Emerald City

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!

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 don't understand how this wasn't more popular and why they would cancel it!? it's dark, exciting, the world building is great, acting is great, the cinematography is great.... it leaves off on a cliffhanger and a lot of loose ends which would be great if there was a season 2! but there isn't. and i can't find anything, show or book, that can satiate this itch i now have. we need season 2!

This came out in 16-17?!? Idk if anyone elses streaming services are hiding things?!? I'll notice when I look at new releases it will show things the they never come up in the new stuff and this is on all my paid streaming services! I have 350 characters left so at least I've used half! I've always thought the idea of OZ as a good base for a good series. This was kind of how I imagined it but with a bigger budget and look ( think GOT). The main actress is awful as well as the Wizard! The two main characters they should have left money in the budget for decent actors. I love Joely Richardson! At 57 she blows most younger women out of the water with her alluring, intriguing sexiness. Oliver Jackson -Cohen is good as well but with a bigger budget and more imagination this could have been a 5-7 season show because who didn't grow up loving the wizard of oz?!? Have 1 episode left but it's a decent watch but I was sick of the 60 seconds f commercials every 5 minutes which is barely why I finish anything on Peacock and I pay extra for NO commercials!

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