Emerald City

Aside from the obvious elephant in the room when you first start watching the pilot - Dorothy is definitely older than 20- I liked the casting and really like the lead actress and believe she has depth and intelligence. If they had gone and castes a dumb but pretty face for the hot factor alone, leaving a forgettable lead character than I wouldn't have bothered watching past the 10 min marker. But I liked her and I liked the quick lead in and the whole setting really. The casting for everyone else and their chemistry is superb. The set design and costumes are special and worthy of recognition. You SHOULD feel like you're in a different world and you do. I'm also a mega fan of Vincent D and was not disappointed by his turn as a beloved but strange wizard with dark undertones hiding something (many things I'm sure),

I wasn't sure I'd like this show at first. It wasn't until close to the end of the first episode that I decided I needed to see more. Now I can't wait for each new episode! The cast is fantastic, the story line is mysterious and interesting. I think the sets and film locations are very well done. I'm curios to see what Glynda plans to do with the young witches and if the Wizard turns out to be Dorothy's father. Dorothy and Lucas have great chemistry too. Yes, it's completely different from the original story and movie. Toto is lovable but would also have no problem defending Dorothy if necessary. I think Emerald City has years worth of potential. So...WATCH THIS SHOW!

Why this show scores lower than 8 is a pure mystery to me, maybe because the show is more intelligent than an average fantasy show out there... I am a big fan of Game of Thrones and I can see there is a lot of inspiration in Emerald City that comes from Game of Thrones, the difference however is - no tits, violence and sex ... I think one of the reasons why I like the show is that it has a certain touch of realism politics and characters being somewhat messed up. Just look at them - everyone apart from Dorothy is obsessed with either power, revenge control or magic...

The Story 9/10

A cold war between 2 kingdoms and witches that are an opposite of each other

Characters 10/10

Love the wizard, the 2 sister witches are a contrast of chaos and order, Dorothy - a sweetie, Jack/ Tip/ Masked Princess are a blast!

Environment design 9/10

The sets, locations and computer Graphics are great!

Interesting start. Episode 4 was very good. Episode 5 blew my mind.

Some people hate having a story re-told but for me movies and shows are just a director's version of a story and well done re-telling can be interesting. The play Wicked is a perfect example.

Visually appealing, smart and sexy, special effects are much better than with previous shows such as Once Upon a Time. NBC apparently wants to give the other media formats that have been eating into their subscriber base a run for the money by creating original content that has not been seen before. NBC brought in director Tarsem Singh and this is his first television project but he comes well prepared with past experience in movies such as The Cell which he also did with Vincent D'Onofrio and other well received movies. Filmed in Spain, Hungary and Croatia.

Based more on the original Baum books than the first movie was which covered only the first book. So far it appears there is more of a focus on having human characters and it doesn't have the magical creatures that are part of Baum's books.

Some twists so far:

Baum's flying monkeys are drone automatons that resemble golden monkeys that spy on the denizens of Oz for the Wizard. Instead of the Munchkinville we have a Tribal Free Lands. The reason for the Yellow brick road is explained. Oz is not a hard to reach area as it was in the movie. Seems like many folks are concerned about Toto being portrayed by a German Shepard but give the dog a chance.

More importantly the story is told more in Baum's style so Dorothy is not the focus and others get to show their involvement in the story as well. It may well be not all about Dorothy this time around.

I do see some open questions especially the way they started the first few minutes of the show but I am guessing like with many movies today they will be going back to answer some of those questions later in the season.

Key players so far are the following:

Witch of the West (Ana Ularu)/ Witch of the East (Florence Kasumba)/ Glinda (Joely Richardson)/ Wizard of Oz (Vincent D'Onofrio)/ Dorothy (Adria Arjona)/ Lucas (Oliver Jackson-Cohen,The Strawman)/ Eamonn (Wizard Guard/The Lion?)/Jack (Gerran Howell) /Mombi (Witch, Fiona Shaw)/ Tip (Ozama?, Daughter of the King of Oz, Jordan Loughran)/ Karen (Dorothy's birth mother, Gina Bellman)/ Anna (Counselor, Isabel Lucas)/ Princess Langwidere, Lady Ev, Princess of Ev (Stefanie Martini)(brief flashes of her so far but appears in the fourth episode)

NBC offers more info from their site, Oz Reimagined: The Making of Emerald City, under Sneak Peeks from http://www.nbc.com/emerald-city

The acting was spot on, the story was unique, and it felt like something new. It is disappointing that they never went with a second season but if you are into the fantasy genre this is a must watch.