But first, according to tradition, the good. Tarsem Singh doesn't seem to know how to shoot ugly. Bizarre costumes, strange architecture, exotic scenery – all this is his “trick”. The series is aesthetic, psychedelic-bright - a real fairy tale. Special effects by the standards of the film are also not bad.
The actors are well selected, very colorful. Vincent D’Onofrio perfectly portrayed the power-hungry con artist The Wizard of Oz, Joelie Richardson – the frighteningly majestic Glinda, Stephanie Martini – the mysterious Princess Langweeder; and all the actors seem to be in their place. But here and begin the drawbacks of the picture – some of them, despite the bright appearance, ideally suited to the image, frankly cheat. And this is especially true for the main couple – Adria Archona (Dorothy) and Oliver Jackson-Cohen (Lucas). The first does not leave the face confused expression, only in some scenes being replaced by dull determination, and the second, even regaining memory, looks lost and disoriented.
However, the constant bewilderment on the faces of Dorothy, Lucas, Tip, and the Wizard himself is explained simply – the script of “Emerald City”, alas, is absurd and illogical in places so much that the brilliant actor would not play it convincingly. Heroes constantly commit strange acts, throw tantrums, rush without sense and meaning. Every event that happens to them drives them into another bout of frustration. And at times, their behavior becomes just wild, like Dorothy’s brutal act in the penultimate series – a clear overkill for a positive character. Or, there, Jack's incomprehensible throwing. Well, meaningless, but meaningful dialogues, of which there are especially many by the middle of the series - apparently, in order to gain timekeeping.
In addition, “Emerald City” was infected by “Game of Thrones” problems with geography and logistics. Among the fans of the latter memetical "Teleport Littlefinger", immediately teleport, it seems, equipped with all the characters. It feels like everything is happening on a piece of land smaller than Moscow! If the first series still show the process of traveling, overnight stays, stops in roadside villages, then it seems that the Emerald City is in the center, and all other locations around it at a distance of no more than 20 km from it and from each other. All right, witches who can fly and really teleport, but here even armies of heavy lattice are transferred from country to country in a matter of hours, if not minutes! Apparently, writers quickly got tired of filling the travel time of some characters with meaningless conversations of others. And very often the path of the heroes lies in the places of “combat glory”, that is, the same locations – apparently, except for the road from yellow drugs in the country of Oz, no one walks, there is only one route.
Another ill-conceived part of the series is the technology of Oz. It seems that people from our world brought them, but the whole "joke" is that they have nothing to do with science and technology from reality! How did Wizard teach Aboriginal people how to make drones-quadcopters (despite the fact that they do not have computers), and Jane makes people cyborgs cooler than Robocop (which even in our high-tech world is not yet possible)? And at the same time, we do not see elementary innovations that could be imported into the fairy-tale country by the populace: primitive firearms, steam engines, electric lighting. Unlike drones, all of this would have been created with a minimal technological base of the late Middle Ages. In the frame, we see game at all - local residents receive a semi-automatic pistol at their disposal and immediately begin production of flint guns! And they master it in a few days! Why? They did not make primitive squeaks, did not copy a 1-in-1 pistol (which would, however, be even more fantastic), and for some reason immediately came up with the form factor of the gun. And in general, it would be easier to explain the general principles in words and in diagrams than to immediately puzzle local engineers with a sample semi-automatic machine with a unitary cartridge, to which, with their technical level, another 200-300 years of progress at least. Why complicate things when the Wizard needed the guns as quickly as possible? And this is not the only moment when the interaction of the worlds is shown extremely ill-considered – it is enough to recall how a simple American nurse Dorothy quickly retrained as a healer and mastered the treatment of local (!) herbs.
The result: a good idea, an excellent selection of actors, aesthetic impeccability - and the absurd scenario, the hulking game of these actors, the ill-conceived nuances of technology, politics, geography of the fictional world ... Alas, the series was closed and the continuation, it seems, is not worth waiting. And partly a pity - after all, the plot stopped in the middle of a word, the story remained untold.
6 out of 10