When they kept referring to the land as “the O-Z”, at first I thought it was an irritating affectation; then it occurred to me it might be an in-joke relating to the supposed origin of the name Oz. And “Tin Man” meaning lawman is kind of cool.
The Oz books are undoubtably silly, but L. Frank Baum created something remarkable if writers are still mining his work a hundred years later.
I watched the first part and I’m not going to bother with the rest. This was really weak and the need to shoehorn in things from the famous film version of The Wizard of Oz regardless of whether or not it makes sense in the new context is just annoying. It’s like someone said “Let’s do the Wizard of Oz, only edgy!” and no one actually thought through how to do anything more than making it edgy.
Anyone figure that there will be an inner portion to the “outer zone” to justify the name? No, I don’t think so either…
I was upset that there wasn’t enough of the old movie. Specifically the line “Do not pay attention to the man behind the curtain!” I don’t think there is anyway the could have worked in “Lion and tigers and bears-- oh my!”
I also missed the last 20 minutes or so-- I saw up until the part where the Wicked Witch was interrigating Richard Dryfus.
Lemme see if I got this straight: Zooey is Dorothy’s daughter who was raised by robots in order to save her imprisoned mother (and free the O-Z) when she turned 15? Is that the deal?
My husband and I thought Zooey Deschanel’s acting was really flat for the first part; I’m hoping it was intentional but still think it was poorly carried-out. I also think she’s the weakest of the cast. Alan Cumming is excellent, and I like Neal McDonough’s work here too, but as not-Dorothy they’re treated as merely supporting cast here.
I like the concept but agree that too many elements seem to be done simply because they sound “cool”, like the use of “O-Z,” “DG,” and similar things.
Regarding an “Inner Zone”:
Previews for tonight’s episode mention that The Sorceress/someone is testing a machine that will destroy the O-Z, so perhaps an Inner version does exist.
I guess TV has dulled my expectations sufficiently that I thought TM “wasn’t that bad!”
Too frequent commercial breaks, of course, but at least the breaks were relatively short.
I have a couple of hard core and a couple of moderate Oz/Wicked freaks in my house, so watching anything Baum-related is pretty much mandatory. I was trying to simply accept it on its own, rather than a retelling of the movie - not to mention the books. Some parts definitely fell flat, but overall, it wasn’t entirely unenjoyable.
Having said that, if it weren’t for my household interest I’m sure I would not be watching parts 2 and 3.
Mmm, cleavage monkeys…
I missed the first forty-five minutes or so, but I recorded the second showing of it, so I’ll watch it later and see if that changes my mind.
Is it just me, or were there an awful lot of cleavage shots? Maybe it was just because I was trying to see the seamlines on all the corsets, but I’m beginning to think boobs will be one of the sub-themes of the show. At least, the cleavage monkeys seem to me to have been born out of a conversation that went, "Hmm, we really need to amp up the sex appeal of this thing. We’ve got corsets everywhere and this sort of dominatrix feel, but we need more." Then the costume designer piped in with, “Have you ever considered cleavage monkeys?”
And is D.G. really supposed to be 15? I had her placed in her early 20s, but not mid-teens.
Ferret Herder, I thought the acting was kind of flat overall, so I’m leaning toward thinking it’s either the nature of the beast or the director.
I think they said something that made her around 20. I think one time they expressly referred to her as 20 (annuals - or whatever goofy term they used), and another time they said something like she was 5 when she left Oz and was gone for 15 years/annuals.
Plus, in an early scene she was riding a motorcycle to work, and there was no mention of school - suggesting somewhat older than 15.
It sort-of held my interest. Occasionally. Okay, mostly when Alan Cumming or Neal McDonough were on-screen. All the other actors were really… not so good. Even Dryfuss, who I’d at least expected a little scenery-chewing out of, but got bupkiss instead.
The “O.Z.” and “D.G” crap was just stupid. And if they had to mention that the Tin Man had no heart one damn more time I would’ve done violence. Okay, We Get It. Damn, that was bad writing.
But, it wasn’t as bad as the festering fecal matter that was “Merlin.” Or “the Odyssey.” Or “Tenth Kingdom.” Or “Earthsea.” Or “Magical Legend of the Leprechauns.” God, the Halmis suck.
Might still watch the rest, if only for McDonough & Cumming.
I thought it was entertaining, if not great, enough that I’ll watch the rest of it. I didn’t like Azkadellia’s “metal fetish” costume, though–it made her move so stiffly, it’s hard to look menacing when you’re that constrained by your clothing. The cleavage monkeys were kind of amusing, though–and apparently releasing them has the effect of curling her hair.
So far, it wasn’t bad but it wasn’t great either. It seems like in part one they’ve gotten through most of the original’s plot benchmarks except for killing the witch and going home. I liked some of the nods to the original - DG’s waitress dress, the poppy field (field of Papeis), etc. I like the literalness of the scarecrow’s quest for his brain. I like the Tin Man character. I like the lion too, although I don’t like his costume. I guess Toto joins the troupe next episode.
The flying monkeys are awesome. I didn’t like that we saw the OZ before Dorothy arrives - combined with the Munchkins living in an Ewok village, I really missed the juxtaposition of DG’s old dreary life with the sudden magical entrance into a land of wonder of the original. The introduction of sci-fi tech to OZ was cool, but the presence of tech from our world was off putting (cars!).
I don’t think they did enough with the individual scenes - it seemed like they were breezing through things. We barely got to see the Munchkins, for example. Over all, it was interesting and shows promise, so I’ll put off judgement until I see the whole things.
I thought it was pretty dreadful. It seemed to me like they just grafted some of the Oz trappings onto Generic Sci-Fi World #4061, which just made the whole thing irritating, particularly when the Oz world has always been so ripe for interesting reinterpretations.
In the scene early on, after she argued with ther “parents” the mother tells the father that they can’t hang on to her, she’s 18. IIRC.
Biggirl, I’d love to, but it didn’t make a lot of sense to my fuzzy brain. I remember the “wizard” was having his mind shuffled, but he resisted and died. I can’t remember the rest. Sorry.
Me, too, only I wasn’t sure if it was bad writing that we experienced as bad acting. Her lines made her seem completely clueless to the fact that she’s in a strange place with strange rules, and she needs to STFU until she figures out those rules.
I fell asleep about 90 minutes into it, so I need to watch the last 30 minutes. Overall, I thought it was mediocre, although I did get a very good laugh when “mom” tells DG that she’s a model XXXX nurturing unit.
Seemed like a lot of the sets were ripped off from the first movie version of “Dune”.