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| Ok who wouldn't want to find a half naked guy on a cross? |
Okay the whole story is similar (eerily so) to ABC's Once Upon A Time. It certainly has a few elements in common: Dorothy (Adria Arjona) like Emma has a job that helps people though Dorothy is a nurse but she has a criminal element where Emma has a record, Dorothy steals pills for her family to make money on the side to help them pay the bills. Both heroines have an identity crisis because they were given up as infants by mothers who were hoping to save them from evil forces. Both heroines are drawn into a strange world to find that they are not normal but have magic. And they both have love interests with criminal pasts. Perhaps one of the few differences between Dorothy and Emma is that NBC replaced a cute kid with a cute dog, a police dog to be exact. I will say that Dorothy seems more well adjusted though but that's because she was adopted and raised by her Aunt Em and uncle who love her like their own daughter.
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| Will these poppy seeds make me forget this storyline is boring? |
That being said I feel Emerald City is much darker than Once Upon A Time. It's more surreal taking elements from the original novel and/or film and twisting them inside out: the yellow brick road was turned into a road layered with golden poppy seeds; the muchkins are now feral tribesmen of the Freelands; the Wizard of Oz (Vincent D'Onofrio) is actually a paranoid dictator who is suspicious of magic and has outlawed it; the "scare crow" has become a man who was crucified brutally and having amnesia; the Witch of the East (Florence Kasumba) isn't necessarily evil but nevertheless she tortures Dorothy and her new companion Lucas (scare crow guy) (Oliver Jackson-Cohen) leading Dorothy to trick the Witch into killing herself with the gun when she asks how it works; The Wicked Witch of the West (Ana Ularu) is... running a brothel and has a drug problem; Glinda the Witch of the North (Joely Richardson) seems less bubbly than her film counterpart being much colder and business-like; OH! And the ruby slippers have been transformed into gold and ruby studded gloves that have dissolved into Dorothy's flesh which is a good thing because ruby slippers are ostentatious and not great for walking also it adds a mystery that may keep you for the next episode.
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| I do like how they made the flying monkey a mechanical one |
But perhaps my favorite part was the end of the episode where a cute little boy Tip (Jordan Loughran) who was being held prisoner by the crazy herbalist Mombi, turned out to be a cute not so little girl. Mombi apparently kidnapped or just took in the child protecting him/her from the dangerous world but Dorothy set him/her free after crazy Mombi tried to poison her traveling companion Lucas. Though Lucas crushed Mombi's head in a fit of rage because she tried to hurt Dorothy and himself, you saw that her hand twitched so you will see that cuckoo bird again. So the gender-bender thing is a shock. I'm trying to figure if Tip is supposed to be the "Tin Man" or Tin Woman in this case. Mombi was giving him "medicine" that kept his feminine side locked away in which case I think him being a girl is his "heart"? Sounds weak but it's one of the few story lines that isn't completely boring.
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| The dog is probably gonna be the best character on this show |
I do like the Lucas/Dorothy aspect. I'm just a sucker for fantasy/romances with soul mates in them (no matter how cheesy and played out that story is). Adria and Oliver have some spark between them on screen. They don't force it but there are moments where you're just rolling your eyes because it's so obvious these two are gonna be a thing. However, I feel the overall setting and other elements of the show are just enough to compensate until this romance blossoms into something better... or not. There are plenty of other characters for you to love on this show with curious relationships to explore if you don't want to watch the cliché of princess/chosen one falling love with their knight in shining armor.
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| West is her name? That's it? Come on |
Still I like how Dorothy is now a bit wary of Lucas (she named him after her hometown... because he's symbolic of her home... in case you're not already aware these two are gonna be romantically involved). She saw his dark side and that maybe Mombi was right that he's really a wicked guard of the Wizard who doesn't have a heart (oh maybe they combined the Tin Man & Scare Crow characters cool). There was a scene where Dorothy tries to teach Lucas how to do a knock-knock joke which was cute but then it came back around where Lucas is trying to make Dorothy now less afraid of him by saying "Knock-Knock" trying to engage her. So this romance will develop organically in some sense where it won't be all flirting all the time and blindly trusting a guy you met on a cross may not have amnesia after all.
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| Don't harden your hearts just yet... Even though this cliché is super played out |
I'm willing to give this show a shot. So the story is monotonous and looks like it's probably going to rely solely on visual effects (which is what a few people are saying) I'm always willing to give a show a chance to find it's voice, flow, vibe whatever you wanna call it that makes the story move fluidly. I feel people have been bombarded with so many fantasy shows that they're bound to be combined in another story but does that mean it's going to be bad? Not always. It's hard to come up with completely original elements without someone being a dick calling it out in a show then ruining it for everyone. Sometimes you just got to let that stuff go and give a show a chance to tell it's story before you go criticizing it's style or writing. Don't click your ruby heels on this one just yet. Give it a few more episodes before you make pass judgement.
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