. Of the second series, cast member Ben Mingay said "Season two steps it up a level and dives into really cool storylines and there is more comedy and drama than the first season, it's a whole other beast. Wonderland fans of the first season are going to love season two." The second season concluded after 15 episodes, airing on 19 November 2014. On 26 October 2015, it was announced that Wonderland had been cancelled after it "failed to find a sufficient audience". Most of the third-season episodes fell below the 500,000 audience mark. Casting Casting for the series was announced on 28 April 2013. Brooke Satchwell was cast as lawyer Grace Barnes. Describing her character, Satchwell stated "Grace is a very linear, bottled up defamation lawyer, and as