{"id":2819,"date":"2007-12-09T10:04:57","date_gmt":"2007-12-09T18:04:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/?p=2819"},"modified":"2007-12-09T19:16:34","modified_gmt":"2007-12-10T03:16:34","slug":"2819","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/?p=2819","title":{"rendered":""},"content":{"rendered":"

In the weeks before the Tin Man<\/em><\/a> miniseries premiered on the Sci-Fi Channel, I kept seeing these stories on their news service about how the cast members all praised their co-stars. “A joy to work with.” “Really committed to the part.” That sort of thing.<\/font><\/p>\n

Now I see that that’s because there’s little else to praise about it. I’m not surprised to learn that some of the same people (and sets) were used in Flash Gordon<\/em><\/a>. They both carry around the same quality of suck.<\/font><\/p>\n

I think it might have been better if it had adhered a little more (or less) closely to the original Wizard of Oz<\/em> story. Its best moments are those that play like a twisted spin on L. Frank Baum’s story…or, alternately, those moments that strike out completely and wholly on their own.<\/font><\/p>\n

Unfortunately, most of what I’ve seen so far has been more along the lines of bad puns and too-cutesy references. (Like “the O.Z.” for Oz. Or “D.G.” instead of Dorothy.) What should have been a remake or sequel ends up as some weird, misbegotten pastiche.<\/font><\/p>\n

In all fairness, I’ve only seen the first part so far. And some of the acting isn’t half bad, actually — even if Zooey Deschanel does seem a little miscast. (I usually like her, but what her IMDB profile<\/a> calls “her distinctive acting style” is a little grating here.) I’m just not sure I can bring myself to watch the rest.<\/font><\/p>\n

Update — 12\/9\/07<\/strong>: I just finished watching Part II. Here it actually got a little interesting, albeit only near the very end. There’s an intriguing story lurking somewhere in there for Kathleen Robertson’s character, Azkadellia. Alas, it’s hidden beneath a lot of bad writing and weak, pointless references to The Wizard of Oz<\/i>. (“Toto” is actually “tutor”? Uh huh.) I guess I’m committed to finishing this now, and I do have the last part sitting on the DVR, but my earlier opinion stands.<\/font><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In the weeks before the Tin Man miniseries premiered on the Sci-Fi Channel, I kept seeing these stories on their news service about how the cast members all praised their co-stars. “A joy to work with.” “Really committed to the part.” That sort of thing. Now I see that that’s because there’s little else to … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[238],"class_list":["post-2819","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2819"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2819"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2819\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2819"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2819"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2819"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}