It was promising, but too much going on.

AndromedaCeline

I know I'm late to the Emerald City train. I saw the trailer sometime last year, was super excited, then forgot all about it until I re-newed my Hulu account and saw it on my feed. Anyway, overall I liked the show, however, I can see why they cancelled it.

First, the costumes are gooorgeous. I love Trisha Biggar's work in Star Wars I, II, & III, the costumes were about the best thing from those movies, and honestly they are here too. My favorite was the Witch of the East, her flowing red gown with her black feather collar and ruby hand clasps, stunning. Too bad she was so short lived, because it would have been nice to see more of her character.

Second, I love Adria Adjora as Dorothy. I thought she was gorgeous and it was great to see a Latina play that part. I also liked West's casting, don't remember the actresses name, but she was very good as well.

Third, I love the re-imagining of the original story. I love how it's updated for modern times, I love the science vs magic dispute (even though they didn't really flesh it out much), I like that ScareCrow/Lucas was in search of his memory (clever), Tin Man/ Jack was this Frankenstein half boy, half machine (ok, i can dig it), and Cowardly Lion/ was a disgraced, solider who cowardly murdered the royal family to save his own life (dope). There's a lot of great things about the story that I liked, but those are just a few.

Weak Points. Where the show took a turn for the worst was near the end. There was just a lot going on, a lot of loose ends to tie, and a lot were not able to tie together nicely. The "war" and "beast forever" climax it keep building up during the show was lackluster at best. A lot of the story was very convoluted and confusing to follow. There's the Wizard of Oz who is power hungry and ruthless and big on science, even though he never uses it; Glinda, who is cold-hearted stuck up bitch who was boring as hell to watch (Except her costumes); West, who interesting enough was the strongest character of the series, is a strung out nympho who is haunted by her past (one which never made sense to me); Tip, the boy who turns into a girl, who turns into a princess, who turns into a witch, only to turn back into a boy, then BACK into a princess again (not kidding); Jack, Tip's best friend who she kills and is turned into the Tin Man; Langwidere, selfish, princess who's really a robot (eye roll). And so on. There's a host of half ass characters and plots that don't really make sense, and never really go anywhere. Either they though the show was only going to be one season so they jammed as much in or they thought they would have more seasons to flesh these characters out, either way it's a mess. Near the end I no longer cared what happened to the characters, and that's when I knew why this was cancelled.

Overall, it was a decent attempt, but it sucks the story was so sloppy, because it had A LOT of potential.

score 6/10

AndromedaCeline 6 July 2017

Reprint: https://www.imdb.com/review/rw3747765/