More gritty reboots! Yay! This one comes in the form of an epic TV series EMERALD CITY, based on L. Frank Baum's popular WIZARD OF OZ novel (though I imagine the show will also take cues from other, lesser known books in the Baum's OZ saga as well). Honestly, it's mostly surprising it's taken this long to make a gritty reboot about Oz more than anything. You'd think this is one of those no-brainer ideas (see what I did there? I'll see myself out…)
Anyway, here's the trailer:
Hmm. I'm not sure I like what I saw (it really reminds me of when Todd McFarlane did those Oz redesign toys back in the '90s), but I can't deny it at least looked epic. Especially for a TV budget. I suppose my main issue isn't so much the grittiness (I mean, I want those McFarlane toys) as much as it is the genericness: big armies, whispered tones, cutting back on fantasy elements to make it inconsistently more "real" (like how Scarecrow is no longer just a sentient scarecrow with no brain, he's now just a dude with amnesia who's covered in straw at one point. Ugh.)
But your mileage may vary. So what do you guys think? You wanna go down this yellow brick road? Sound off below!
EMERALD CITY will premiere on NBC January 6th, 2016.