The hype around the Sci Fi Channel's miniseries, Tin Man, was incredible. The channel best known for Stargate Atlantis, Dr. Who and weekend-long disaster movie marathons has been promoting this show for quite a few months now; the trailers were quite spectacular. I'd love to tell you that the show lived up to its hype.
I can't. SciFi did a wonderful job getting folks to the party, but then didn't serve any alcohol or deliver a rockin' band.
Overall, the storyline was compelling and the concept intriguing: a young girl from Kansas heads to OZ (the outer zone in this story) to find out that she was actually an OZ princess hidden on "the other side" to protect her from her evil sister. Turns out sis was actually possessed by an evil witch who wanted to use the "power of the Emerald" to turn an eclipse into everlasting darkness.
As good as the premise was, the six-hour miniseries just couldn't get on its feet. The editing was choppy and the acting, particularly on the part of Zooey Deschanel as DG, was just so-so. Kathleen Robinson as the evil Azkadelia was decent, but her range was limited - she went from looking/acting crazy one minute to snarling and giving the evil eye the next. It got tiring after a while. And poor Richard Dreyfuss was completely marginalized in a cameo role as the "Mystic Man" (aka the Wizard).
The writers tried hard to use as many references to the original Wizard of Oz as possible, including this line given by Azkadelia, "My gods, she's off to see the Wizard" and a visit by DG to the tomb of her greatest grandmother, Dorothy Gale, you know, the first "slipper" to the OZ.
I so wanted more. But while I was disappointed overall, I should point out that this is a visually spectacular show and worth watching if you're home sick/snowbound and have it Tivo'd. And for those who didn't turn on the DVR, never fear, the Sci Fi channel will run it ad naseum over the next few weeks/months.
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