Never Did Give Nothin’
Posted on | December 30, 2007 at 9:39 pm | 1 Comment
During my vacation, I finally got around to watching the SciFi Channel original miniseries Tin Man. The series is billed as a “bold reimagining” of the Wizard of Oz and the credits say it is based on The Wonderful Wizard of Oz book by L. Frank Baum. I think I was hoping for some sort of deconstruction, but it was more of an original story that happened to use some of the same elements from the source material. Although, confusingly and unnecessarily, there’s a single scene in the final part which strongly hints that the events of the original movie/book happened and that this story is some sort of sequel. It’s also unclear why it’s called Tin Man, since the titular character is not really the main character or the focus of the story.
The heroine “DG” is played by wide-eyed movie actress Zooey Deschanel (or maybe by Pushing Daises actress Anna Friel; I can never tell them apart). Alan Cumming is the half-brained Glitch, Neal McDonough is the Tin Man, and Raoul Trujillo is the furry Raw. Richard Dreyfuss, cementing his downward career slide, is the Mystic Man, who is the Wizard substitute. There’s even a Toto, of sorts, who’s a shape-changer. Kathleen Robertson plays the villainous sorceress Azkadellia; much critical attention has been focused on her heaving bosom (which is substantial) and the flying monkey-bats that emerge from it.
My biggest beef with the series, besides it being somewhat dull, predictable and cliché-ridden, is that it never really decided just what it wanted to be. Was it a reinterpretation or a sequel? Was it science fiction or fantasy? It takes place in a land called “The Outer Zone”, which everyone kept referring to as “The O.Z.”, and that made me think I was watching the CW. It’s filled with weird machines that call to mind the steampunk subgenre of SF, and parts of the O.Z. look not too different from our world. And yet there’s also magical elements that bring forth every fantasy cliché imaginable. The thrust of the story is the search for the Emerald of the Eclipse, which Azkadellia needs in order to bring darkness to the land for all eternity or something. Why this would be a desirable thing is never fully explained. It’s all pretty rote and there are few surprises along the way. By the time “the Seeker” shows up and kidnaps DG, she’s the last one to realize that he’s her father, which the audience had guessed a few commercial breaks ago. And when DG finally confronts the evil Azkadellia (whom it turns out is her sister) during the attempted execution of her evil plan, you know exactly what she’s going to do to defeat her. There’s little suspense.
I think they should’ve left the fantasy elements out of it altogether and just tried to do a straight science fiction intrepretation. And though there was some good light-hearted acting here and there (especially with Cumming and Deschanel), the whole affair was rather humorless and plodding. And very padded-out.
So why did I sit through all six hours of it? Because the main male villain was the awesome Callum Keith Rennie, who has appeared in almost every genre show ever (usually as a villain), and whom I always recognize as “that guy”. He’s exactly one week younger than me. The dude needs his own fan club.
Now I’m just waiting for the SciFi Channel version of The Sound Of Music.
Jogged Today: Not yet!
Today’s Weight: 164.8 lbs
Lunch Yesterday: None
Pet Peeve of the Day: The lack of credits and other packaging materials with downloaded digital albums.
Latre.
Comments
One Response to “Never Did Give Nothin’”
December 31st, 2007 @ 4:15 am
Sounds like a committee effort – like so many other shows and movies – and that’s my own diplomatic phrase for the process. Most use harsher terms.
Ever notice how many truly exceptional productions are fundamentally the creative vision of one person? They’re very rare in the overall scheme of things, but highly over-represented in the subcategory of “good stuff”. I’d give a list of examples, but if you can’t come up with your own then you shouldn’t be reading this blog. It takes a team to make a show, but when the person with the big idea is also given enough control to say “no” to bad ideas, the results at least have a shot at being coherent.