Emerald City: The Beast Forever; Prison of the Abject
January 7, 2017 12:03 PM - Season 1, Episode 1 - Subscribe
A tornado transports Dorothy to a mystical land in the series premiere of this combined episode of a dark, modern reimagining of "The Wizard of Oz." (aka, NBC tries to Game-of-Thronesify Oz)
It looks nice and is on after Grimm so I'll watch as much of it as NBC puts on. It's at least better than the competition on live basic digital cable or network TV. I agree about the shallow themes but it looks pretty, like a mid-budget magitech RTS game from the mid-2000s.
posted by Small Dollar at 3:55 PM on January 7, 2017
posted by Small Dollar at 3:55 PM on January 7, 2017
The incredible visuals alone — I would expect no less from Tarsem Singh, knowing his work from The Cell and The Fall — will keep me on board for at least a few more episodes. I'll admit I was multitasking while watching this and not paying full attention so I didn't catch all of the plot points. I went and dug up a few recaps to catch up on some of what I'd missed. (Aside: Does anyone do in-depth recaps like Television Without Pity used to do anymore?)
Baum's original Oz books, published from 1900 to 1920, tend to be a rather popular source of adaptations (Wicked (book + sequels, musical), Tin Man miniseries, The Great and Powerful Oz, just off the top of my head), I think partly because they're one of the last notable fantasy series in the public domain, most later things — most works published in 1923 or later — having fallen under a de facto perpetual copyright in the US. It would be interesting to see reimaginings of more recent works, but that may not happen within our lifetimes.
posted by DevilsAdvocate at 5:49 AM on January 8, 2017 [1 favorite]
Baum's original Oz books, published from 1900 to 1920, tend to be a rather popular source of adaptations (Wicked (book + sequels, musical), Tin Man miniseries, The Great and Powerful Oz, just off the top of my head), I think partly because they're one of the last notable fantasy series in the public domain, most later things — most works published in 1923 or later — having fallen under a de facto perpetual copyright in the US. It would be interesting to see reimaginings of more recent works, but that may not happen within our lifetimes.
posted by DevilsAdvocate at 5:49 AM on January 8, 2017 [1 favorite]
(Aside: Does anyone do in-depth recaps like Television Without Pity used to do anymore?)
The original TWoP founders now have Previously.tv, which recaps some things and also has discussion forums. At the moment all they have up for Emerald City recap-wise is a new show fact sheet based on screeners of the first five episodes. I'm not sure if the writer of that is slated to do actual recaps of the individual episodes or not, though.
posted by theatro at 8:50 AM on January 8, 2017 [1 favorite]
The original TWoP founders now have Previously.tv, which recaps some things and also has discussion forums. At the moment all they have up for Emerald City recap-wise is a new show fact sheet based on screeners of the first five episodes. I'm not sure if the writer of that is slated to do actual recaps of the individual episodes or not, though.
posted by theatro at 8:50 AM on January 8, 2017 [1 favorite]
(Aside: Does anyone do in-depth recaps like Television Without Pity used to do anymore?)
AfterBuzz TV does in-depth (usually scene-by-scene) recaps and it looks like they'll have one for Emerald City. I've found the AfterBuzz video podcasts to be hit or miss depending on who the reviewers are. They also generally don't say much of anything negative about the shows they cover.
posted by fuse theorem at 2:12 PM on January 8, 2017 [1 favorite]
AfterBuzz TV does in-depth (usually scene-by-scene) recaps and it looks like they'll have one for Emerald City. I've found the AfterBuzz video podcasts to be hit or miss depending on who the reviewers are. They also generally don't say much of anything negative about the shows they cover.
posted by fuse theorem at 2:12 PM on January 8, 2017 [1 favorite]
Oh man, I actually liked it a lot and also disliked it a bit!
Liked - seeing Mombi, Tip/Ozma, cardinal witches, a Wizard with some menace. I like Toto being a for-serious dog that could be a real menace, rather than played for laughs. Scarecrow being smoking hot with memory issues.
.
Disliked- Tip being revealed to be a girl in the very first episode, also Ozma is supposed to be the most beautiful girl in Oz and I really feel like the actress they chose underwhelmed for that. If anything they could have swapped East and Ozma and we'd be in a better place.
I also dislike this weird "Episode 1 is actually episodes 1 and 2" thing they're doing here.
posted by corb at 12:54 AM on January 13, 2017 [1 favorite]
Liked - seeing Mombi, Tip/Ozma, cardinal witches, a Wizard with some menace. I like Toto being a for-serious dog that could be a real menace, rather than played for laughs. Scarecrow being smoking hot with memory issues.
.
Disliked- Tip being revealed to be a girl in the very first episode, also Ozma is supposed to be the most beautiful girl in Oz and I really feel like the actress they chose underwhelmed for that. If anything they could have swapped East and Ozma and we'd be in a better place.
I also dislike this weird "Episode 1 is actually episodes 1 and 2" thing they're doing here.
posted by corb at 12:54 AM on January 13, 2017 [1 favorite]
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posted by oh yeah! at 12:11 PM on January 7, 2017