Blu-Ray/TV Series Review: Emerald City: Season 1

 

Emerald City is a trippy and sometimes very odd reimaging of the Land of Oz based on the novel The Wonderful Wizard of Oz and the 1939 film The Wizard of Oz, starring Judy Garland. In this adaptation, set in the modern day (as of 2017 anyway), Dorothy is a nurse in Kansas played by Jessica Alba lookalike Adria Arjona, who still gets transported to Oz via a tornado (although the circumstances are much different than in the movie), and still kills the Wicked Witch of the East (who is conveniently named East). But in this adaptation, East's death sets off a war between witches and the Wizard (played by Vincent D'Onofrio) which Dorothy into which Dorothy is thrown in the middle. Oliver Jackson-Cohen plays Lucas, a strange man with no memory (who is clearly an analog for The Scarecrow from the movie) who accompanies Dorothy through Oz.

The show looks and sounds great on blu-ray. There are, of course, a ton of special effects that make for really good visuals. The extras include a handful of short deleted scenes and a five-part making-of-documentary that runs about 45 minutes, give or take, in total. So, not a ton of extras, but what was included is good.

Chances are a lot of people who watch this will either love the show or hate it. It definitely tells a much different story than what was told in the movie. There is also a lot of violence and some sexual content. While there is no real nudity or explicit sex, it does push the boundaries of what could be shown on regular network tv, including a covered handjob. So, needless to say, this is not going to appeal to everyone and is not something that is appropriate for younger kids. I personally liked the fact that it included more characters than the movie did, and incorporated some of the neighboring kingdoms around Oz into the story. I think Arjona did a good job playing the series lead, but the entire cast including Joely Richardson, Stefanie Martini, and Isabel Lucas, did a good job in their roles. The show was canceled after just ten episodes and the writers were clearly setting up a second season, so if you do watch the show and like it, it may be a bit unfulfilling.