Article first published as EMERALD CITY Review on Seat42F.
I’m a big fan of The Wizard of Oz. Not
just the MGM movie, though that is great, but the world of Oz in
general. As a child, I devoured all fourteen of L. Frank Baum’s books
over and over again. And while no faithful adaptation has yet been made
(at least not that I’m aware of), a fact that is very disappointing to
me, I have enjoyed some of the more interesting modern versions, such as
SyFy’s Tin Man and the Broadway musical Wicked, as well as Gregory
Maguire’s series of Wicked books. So it was with great anticipation that
I sat down to sample NBC’s new drama, EMERALD CITY.
What EMERALD CITY does right is use more
of the Oz mythology than most works. The Judy Garland film is actually
quite a bit departed from the written work, but even then, only makes
use of the first in the series. There are a rich tapestry of characters
and corners of the land that are not explored in that initial offering,
and while Disney’s horrible movie Return to Oz combined books two and
three (since the second is the only one Dorothy isn’t in), most projects
that tackle Oz ignore the other thirteen volumes. I feel this is a
mistake that EMERALD CITY at least partially corrects.
Dorothy (Adria Arjona, True Detective)
is the star, which is likely the right move, given that she is the
character most people are familiar with. But the other central player in
the books, which the second one centered around, is Tip (Jordan
Loughran, Evermoor). Those who have read them will assume where EMERALD
CITY is going with the boy, long held prisoner by a lesser witch, and
who is extremely important to the land as a whole. I feel like this
television series will likely pay that off based on what I’ve seen so
far, though I’m not convinced Tip’s importance will be as high as it is
on the page.
Other main players include familiar
characters like The Wizard (Vincent D’Onofrio, Daredevil, Law &
Order: Criminal Intent), Glinda (Joely Richardson, Nip/Tuck, the
Patriot), West (Ana Ularu, Inferno), as in The Wicked Witch of the,
Tip’s pal, Jack (Gerran Howell, Young Dracula), and Lucas (Oliver
Jackson-Cohen, NBC’s Dracula).
Now, while Lucas is lacking straw, he’s
clearly some version of The Scarecrow, and Jack has got to be Jack
Pumpkinhead, though he appears to be perfectly human. This is something
EMERALDN CITY does wrong, in my opinion. Although magic is part of this
Oz, there are no magical creatures, which is essential element of any Oz
tale. It doesn’t quite feel right if everyone is human, as is the case
here, and that certainly takes away from the overall mythology.
Besides the witches, there are
supernatural elements, including prophecy and giants, but these start to
build a world that isn’t Oz. These are something else. Which makes me
wonder if perhaps the show shouldn’t have ditched the Oz tie-ins
completely and just done something completely different. It feels like
sometimes too much effort is made to use a familiar property when
originality would be the better way to go. Renaming the realm, the
witches, and the protagonist could depart it enough to give EMERALD CITY
more freedom without needing to give up the things they kept in common.
It also seems that EMERALD CITY may
ditch the inaccessibility of Oz, including the nearby land of Ev,
another element from the books, in the show as well, but presumably
making it easier to come and go from Oz, with no sign of the deadly
desert completely surrounding it. Like using the name Ojo (Olafur Darri
Olafsson, The Missing) but failing to make this Ojo anything like the
one Baum wrote, some of the choices seem like they were made purely to
name drop something without actually using the source material. This
seems odd.
None of this matters as much as the
overall feel of the show, though, which is that of a lower quality
program (except for the special effects). The action isn’t gripping, and
none of the performances engage the viewer as much as one would wish.
Despite having a couple of decently-known performers, EMERALD CITY feels
more like it belongs on SyFy than network television, not quite at the
level of a mainstream program. Parts of it are boring or confusing, and I
am not sold on the core plot thread. The witches don’t feel powerful, I
don’t buy Oz himself being in charge for this much time, and tying
Dorothy’s past into the land is unnecessary and weird.
Also, where are the Tin Man and the
Cowardly Lion? I mean, come on! And Toto is a German Shepherd?
Seriously? OK, now I’m just being breed-ist, but that one does hurt a
bit, more than any other casting decision.
I don’t hate EMERALD CITY as much as
many critics do; I actually continued right to the third hour after the
double-length pilot. But there is nothing in those initial installments
that makes me think I’ll rank it up there with the films and novels
listed in the opening paragraph. I wonder how much of my continued
viewing will be based in my high regard for the central property, rather
than the merits of the series itself, which seem a bit lacking, though
there are some intriguing bits throughout.
EMERALD CITY premieres this Friday at 9/8c on NBC.
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