I don’t know about you…well, depending on how old you are…but I absolutely LOVED Return to Oz as a child and NBC’s take on the yellow brick road classic reminds me of that same dark and twisted version of Dorothy’s adventure.
Emerald City has so much color and life just like those ruby red slippers we all remember, except no slippers in this one. There are so many twists and turns and the fight between science and magic, you won’t want to miss it. Here’s everything you need to know about the upcoming 10-episode event series:
Dorthy Gale is played by Adria Arjona (True Detective). She’s Hispanic and breathes new life into the boring, frantic character who was always in a state of cry-talking in the original Oz. You know, when you’re talking and yet crying in the background at the same time? No? Ok, cool. Anyways, she kicks ass and it’s refreshing to see someone like her on my screen.
Toto is the cutest German Shepherd you ever did see! No yapping here, folks!
Scarecrow is played by the handsome Oliver Jackson-Cohen. Each of the characters are unlike anything you remember from the original. They’re dark and harboring some type of secret.
The great and powerful Oz is played by Vincent D’Onofrio who wears a wig that’s just ridiculous. He’s trying to destroy all presence of magic in the land and basically starts a fight between the witches who we’ll get to in a moment.
The yellow brick road is actually trying to kill you! Sure, it looks beautiful in the picture above, but it’s all fake. It’s opium disguised as poppy pollen which is ridiculous since it’s such a long road. How will anyone survive???
The witches!! There are so many of them and the lovely Joely Richardson is such a fantastic edition to the series as Glinda. And let’s not forget about West, played by Ana Ularu, who totally reminds me of Fairuza Balk who was in Return to Oz…twist!
The first two episodes are sort of slow and you tend to lose focus on his storyline but that changes as you get into it.
Let us know what you think in the comments below!
Emerald City premieres with two back-to-back episodes on Friday, Jan. 6 at 9 p.m. ET/PT